Reginald L. Cook collection

From the mid-1920s until Frost's death in 1963, Reginald L. Cook, Middlebury College graduate, professor, head of the American Literature department, and long-time director of the Bread Loaf School of English, kept detailed notes of all meetings with Robert Frost. The resulting journals include records of private conversations, intimate information about Frost, and transcriptions of Frost's formal lectures. The diary entries are presented with accuracy rather than style, by the author's own admission, and while they reveal Frost as a gifted conversationalist with a wide range of interests, they also uncover many of his idiosyncrasies.

Collection contains the papers of Reginald L. Cook, including typescript essays, correspondence, and 42 volumes of journals. Cook's essays are primarily written on Frost and other literary contacts. Journals document Cook's daily observations in his role of professor and head of the American Literature department at Middlebury College.

Collection also includes Robert Frost verbatim, consisting of an unpublished manusript (approximately 805 pages) describing Cook's meetings and discussions with Robert Frost, as well as his reflections on the poet and his work, between July 1925 and the poet's death in 1963. The text also contains transcripts of formal lectures given by Frost, and an interview with Cook by an unnamed interviewer on September 3, 1978.