Robinson Jeffers had become a literary celebrity by the time photographer Julian P. Graham shot this 1932 portrait of the poet outside Hawk Tower at Tor House. The same year, Time magazine put a different photo of Jeffers on its cover and proclaimed that “a considerable public” viewed him as “the most impressive poet the U.S. has yet produced.”

Jeffers once described coastal Carmel, California, where Tor House is located, as “our inevitable place.” At the time of this photo, he had just completed the Dining Room at the house the previous year. His wife, Una Jeffers, died in 1950, and he continued living and writing on the property until his death in 1962.

Tor House is now a National Historic Landmark open to the public for tours. For more, see Leslie Williamson’s photo essay on this one-of-a-kind place.