Robinson Jeffers (1887-1962) was an American poet who built a stone house and tower along the Pacific coast at Carmel Point during the first half of the 20th century. Between 1924 and 1963 he published 16 major books of poetry including Roan Stallion, Tamar, and other Poems, Cawdor and Other Poems, Give Your Heart To The Hawks, Thursos Landing, The Double Axe, and Hungerfield and Other Poems. When Roan Stallion and Tamar were first published critics placed Jeffers verse not with the likes of his modernist contemporaries such as T.S. Eliot, but with Homer and Shakespeare. Raised by a minister in Europe and America, he was fluent in Greek, Latin, German and French, and adapted Euripides Medea for Judith Anderson who played the title role to critical acclaim on Broadway in the late 1940's.

Jeffers is well-known for his long near-free verse tragic narratives such as Cawdor as well as numerous short political poems including The Purse Seine and Shine Perishing Republic. Throughout his work he developed and reiterated his philosophy of inhumanism - the notion that humans have become detached from the natural cycles of nature through the urbanization and mechanization of western culture, that such detachment may be inherent in our species and naturally leads to cultural decay, and that the only way to seek redemption is to look beyond the violence and decay of human culture toward nature.

Jeffers was a trained in science at Occidental College (BS 1906 at the precocious age of 18) and the University of Southern California (medical school). He studied geology at Occidental and for the remaining 56 years of his life, he was devoted to rocks and stone masonry.

In 1914 Jeffers and his new wife, Una, moved from southern California to Carmel and in 1919 he began building a small stone house named Tor House overlooking the Pacific Ocean at Carmel Point. From 1920-1925 he built Hawk Tower for Una, a 40-foot stone tower on the continents end. From 1925 until his death in 1962, the latter years with his son, Donnan, he continued building numerous structures on the grounds around Tor House.

Growing up in Pacifc Grove, a few miles from Tor House and Carmel point, through my mother I became interwined with Jeffers poetry and home. As I became a geologist I recognized the intense connection and passion that Jeffers found in rocks and mountains and I began to explore his verse from a scientific and literary point of view. This page highlights some of the work I am currently undertaking. While the goals are not clearly developed, the path has provided a fascinating and deep view of the interactions between science, literature and the environment.

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