Robinson Jeffers was a talented poet, but he was also fortunate. His journey to recognition could have taken a different turn, leaving this significant regional poet undiscovered. This intriguing notion was one of the highlights at the 2024 Robinson Jeffers Fall Festival, organized annually by the Robinson Jeffers Foundation.
The festival’s main events occurred on Saturday, October 5, featuring lectures on Jeffers that started at 9 a.m. and continued into the late afternoon. I particularly enjoyed discussing Jeffers as a classic modernist, a reflection of his era. Notable experts from the Robinson Jeffers Association, including Gere diZerega, James Karman, and association president Tim Hunt, who is also a poet and English professor, shared their insights.
Other speakers included Andrew Schelling, a scholar of Jaime de Angulo, who discussed the relationship between de Angulo and Jeffers. Susan Shillinglaw from the Center for Steinbeck Studies in San Jose, along with poet and Robinson Jeffers Foundation director Elliot Ruchowitz-Roberts, also spoke at the event.
The experts placed Jeffers’ career in historical and literary context. He moved into the future Tor House in 1919 without any publications. The following year, Macmillan Publishers rejected his work, leading him into a period of depression and suicidal thoughts. In 1924, he self-published his poems, but they failed to sell, and most copies were returned to Tor House.
His fortunes changed when Carmel’s George Sterling offered to include one of Jeffers’ poems in an anthology. This opportunity led to a submission and an interview with The New Republic, which propelled Jeffers to fame. Between 1927 and 1929, he published four well-received poetry volumes.
The 1920s was a pivotal decade for new literature. In 1922, T.S. Eliot published The Waste Land, and James Joyce released Ulysses. The following year saw Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain and Hemingway’s first poetry volume. In 1925, The Great Gatsby and Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway were also published.
Jeffers identified as a modernist. During a trip to England, he visited Virginia and Leonard Woolf, who published his poems through their small imprint. He was influenced by the work of Yeats and Rilke, particularly their use of towers, which also appear in Ulysses.
Modernists sought to create new language after the devastation of World War I. This new language was bold and muscular. This shift in perspective extended beyond writers; photographer Edward Weston also grappled with the remnants of the 19th century. Jeffers ultimately discovered that human violence is inherent in human nature. He believed that war is a natural expression and that the bravest action is to confront nature within ourselves.
While lectures were a key part of the festival, it also featured poetry, music, birdwatching, and field trips to Point Lobos State Reserve and Carmel River State Beach.
Aaron Yoshinobu, a structural geology and tectonics professor at Texas Tech University and a board member of the Tor House Foundation, led geology tours for about 20 participants on Sunday. The group explored Point Lobos in the morning and Carmel Point in the afternoon.
The afternoon walk began on the sandy beach at the Carmel River mouth and wound around the rocky point, requiring participants to navigate rugged terrain. The group examined various geological features, including narrow strips of younger, faster-cooling rock that protruded through larger granite slabs and sediment layers likely deposited by flooding from the Carmel River. The tour concluded near Tor House, where Jeffers sourced his building materials over 100 years ago, collecting granite from the shoreline below his home.
The festival is a regular event organized by the Robinson Jeffers Foundation, which has been active since 1924. The mission of Tor House and the foundation is to preserve Robinson Jeffers’ legacy.
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