They became fast friends and it was Ansel Adams who initiated the Robinson Jeffers Foundation, which oversees the property to this day. It wasn’t until Adams played some pieces by Bach that Jeffers thawed and a friendship ensued. Jeffers was a recluse and it was up to his wife Una to “screen” the visitors until she felt they passed muster. The house has been maintained exactly as it was and still contains the Steinway piano that Ansel Adams refers to in his book. He also placed pieces of rock and stonework, collected by friends from around the world, into the foundation. On both of these he used sea-worn granite boulders that he pushed up from the beach. Jeffers had the help of a contractor to build his cottage “Tor House” modeled after a Tudor barn in England but, “Hawk Tower”, he built himself. But it was still very impressive, as you can see by my photographs. I knew that it had been built on a barren and windswept promontory, overlooking the ocean …so it was a shock to find that the property has been practically over-run by multimillion dollar estates. We actually had a hard time finding the property. (They open two or three time a week for very small tour parties.) and we made reservations to tour the Jefferson home.
In January of 2001 I was visiting friends in San Carlos, Ca. It became the refuge of the couple and their twin boys and was where he wrote his most memorable poetry. Robinson Jeffers (1887-1962) and his beloved wife Una (1884-1950) fell in love with the unspoiled beauty of the Carmel,Big-Sur coast south of California’s Monterey Peninsula and it was there that he built Tor House and Hawk Tower. Adams considered him a genius who “produced much of America’s greatest poetry.” It was fortuitous that they both lived out their final years in Carmel, California. Among his many eccentric friends was the poet Robinson Jeffers. I’ve just finished reading the fascinating autobiography of Ansel Adams, the famous photographer of the early twentieth century.
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