Was Robert Frost a Dixiecrat?

"With wonder and admiration from a Vermont statesrighter"

Perusing the catalog for Profiles in History's Hollywood auction on Saturday, I was struck by lot #208: "Robert Frost signed book to Strom Thurmond." Neither Robert Frost nor Strom Thurmond is someone you expect to show up between Bela Lugosi and Grace Kelly. But here's a copy of Complete Poems of Robert Frost signed by Frost to the Thurmonds in March 1951. The inscription reads:

To Jean and Strom Thurmond

with wonder and admiration from a Vermont statesrighter

Robert Frost

March 9 1951

Columbia College

Frost's most famous political association may have been his appearance at John Kennedy's inauguration, but apparently he harbored some sympathies for Thurmond's Dixiecrat stance. (For a more thorough examination of Frost's conservative leanings, Robert Frost: The Poet as Philosopher seems to be the go-to source, at least judging from this Heritage Foundation description, which cites the poet's criticism of the New Deal but says nothing about Thurmond's segregationist politics.)

The Frost anthology is further inscribed "From Oscar and Dorothy Lever with esteem and affection." Oscar Lever was an administrator at Columbia College, a women's school in South Carolina, and presumably got the book signed to the Thurmonds when Frost spoke there and then gave it to them.

Posted by Virginia Postrel on December 13, 2012