Lesley Frost

Born in Lawrence, Massachusetts, in 1899, Lesley Frost Ballantine grew up in the Frost family’s years in Derry, New Hampshire. Archival sources describe her as the second child of Robert and Elinor Frost, and later as the only surviving child of the poet. Her early life became part of the historical record through journals she kept as a girl, later published as New Hampshire's Child.

She wrote for young readers as well as adults. University of Virginia and Frost family sources credit her with children’s books including Really Not Really and Digging Down to China, and describe her as a lecturer on English literature. Those books grew out of family storytelling, giving her work a warm, intimate feel.

Lesley Frost died in 1983. Though she is often remembered because of her famous father, the record also shows a writer who preserved family memory, turned childhood experience into books, and kept a direct connection to the literary world around her.