The original 12 December 1944 Quitclaim Deed, signed "Robert Lee Frost", giving his Shaftsbury, Vermont farm "The Gully" to his daughter-in-law and grandson after his son's suicide

On 12 December 1944, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Robert Frost signed over his beloved Shaftsbury, Vermont farm - known to family and friends as "The Gully"- to his grandson, William Prescott Frost, and his daughter-in-law, Lillian Frost, the widow of his only son to survive to adulthood. This is the original executed, notarized, and recorded Quitclaim Deed, signed, quite atypically, by Frost with his full name, "Robert Lee Frost" on 12 December 1944. It is, among other things, a poignant artifact of the suicide of Frost’s son and the catalogue of personal loss suffered by Frost between 1934 and 1940.This Quitclaim Deed consists of two 8.5 x 13 inch sheets, each with a red vertical double margin rule on the left and a single red vertical margin rule on the right, these two sheets attached at the head and folded within a 9 x 14 inch sheet of heavy, pale blue paper with two grommets, one at each upper corner. The paper is folded three times horizontally to form four panels, each measuring 3.5 x 9 inches. On the lower half of the top panel is a rectangular ink-stamp of the "TOWN CLERK’S OFFICE | SHAFTSBURY, VERMONT" with the recorded date, time, and record book location of the deed recordation (10:50 AM on 12 January 1945), as well as the signature of the town clerk. Frost’s notary wrote, in 11 lines (7 above and 4 below the Town Clerk’s ink-stamp): "Quitclaim Deed | Robert Lee Frost | to | Lillian Frost | and | William Prescott Frost | (joint tenants) | From the office of | E. H. Hewitt | 912 Bannister Hall | Boston, Mass." The first sheet within specifies the transfer by Frost, for "One Dollar paid to my full satisfaction by my daughter-in-law, Lillian Frost, and her son, William Prescott Frost, my grand-son" for the specified property. The deed is hand-dated "twelfth" day of December 1944. At the foot of this first page Frost signed "Robert Lee Frost" and, to the left of his signature, two witnesses signed "Rosalind Gray Potter" and "Kathleen Johnston Morrison". The second page notarizes the deed (in Cambridge, Massachusetts on the 12th of December 1944) with the signature of "Eustus H. Hewitt".Condition of the signed documents is fine, clean apart from five small, faint margin checks along the right edge – plausibly those of Frost as he reviewed the document. Condition of the attached blue paper cover is very good plus, lightly soiled with wear at the fold extremities.Frost’s signature herein – "Robert Lee Frost" – is rarely seen thus. It is a delicious irony that the quintessential poetic voice of New England was named by his father for his hero, Robert E. Lee, the General-in-Chief of the Armies of the Confederate States during the Civil War.Also noteworthy is the signature of Kathleen Johnston Morrison (1898-1989), Frost’s close friend, longtime secretary, and literary executor. "Kay" Morrison, nee Johnston, first met Frost in 1918 at Bryn Mawr. They remained "vaguely in touch" until the mid-1930s, when "the friendship blossomed. Kay was beautiful, charming, and. strikingly independent as well, a 'woman of tremendous vitality and strong views who could hold her own with Frost.'" Kay became Frost’s secretary in 1938, after the death of Frost’s wife, remaining so until his death in 1963, and thereafter serving as his literary executor.Most important, however, is the story that underpins this deed. Lillian Edna Frost (nee LeBatt, 1905-1995) married Edwin Carol Frost (1902-1940) not long after her 18th birthday in 1923 and the next year gave Robert Frost his first grandson, William Prescott Frost (1924-1989). Lillian was already close with the Frost family and would remain so. Lillian and Carol long resided in South Shaftsbury. "Carol and Lillian, though hardworking and devoted to each other, were constantly plagued by financial and health problems that seemed out of control." In particular, Carol suffered long-standing psychological problems – a manifestation of "the mental illness that plagued Frost’s sister, Jeanie, as well.…