This article contains excerpts from the author's two seminal texts: "Literature as Exploration (New York: MLA, 1938) and "The Reader, the Text, the Poem" (Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 1978). In "Literature as Exploration," the author first presented her transactional theory of reading as she explored the personal, social, and cultural contexts of reading. In "The Reader, the Text, the Poem," she elaborated on that theory, focusing on aesthetic and efferent reading. She also discussed the process of reading Frost's "It Bids Pretty Fair" as she observed it in a small group of her students. (Contains 1 footnote.)