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E.A. Robinson, 1869-1935
Gardiner’s Pulitzer Poet & His Tilbury Town
Gay Grant, Author & Former Legislator
Curtis Memorial Library, Brunswick, Maine
7:00 pm, Wednesday, October 9, 2019
Friends of Merrymeeting Bay’s (FOMB) first presentation of their 23nd annual Winter Speaker Series: E.A. Robinson, Gardiner’s Pulitzer Poet features author and former legislator, Gay Grant. This event takes place in the Morrill Meeting Room of Curtis Memorial Library in Brunswick on Wednesday October 9th at 7pm.
Born in Head Tide, Alna, E.A. Robinson's childhood and youth were spent in Gardiner, Maine. Gardiner author Gay Grant will discuss how this thriving industrial age town along the Kennebec River shaped the development of Robinson, a three-time Pulitzer Prize winner for poetry and four-time Nobel literature nominee.
Robinson, one of the most prolific American poets during the 20th century, published twenty-eight books of poetry in his lifetime. He remains best known for his “Tilbury Town” poems. The first mention of Tilbury Town (a mythical place that Robinson reluctantly conceded might have represented Gardiner “in a shadowy way”) appears in John Evereldown published in The Torrent & The Night Before. In 1922, Robinson received his first Pulitzer Prize, followed by two more in 1925 and 1928. Theodore Roosevelt complimented one of E.A.’s poems with this: “I am not sure I understand ‘Luke Havergal’ but I am entirely sure that I like it.” Amy Lowell, a contemporary and posthumous Pulitzer poetry prizewinner offered this superb praise: “Edwin Arlington Robinson is poetry. I can think of no other living writer who has so consistently dedicated his life to his work.”
Gay M. Grant is the author of Along the Kennebec: The Herman Bryant Collection and Destination Unknown: An Evacuee’s Story. She owns The Write Way writing consulting service and served in the Maine House of Representatives from 2012-2018. Gay has more than twenty-five years writing, editing, and grant writing experience. Her grant writing skills have secured millions of dollars in funding for Maine non- profits. She has also provided professional copy writing for business publications and editing for writers and publishers. Grant is also a consultant “coach” for the MELMAC Education Foundation in Augusta, Maine, providing technical assistance to six Maine technical high schools implementing grant projects funded by the foundation.
FOMB hosts their Winter Speaker Series October-May, the second Wednesday of each month. The November 13thpresentation, “Bugs” of the Bay features USM Assistant Professor of Stream Ecology Dr. Hamish Greig.
Speaker Series presentations are free, open to the public and supported by Patagonia, Inc. in Freeport. Visit www.fomb.org to see speaker biographies, full event schedules, recordings of past presentations, become a member, and learn more about how you can help protect beautiful Merrymeeting Bay.
For more information contact FOMB at 207-666-3372 or edfomb@comcast.net.
Middle Photo Credit: Robinson in 1888, George F. McIntosh, Hallowell. ME Historical Society
Sarah Stapler