After publishing a tentative volume, Flagons and Apples (1912), Jeffers came into a legacy that allowed him leisure to produce a steady flow of rough-hewn, idiosyncratic poems. In 1916, Jeffers published Californians, then achieved critical and popular fame with Tamar and Other Poems (1924). Subsequent collections — Roan Stallion, Tamar, and Other Poems (1925), set in Monterey, California, and The Women at Point Sur (1927), a well-received narrative poem — cinched his reputation for tragic lyricism and austere themes and backgrounds. His mature work — Cawdor and Other Poems (1928) and Dear Judas and Other Poems (1929) — reached toward a hopeful humanism. In the 1930s, Jeffers developed primitive passion in Descent to the Dead (1931), Thurso's Landing and Other Poems (1932), Give Your Heart to the Hawks (1933), Solstice and Other Poems (1935), The Beaks of Eagles (1936), and Such Counsels You Gave to Me (1937), all imbued with moodiness and naturalistic creativity. In Two Consolidations (1940), Be Angry at the Sun (1941), Medea (1946), The Double Axe (1948), and Hungerfield and Other Poems (1953), he revealed a complex world view comprised of bleak introversion and inept reaches for the sublime through myth.
In 1941, John Gassner adapted Jeffers' Tower Beyond Tragedy for the stage at an outdoor theater in Carmel, where Dame Judith Anderson played the lead. In 1947, two more works — Dear Judas and Medea — were staged. Jeffers died in his sleep at home on January 20, 1962.
