MEDFORD MAIL TRIBUNE. MEDFOHD. OREGON
lobert Frost Does the Imposs
r W. R. HIGGINBOTHAM .,1,,, m,v - - . -m jf ' ""l ism had Irft the public dis-,
mud Pr... In,ern..,.n.l ; !FtTV Sj enchamcd w,,h poc.ry. lUJf IT h J
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StJNDAY. APRIL 22. 1962
Bole
By W. R. HIGGINBOTHAM
United Preis International
Bob Frost, you're in-the
book's a hit.
Vour simple Vermont
rhyming kit
Those plain and cadenced
lines- .
Why, man, ii. frightened
A-bomb times
Vour aged but ageless
hand,
Across a needful land
Too still too long
Has led-a song!
New York il'PU Robert
Frost, the venerable Vermont
poet the country saw in an
enchanting moment on tele
vision during the Kennedy
inauguration, has done the
impossible. He has pul a vol
ume of quality poems on the
hard-cover best sel'. list. It
is difficult to find out when
that happened last.
Besides setting a literary
record, Frost also may be
doing something no other
poet has succjeded in doing
for half a century or more.
He may popularize the
whole art of writing poetry
end entice people back to
reading it-which most haven't
done seriously since school
days.
Gambled on Printing
Alfred C. Edwards, presi
dent of Holt, Rinehart &
Winston, Frost's publisher,
gambled an unprecedented
fiO.OOO-volume first printing
on "In the Clearing" for sale
et $4 a copy. It is Frost's first
bonk in 15 years. It went on
ale March 26, the poet's 88lh
birthday.
The advance sale hit 27,000
topics. Thirteen thousand
more went in a few days. Ed
wards has ordered 25.000
more. He expects to hit 100,
000 before the year is out.
Paperback publication is a
possibility - and that could
run in millions. But for a
hard-cover book of poems,
Frost has smashed all marks
for poetry in records kept
since 1895.
Only 11 volumes of verse
have ranked as best sellers in
67 years and only four or five
nf those could be classed as
what the literati would re
gard as "serious" poetry. The
last best selling poem was
Alice Duer Miller's 1941 war
time "White Cliffs of Dover."
Nsver Were Profound
But most others have been
Ip 'he ranks of Edgar A. Guest
(" Takes a Heap o' Livin'
To Make a House a Home")
nH Robert W. Service ("The
V
;.
s
V.
DOES IMPOSSIBLE Robert Frost, the
venerable Vermont poet the country saw
in an enchanting moment on television dur
ing the Kennedy inauguration, has done
the impossible. He has put a volume of
quality poems on the hard-cover book best
seller list. It is difficult to find out when
fW ; j
that happened last. "In the Clearing."
Frost's first book in 15 years, went on sale
March 26, the poet's 88th birthday, and
has been selling so rapidly that its pub
lishers expect it to reach the 100,000 mark
in sales before the year is out. Frost is
shown here relaxing at his home. (UPI)
Shooting of Dan McGrew").
T. ey have been popular. But
they never were considered
profound. Frost is looked up
on as a wise man.
What has concerned pub
lishers for many years is
whether there is an audience
for volumes of poetry. Except
for paperbacks, a good sale of
a hard-cover volume of poets,
by established men whose
works grace the college-used
collections, is 2,500 copies.
From a literary standpoint.
the mark Frost's volume sets
may be more important than
the volume itself. Frost's book
is largely in vhat the critics
call traditional verse. It is
regular. It rhymes. It slays in
the moulds familiar to those
who studied the stylized Eng
lish verse forms in school. It
far from the free verse
schools now generally called
modernists in poetry.
Both in Older Years
The literary fact is that
America hasn't had a popular
poet - in the sense that a
novelist or a movie star is
popular - born since 1900.
The best known, Frost and
Carl Sandburg, both are far
up in years.
On the other side from the
traditionalists are the poets
who took up where white
bearded Walt Whitman, vin
tage American Civil War 100, of several volumes of poetry.
years ago, gave them the pc-1 rccenty wrote in ,he Npw
York Times book review sec
tion that 40 years of modern-
etic measure in loose, flow
ing, unfixed verse forms.
With the advent of free
verse, the sonnet - 14 lines of
rhymed five-beat lines-fell in
low esteem. Now and again a
traditionalist broke through
fo. a while but generally the
rhymers were classed with
Robert Service and the poets
doing greeting card doggerel.
Starting from where Whit
man said, "I sound my bar
baric yawp ove. the roofs of
the world,'' (Song of Myself,
1855) imitator- took free
verse exprc jion way out to
a point where typography
substituted for ..ords - the
poem was made by the way
it was printed on a page.
Finally in recent years the
yawp became a beatnik yap
with devotees gasping at the
magnificence of pure garble.
By this time nobody was
reading poetry.
This Frost may change. His
volume includes such lines as:
'It takes all sorts of in
and outdoor schooling
"To get adapted to my
kind of fooling."
Paul Scott Mowrer, former
editor of the Chicago Daily
News and himself the author
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strike roots into some sort of
popular favor is an art self
doomed," Mowrer said.
As Frost's publisher, Ed
wards feels the old Vcrmontcr
is leading the return of qual
ity poetry to public favor.
"There is a public buying
Robert Frost's poetry," Ed
wards said. "He is known out
there, as a man of wisdom.
The public knows him. Taxi
cab drivers sometime recite
his own poetry to him. There
is no question but that the
reading of poetry is on the
upsurge."
The question of what kind
of poetry this might be is still
open - whether the rhymers
and the balladeers will be
back with us, or the advocates
of frccswinging forms used
for many years by Sandburg.
Frost expressed one view
of it from the poet's side in
his new volume where he
commemorated an event in a
poem tilled "On Being Chosen
Poet of Vermont." He said:
"Breathes there a bard
who isn't moved
"When he finds his verse
is understood
"And not entirely disap
proved "By his country and his
neighborhood."
Medford Gross Product $95 Million
While everyone in the
country is interested in the
gross national product (GNP),
which is a measure of the
economy as a whole, residents
of Medford have a more par
ticular interest in their gross
local product (GLP).
It is a figure that reflects
the amount of business activ
ity in the city, since it rep
resents the market value of
all goods and services locally.
The bulk of this output,
Government reports show, is
created by consumer spend
ing. It constitutes two-thirds
of the total.
The remainder consists, for
the most part, of expendi
tures made by Federal, state
from the Standard Rate and
Data Service and other
sources.
It was a good showing. The
amount consumed locally
came to .0285 per cent of the
national output, although the
local population is only .0137
per cent of the total.
As usual, local tastes and
attitudes determined the way
the people spent their money.
Their expenditures ran the
gamut, from automobiles to
apparel to travel.
As to durable and non-durable
goods, there was little
change in the national spend
ing pattern. The big increase
was in services, which rose
nearly sti Billion in the year.
and local governments and ! Part of the increase was due
of capital outlays for indus-1 to the rising cost of services,
trial expansion. I Of the S95. 743.000 spent in
Nationally, according to j Medford by consumers, S65.
the Department of Commerce, 677,000 war for goods bought
the GNP was running at the j in local retail stores and $30.-
rate of S516 billion annually
at the close of the last fiscal
year. This compares with the
I960 fiscal figure of $504
billion.
Included in the new total
is $336 billion in consumer
expenditures, with $140 bil
lion of it for services.
Medford's output of goods
and services in fiscal 1961
was an estimated $95,743,000,
based on figures obtained
066.000 was for services of
all kinds.
The Commerce Department
is highly optimistic about
business in the months ahead.
It feels that the advance that
has been in progress will con
tinue, subject to occasional
fluctuations, and that the
GNP will hit $565 billion or
better in 1962.
I WATCH FOR APRIL 27
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V
RAFT SPILLS One raft spills and a sec
ond shoots by In swift McKenzic river
rapids during the 24th annual White Water
parade last week end. Some 300 boats, rub-
Nine Medford Men
Take Part in Race
On McKenzie River
ber rafts, kayaks and skindivers shot the
rapids from Bedsides to Lcaburg dam, while
thousands viewed the parade. (UPI)
7Va(&vi the, TVeefeex
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Nine Medford persons par
ticipated in the 24th annual
White Water parade on the
McKenzie river last week end.
From Medford were Ken
Lyons, city recreation direc
tor; Mel Jackson, YMCA
organizer, Ted Lyons, Arne
Harrang, Salli Feule, Chuck
McNair, Mike Wickcrsham,
Ron Gandee and Dr. 10m
Upton.
The group had three boats
and the parade length on the
river was about 20 miles.
The boat in which Dr. Up
ton and Jackson were riding
flipped upside down and the
two hung onto the boat until
they could get to shore sev
eral hundred yards down
stream, losing the contents of
the boat.
They reported that the
river was about two feet high
er than expected at this time
of year, making the rapids
more difficult for most of
the participants.
It was learned after the
group started down the river
that in the Lyons boat they
could not use the oars in the
oar locks so it was necessary
for them to paddle the boat
the entire parade route.
The McNair boat was oper
ated with two mch rowing
and one man on a tiller at
the back.
The group lunched at West's
Bar where Sen. Wayne Morris
was a guest.
Spectators lined the entire
route, they reported.
Phone SP 2-5284, Medford
482-2116, Ashland
Persons Still
Can Receive
If an individual is waiting
In retire completely before
applying for social security
benefits, Edward B. Jacobson,
district manager of the Med
ford social security office,
encouraged them to check
with the local office.
He said a person does not
have to retire completely In
order to receive some social
jwrurity payments each year.
There are more than 1 mil
linn workers age fi5 or over
in this country who can re
reive some social security
monthly benefits.
Before 19B1, a person en
tilled to benefits who earn
ed over $2,080 and worked
all 12 months could not re
ceive a check for any month
in the year. However, as a
result of recent amendments
to the law, individuals of re
tirement age can receive so
cial security benefits even
though their earnings are sub
stantially over $2,080 for the
j year, 'he said.
I The lOfil amendments to
the Social Security Law pro
vide that SI of the total bene
fits payable to a family dur
ing a year be withheld for
every $2 the worker earns
hetwern $1,200 and $1,700.
I Deductions for earnings in rx-
cess nf J,70n will he on
dollar for dollar bam.
Working
Benefits
Under the law, II may be
possible for a worker with
dependents who are also en
titled to social security bene
fits to earn up to $4,400 in
a year and still receive some
social security benefits, Jacob
son noted.
Jacobson urged ' all aged
workers who are still em
ployed to see the local social j
security office to avoid the
loss of possible benefits. Many
people who are still working,
whether iull time or part
time, could receive some
benefits, he said.
Additional information may
he obtained at the Medford
social security office in the
Mall Building, 1005 East Main
st. Office hours are 8:30 a m.
to 4:30 p m. Monday through
Friday.
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