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Braiding together biography and criticism, Adam Plunkett challenges our understanding of Robert Frost's life and poetic legacy in a pathbreaking new work.. By the middle of the twentieth century, Robert Frost was the best-loved poet in America. He was our nation's bard, simple and sincere, accompanying us on wooded roads and articulating our hopes and fears. After Frost's death, these cliches gave way to equally broad (though opposed) portraits sketched by his biographers, chief among them Lawrance Thompson. When the critic Helen Vendler reviewed Thompson's biography, she asked whether anyone could avoid the conclusion that Frost was a "monster.". In Love and Need: The Life of Robert Frost's Poetry, Adam Plunkett blends biography and criticism to find the truth of Frost's life -- one that lies between the two poles of perception.