Robert Lee Frost was born on March 26th 1874 in San Francisco, California and died on January 29th, 1963 in Boston, Massachusetts. He won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry and was bestowed a Congressional Gold Medal, "in recognition of his poetry, which enriched the culture of the United States and the philosophy of the world." On July 22, 1961 he was named Poet laureate of Vermont. His popularity is unmatched in the annals of American poetry; by the end of his life he had achieved the iconic status of 'living legend.'Michael Paraskevashas has also illustrated and written 24 children's books over the years with his mother, Betty. The two went on to create and write the animated television series Maggie and the Ferocious Beast for Nickelodeon. Two of their other books were also made into animated series: Marvin the Tap Dancing Horse and Kids from Room 402. Jay Parini is a poet, novelist, biographer, and critic. He has written eight novels, including Benjamin's Crossing,The Apprentice Lover,The Passages of H.M., and The Last Station the latter was made into an Academy Award-nominated film starring Helen Mirren and Christopher Plummer and translated into over thirty languages. He has written biographies of John Steinbeck, Robert Frost, William Faulkner, Jesus, and Gore Vidal.