Collections by Subject: American Literary Figures
A Selected List of Holdings in Special Collections, University of Maryland Libraries
For more information about how to access materials in this guide, please visit the Maryland Room web page or fill out an information request.
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African-American and African Pamphlet Collection, 1905-1979. 651 items.
Location: Literature and Rare Books
The African-American and African Pamphlet Collection consists of 20th century materials on African, African-American, and Caribbean culture and literature. The collection spans the years 1905-1979, although the majority of the pamphlets date from the 1960s and 1970s. The pamphlets are in English, French, and a variety of African languages, such as Swahili, Tsonga, Tswana and Xhosa. Some of the unique publications include a transcript of a 1931 worker's trial by the U. S. Communist Party on a race-related incident, 1970s university studies on integration, and texts of speeches given by American radical leaders and leaders of African countries. The collection is arranged alphabetically by subject.
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Louis Auchincloss papers, 1968-1980. 1 linear foot.
Location: Literature and Rare Books
American novelist, short-story writer, lawyer, historian and critic Louis Auchincloss (1917-2010) was born in Lawrence, New York. Auchincloss attended Yale University from 1935 to 1939 and was an editor of the Yale Literary Magazine during his studies there. Auchincloss graduated from the University of Virginia Law School in 1941. While practicing law in New York State from 1941 to 1986, he penned many of his novels and short stories. He is best known for his novels of manners set in the world of contemporary upper-class New York City. Auchincloss also published critical works on other writers, such as Edith Wharton and Henry James. Auchincloss's recognition for his literary and historical work include the New York State Governor's Art Award and the National Medal of Arts, both awarded in 2005, and honorary degrees from New York University in 1974, Pace University in 1979, the University of the South in 1986, and State University of New York at Geneseo, 2002. The collection includes six uncorrected page proofs of The Dark Lady (1977); The House of the Prophet (1980); Life, Law and Letters: Essays and Sketches (1979); The Partners; Persons of Consequence: Queen Victoria and Her Circle (1974); and The Winthrop Covenant (1976); a galley proof of his novel I Come as a Thief (1972), an advance review copy of his critical study Edith Wharton: A Woman in Her Time (1972); and the manuscript for Second Chance: Tales of Two Generations (1970).
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Authors and Poets Collection, 1880-1989 and undated. 8.75 linear feet and 24 items.
Location: Literature and Rare Books
Created from the combination of miscellaneous literary manuscript collections, Authors and Poets is a diffuse collection of correspondence, manuscripts, page and galley proofs, publications, serials, sound recordings, photographs, and ephemera relating to various literary figures. The bulk of the collection consists of materials by and relating to the publishing activities of twentieth-century American authors, such as William Carlos Williams, John Updike, Amiri Baraka, and Richard Aldington and journalists such as H. L. Mencken and Derek Stanford.
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Isabel Bayley papers, 1900-1993. 39 linear feet and 13 items.
Location: Literature and Rare Books
Isabel Bayley (1911-1993) met Katherine Anne Porter at the Kansas University Seminar, where Porter was teaching, in 1948. They became good friends, and Porter encouraged Bayley to write professionally. Her first published story, "The Great White Owl," appeared in Accent in 1954. In 1953, Porter authorized Bayley to work on the marginalia in her personal library for possible publication, a project that was never completed. In 1974, Porter named Bayley trustee of her literary estate; she assumed this position in 1983. Bayley selected and edited the Letters of Katherine Anne Porter, published on May 15, 1990, by the Atlantic Monthly Press. Bayley's papers include correspondence, manuscripts, legal documents, memorabilia, photographic materials, publications, videotapes, and work papers. Her correspondence with Porter dates from July 16, 1948, to September 3, 1980.
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Robert Carlton Brown papers, 1929-1959. 0.25 linear feet.
Location: Literature and Rare Books
American author, journalist, publisher, and collector Robert Carlton Brown (1886-1959) was born in Chicago. Brown wrote pulp fiction, non-fiction, cookbooks, avant-garde publications, and experimented with a book of visual poetry; he also contributed pieces to various magazines and newspapers in New York City and established journals in Rio de Janeiro, Mexico City, and London. Popular works of Brown's include the novel What Happened to Mary? (1913), an adaptation of which became one of the first successful motion pictures. He was involved with an informal poetry group with avant-garde and modernist writers and artists like William Carlos Williams, Alfred Kreymbourg, and Man Ray in 1913 and 1914. The group put forth a publication entitled Glebe in 1913 and later the influential poetry journal Others. In 1929, he and his wife temporarily settled in France where they became involved in the expatriate literary community in Paris. While there, he also established Roving Eye Press to promote a reading machine that he invented. Brown published a book of verse to be used with the machine, Readies for Bob Brown's Machine (1931), which included contributions from Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound, James T. Farrell, Kay Boyle, Paul Bowles, Kreymborg, Eugene Jolas, and Robert McAlmon. This collection includes correspondence, clippings, visual poetry, photographs, and ephemera. The collection is unprocessed.
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Carolyn Davis Collection of Louisa May Alcott, 1863-1998. 301 books and 10 folders.
Location: Literature and Rare Books
The Carolyn Davis Collection consists of more than 300 books by and about Louisa May Alcott. This collection has representative examples of almost all of Alcott's most popular works as well as a number of her lesser-known writings. Among these titles are her first book Flower Fables (1854), early to modern printings of Little Women, and a number of other works such as Little Men, Jo's Boys, and Under the Lilacs. The collection also encompasses some biographies of Alcott, books about Concord, Massachusetts, magazine articles, newspaper articles, and ephemera
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John Dos Passos papers, 1923-1970. 0.75 linear feet.
Location: Literature and Rare Books
John Dos Passos (1896-1970) was one of the major novelists of the post-World War I Lost Generation that included authors and artists such as Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ezra Pound, and Sherwood Anderson. After graduating from Harvard University in 1916, he volunteered to be an ambulance driver in World War I. His experiences there led to the bitter antiwar novel Three Soldiers (1921). In the postwar years he also produced his trilogy U. S. A., which consists of The 42nd Parallel (1930); 1919 (1932); and The Big Money (1936). Dos Passos worked as a newspaper correspondent during World War II and continued to write novels after the war. He published forty-two novels, as well as poems, essays, and plays. He was also a student of art and created and exhibited more than 400 pieces of art. The Dos Passos papers include manuscripts and notes relating to his translation of Panama; or, The Adventures of My Seven Uncles (1931), his play Fortune Heights (1934), and his novel Manhattan Transfer (1925), as well as correspondence and manuscripts related to his work in the theater. There are also two photographs of Dos Passos and a photographic copy of a Cosmo Hamilton caricature of Dos Passos.
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Dryad Press Records, 1966-2010. 15.75 linear feet.
Location: Literature and Rare Books
Dryad Press had its origins in Dryad magazine, a literary journal co-founded by Merrill Leffler and Neil Lehrman in 1967 in the Washington, D.C., area. In 1974, the press published the first book bearing its imprint and has since published over sixty works, primarily volumes of poetry, which often have Jewish themes or subjects. Many of the authors published by Dryad are associated with the state of Maryland, by birth, education, or current residence. Much of the collection consists of correspondence with authors as well as with individuals and institutions involved in the publication and promotion of literary works. Major correspondents include Rod Jellema, Neil Lehrman, Myra Sklarew, Herman Taube and Paul Zimmer. Additionally, the collection includes manuscripts, proofs, printers' specifications, mock-ups, paste-ups, bluelines, galleys, and typescripts; photographs, slides, and negatives; reviews, articles, and clippings; brochures, flyers, and posters; financial statements, bills, invoices, receipts, and address lists; as well as copies of the actual publications of the press.
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William Addison Dwiggins collection, 1902-1990. 168 items.
Location: Literature and Rare Books
William Addison Dwiggins (1880-1956) was a type designer, book designer, calligrapher, illustrator, and writer. He also carved and wrote plays for his marionettes, and had occasional excursions into architecture, furniture design, mural painting, kite flying, weathervane-making, and making his own tools. The collection includes over 150 volumes including ephemera of books designed, written, and illustrated by Dwiggins as well as works written about him.
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T. S. Eliot Collection, 1914-1973. 1.00 linear foot.
Location: Literature and Rare Books
Thomas Stearns Eliot (1888-1965), a poet, critic, editor, and playwright, was born in St. Louis, Missouri. He received a B. A. in 1909 and an M. A. in 1910 from Harvard, where he also pursued a doctoral degree in philosophy. In 1915, he married Vivienne (Vivien) Haigh-Wood. He was literary editor of the avant-garde magazine The Egoist. In the Spring 1917, he published his first book of poetry, Prufrock and Other Observations. In 1922, Eliot published "The Waste Land" and became editor of The Criterion. 1927 was a momentous year for Eliot. In June, he was baptized into the Church of England, and, in November, became a British citizen. His religion then became a central component of his life and his poetry reflected this religious conversion. In 1948, Eliot received both the Order of Merit and the Nobel Prize for Literature. The collection includes correspondence; manuscripts and proofs of published Eliot literary works such as "Lines to a Persian Cat," "In silent corridors of death," and "The Love-Song of J. Arthur Prufrock;" galley proofs for plays and collections of poetry; manuscripts of Vivienne (Haigh-Wood) Eliot; serial publications with contributions by Eliot; newspaper clippings; a proof of a literary review of Eliot; manuscripts written by other individuals; programs and playbills.
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William Faulkner papers, 1925-1973. 0.75 linear feet and three items.
Location: Literature and Rare Books
William Faulkner (1897-1962), one of the most significant twentieth-century American writers, was born in New Albany, Mississippi. He spent most of his life in and around the town of Oxford, Mississippi, and his work chronicles life in the American South. His oeuvre includes poetry, novels, short fiction, and screenplays. Some of Faulkner's most enduring works include The Sound and the Fury (1929), Light in August (1932), As I Lay Dying (1930), Absalom, Absalom! (1936), and the three works collectively termed the Snopes Trilogy: The Hamlet (1940), The Town (1957) and The Mansion (1959). Faulkner was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1949. The collection includes an uncorrected proof of Requiem for a Nun (1951); screenplays for Requiem for a Nun and The Unvanquished (1938); transcription of a lecture by Robert Penn Warren; photograph stills from the film A Long Hot Summer (1958), based on The Hamlet and Sanctuary (1961); sheet music from A Long Hot Summer; manuscripts of two of his poems, an essay on Sherwood Anderson, and a short story; a letter; and three recordings of Faulkner reading from his works.
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First Appearances Collection, 1915-1977. 5,921 items (1,300 periodicals).
Location: Literature and Rare Books
The First Appearances Collection consists of over 1,300 periodicals containing the "first appearance," or first public dissemination, of many noteworthy 20th century literary works. Spanning 1915 to 1977, the First Appearances Collection contains pieces such as "The Old Man and the Sea" by Ernest Hemingway, "Ulysses" by James Joyce, and "Ship of Fools" by Katherine Anne Porter. Some works are presented in their totality while others are presented in serial format. The collection is also notable for its early editions of publications such as Time Magazine, the New Yorker, and the Atlantic Monthly, as well as more specialized publications such as the Yale Quarterly Review. Authors represented in this collection include Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, Jack Kerouac, Langston Hughes, Flannery OConnor, Gertrude Stein, Amiri Baraka, and more.
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Roland Flint papers, 1930s-2003. 36.5 linear feet.
Location: Literature and Rare Books
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Robert Frost papers, 1910-1968. 5.25 linear feet.
Location: Literature and Rare Books
American poet Robert Frost (1874-1963) was born in San Francisco, California. After the death of his father, the family moved to New England, which provided the backdrop for Frost's trademark regional poetry. Frost briefly attended both Dartmouth College and Harvard University but did not earn a degree. Frost initially encountered difficulties in establishing himself as a published poet in American newspapers and literary journals. After little success in America, Frost and his family moved to England for three years, which proved to be more fertile publishing ground. By the time he returned to the United States in 1915, Frost had published two well-received full-length collections, A Boy's Will (1913) and North of Boston (1914), which solidified his reputation on both continents. By the 1920s, he was the most celebrated poet in America. Frost was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for literature four times: for New Hampshire (1923), Collected Poems (1930), A Further Range (1936), and A Witness Tree (1942). Frost received more than forty honorary degrees from colleges and universities, including Oxford and Cambridge Universities, Amherst College, and the University of Michigan. He also had the honor of participating in President John F. Kennedy's inauguration ceremonies, 1961, by reading his poems "Dedication" and "The Gift Outright." This collection includes manuscripts of "Closed for Good" and "The Middleness of the Road"; page proofs of the verse drama A Masque of Reason (1942) and galley proofs of Steeple Bush (1947); art work, photographs, correspondence, work papers, an award, sheet music, serials, and audio recordings of Frost. The collection is unprocessed, but a preliminary inventory is available.
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Jesse Glass papers, 1836-2011. 79.5 linear feet.
Location: Literature and Rare Books
Jesse Glass, Jr., (1954- ), a writer, artist, and editor, is Professor of American literature and history and of comparative literature at Meikai University in Chiba, Japan. Raised outside Westminster, Maryland, he holds degrees from Western Maryland College (B.A., 1979), Johns Hopkins University (M.A., 1980), and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (Ph.D., 1988). He was closely associated with avant-garde periodicals, Goethe's Notes (1976-1980), Cream City Review(1982-1988), and Die Young (1991-1996). After moving to Japan in 1992, he became involved with the Abiko Quarterly. In 1998 he established Ahadada Books, which publishes both online and in print. Published works of his poetry include The Passion of Phineas Gage & Selected Poems (2006), The Life and Death of Peter Stubbe (1995) and Lexical Obelisk (1983, 1990, 1996). He has also written on the history and folklore of Carroll County, Maryland, in The Witness: Slavery in 19th century Carroll County, Maryland (2004), Carroll County Newspaper Wars: Know-Nothings, Alms House Scandals and the Death of a Civil-War Editor (2004), and Ghosts and Legends of Carroll County (1982; revised, 1998). His papers include correspondence with such notable poets as Cid Corman, Leo Connellan, Robert Peters, Rod Summers, David Ray, and Armand Schwerner. Also in the collection are photographs, artwork, clippings, background material for books, visual and sound poetry, monographs, serials, chapbooks, manuscripts and poetry publications documenting the careers of Glass and of others. The collection includes both English and Japanese language materials and documents Glass's interest in Japanese poetry and folklore.
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Leacy-Naylor Green-Leach papers, 1877-1936. 1.50 linear feet.
Location: Literature and Rare Books
Poet and editor Leacy Naylor Green-Leach was born in Culpepper County, Virginia, in 1862. She was educated in private schools in Virginia until she was enrolled in Hellmuth Ladies College in London, Ontario, from which she graduated with honors at age sixteen. Green-Leach was the great-great-granddaughter of George Mason, one of the authors of the Bill of Rights. Her literary activities include the founding and editing of a Baltimore-based literary magazine called The Circle, which ran from 1923 until 1938; also in 1923, Green-Leach established the Baltimore literary group, the American Poetry Circle. Spanning the dates between 1877 and 1936, the Green-Leach papers consist of manuscripts, publications, correspondence, memorabilia, art work, and photographs.
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Albert Gross papers, 1924-1946. 4.75 linear feet.
Location: Literature and Rare Books
Albert H. (Pete) Gross (1895-1948) worked in publishing for more than two decades. His collection consists primarily of correspondence and manuscripts he accumulated during his tenure at Boni and Liveright, Inc.; Horace Liveright, Inc.; A. and S. Lyons, Inc.; and Coward-McCann, Inc. Manuscripts and correspondence relating to Thomas Mann's "Letter to the Civilized World: A Manifest" are particularly notable, as are other manuscripts and galley proofs, such as those for Ernest Hemingway's In Our Time. The collection also contains correspondence from such literary figures as Sholem Asch, Sherwood Anderson, Gertrude Atherton, Theodore Dreiser, Robinson Jeffers, and Eugene O'Neill.
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Arthur J. Gutman Collection of Menckeniana, 1882-2006. 7.75 linear feet.
Location: Literature and Rare Books
Arthur J. Gutman was born in 1911. A native Baltimorean, he graduated from Baltimore City College High School in 1928 and then attended the University of Baltimore. From 1979-1999, Mr. Gutman held the position of president of the Mencken Society, an organization founded to encourage the reading of and to pursue research into the writings of Henry L. Mencken. The Arthur J. Gutman collection contains books, clippings, letters, manuscripts, newsletters, pamphlets, and photographs related to both H.L. Mencken and to the Mencken Society. A large portion of the collection consists of first editions of H.L. Mencken's works as well as a number of the most significant secondary works on the writer. The collection contains a considerable amount of correspondence between Gutman and noted Mencken scholars, manuscripts of works on Mencken, and a nearly complete series of Mencken Society newsletters. There are also a number of rare pieces of Mencken's writing that appeared in pamphlet form, as well as some original Mencken correspondence. The entire collection spans the period from 1906-2000 with the majority of the materials falling between 1979-1999.
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Audre Hanneman papers, 1929-1981. 2.00 linear feet.
Location: Literature and Rare Books
Ernest Hemingway bibliographer Audre Hanneman (1927- ) was born in Council Bluffs, Iowa. While working in the publishing industry in New York City during the 1960s and 1970s, she spent 13 years researching Hemingway. The result of her labors was the volume Ernest Hemingway: A Comprehensive Bibliography (1967) and the subsequent Supplement to Ernest Hemingway: A Comprehensive Bibliography (1975), both published by the Princeton University Press. This collection contains Hannemens correspondence with family and friends of Hemingway as well as scholars of his work, including Carlos Baker, Matthew J. Bruccoli, E. Frazer Clark, Malcolm Cowley, Arnold Gingrich, Leicester Hemingway, Mary Hemingway, Hadley Richardson Hemingway Mowrer, and Philip Young. It also contains material that contributed to Hanneman's research, including articles and book reviews by and about Hemingway, film reviews, letters-to-the-editor, and advertisements that focus on Hemingway and his works, with an emphasis on his friends, suicide, legal affairs after his death and the posthumous publication of Islands in the Stream (1970). Also included are clippings about Hemingway and associates, publishers' promotional materials for Hemingway's works, and exhibit catalogues. The collection is unprocessed, but a preliminary inventory is available.
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Ernest Hemingway Collection, 1916-1977. 29.25 linear feet.
Location: Literature and Rare Books
The Ernest Hemingway Collection was purchased in the early 1970s from C. E. Frazer Clark, Jr., and various other sources. C. E. Frazer Clark, Jr. (1925-2001), a marketing executive, began amassing a Hemingway collection in the 1960s. In the 1970s, Clark sold the bulk of his Hemingway collection to the University of Maryland. The Ernest Hemingway Collection contains serials, correspondence, manuscripts, scripts, proofs, and clippings. A large portion of the collection consists of serials that include stories and nonfiction written by and about Hemingway. It also includes some original correspondence to and from Hemingway. In addition, there are manuscripts and proofs of Hemingways work and biographies of Hemingway. This collection also includes press releases, posters and other materials relating to movie adaptations of Hemingways works. The collection spans the period from 1916 to 1977, with the majority of the materials falling between 1922 and 1961.
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Laura Riding Jackson papers, 1938-1966. 0.75 linear feet.
Location: Literature and Rare Books
Laura Riding Jackson (1901-1991) was an American poet, critic, and editor. She was closely associated with the Fugitive group, a cluster of American Southern writers centered at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee, which included John Crowe Ransom, Allen Tate, and Robert Penn Warren. She had a long partnership with Robert Graves; together they co-founded the Seizin Press, published several volumes of poetry, and co-edited the literary journal Epilogue. Jackson is generally acknowledged to have influenced the work of Graves, the New Zealand filmmaker Len Lye, and the writers James Reeves, Norman Cameron, T. S. Matthews, Jacob Bronowski, and W. H. Auden. The collection consists of correspondence between Jackson and Robert Nye, a British author, editor, and playwright, as well as manuscripts, newspaper and magazine clippings, and photographs. Subjects discussed include writers and writings, Martin Seymour-Smith, Robert Graves, and Nye.
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Walter Howard Kerr papers, circa 1925-1996. 6 linear feet.
Location: Literature and Rare Books
Poet Walter Howard Kerr (1914-1994) was born in Indianapolis, Indiana. He relocated to Washington, D.C., in 1931 to work for the Government Printing Office as a printer, a position which he held for over 35 years. Kerr's poetry has been widely anthologized and has been featured in publications such as Southern Poetry Review and Red Clay Reader. Kerr also served as an editor for several publications, including as co-editor of SCOP Publications. He was also active in poetry societies, including tenure as treasurer in the Maryland State Poetry Society and treasurer, vice-president, and president of the Federal Poets, Washington, D. C. The collection includes correspondence, manuscripts, serials, publications, and photographs.
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Frances McCullough papers, 1915-1994. 18 linear feet.
Location: Literature and Rare Books
Frances Monson McCullough (1938- ), editor and cookbook author, was born in Quantico, Virginia. She graduated from Stanford University in 1960 with a B. A. and completed post-graduate work at Brandeis University in 1960-1961. She began her career as an editor at Harper & Row in 1963, moved to Dial Press in 1980, and on to Bantam Books in 1986. She has worked with authors and poets including Djuna Barnes, Ted Hughes, Laura (Riding) Jackson, N. Scott Momaday, William DeWitt Snodgrass, and Robert Bly. This collection spans the years 1915-1994 and includes correspondence; manuscripts and proofs for The Telling by Laura (Riding) Jackson; Gaudete The Death of a Changeling by Ted Hughes; Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams, the Journals of Sylvia Plath, and Letters Home by Sylvia Plath; Sleepers Joining Hands by Robert Bly; Selected Poems by William DeWitt Snodgrass; and House Made of Dawn by N. Scott Momaday; artwork by N. Scott Momaday; and photographs. The collection is unprocessed, but a preliminary inventory is available.
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Marianne Moore papers, 1929-1973. 0.50 linear feet.
Location: Literature and Rare Books
Prize-winning poet and editor Marianne Moore (1887-1972) was born outside St. Louis, Missouri. Moore graduated from Bryn Mawr College in 1909 and went on to teach at Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, for the next four years. She and her mother eventually settled in New York City in 1919 where she remained until her death. She published many volumes of poetry as well as reviews and essays and was a great friend of and benefactor to other poets. In addition to her own work, she edited the arts and culture magazine The Dial from 1925 to 1929; Moore also won the Dial Award in 1924, one of eight grants given to contributers between 1921 and 1928. Other winners included Sherwood Anderson, T.S. Eliot, Ezra Pound and e.e. cummings. Her book Collected Poems (1951) earned her a Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, and the Bollingen Prize in 1952. This collection includes a typed manuscript of Marianne Moore: A Descriptive Bibliography (1977) by Craig Abbott and a copy of the limited edition chapbook Silence (1965?). It also contains a few items of Moore correspondence, proofs, and ephemera.
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John Pauker papers, 1929-1991. 71.00 linear feet.
Location: Literature and Rare Books
John Pauker (1920-1991) was born in Budapest, Hungary, and raised in New York City. He attended Yale University where he edited the freshman magazine 42 and the literary magazine Furioso. Much of his career was spent with the United States Information Agency for which he served as policy officer, editor, and political commentator between 1953 and 1970, later then became deputy chief national security adviser for the office of plans. Pauker, who spoke seven languages, also worked as propaganda analyst at the Office of War Information and as a White House speech writer. In addition to his government duties, Pauker maintained an active interest in the arts. He was an art aficionado, author, critic, editor, and translator. Paukers poems and short stories, which have appeared in numerous periodicals and under various pen names, have also been anthologized. His English translation of Lajos Zilahy's The Dukays from Hungarian was a bestseller in 1949, and his adaptation of Marcel Ayme's Les Oiseaux de lune was produced on Broadway as Moonbirds (1956). Pauker's other major publications include two volumes of poetry: Yoked by Violence (1949) and Excellency (1968). In addition to his own creative and critical pursuits, Pauker and his first wife Virginia shared an art dealership. This collection includes correspondence, clippings, notes and drafts of his works, some work-related material, copies of Furioso, serials, and audio and video tapes of interviews, readings, and music. The collection is unprocessed, but a preliminary inventory is available.
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Katherine Anne Porter papers, 1842-1980. 174.5 linear feet.
Location: Literature and Rare Books
Katherine Anne Porter is known mostly for her short stories and novel, Ship of Fools, but also published nonfiction. She was awarded a Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award in 1966 for The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter. Her personal papers reflect her interests in writing, travel, politics, and current events and also document her private life. The collection consists of correspondence, notes and drafts for her works, publications, legal documents, and financial records. It also includes photographs, memorabilia, and her personal library. Many of the memorabilia objects and a portion of her library are housed in the Katherine Anne Porter Room in Hornbake Library.
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Ferdinand Reyher papers, 1868-1996. 26.25 linear feet.
Location: Literature and Rare Books
Ferdinand Reyher (1891-1967) was a novelist, newspaper correspondent, screenwriter, and playwright active in and among many influential artistic, cultural, and social spheres of the twentieth century. The papers document Reyher's literary activities and personal life. The collection includes correspondence; manuscripts; Reyher's notes and research; clippings; legal and financial documents; and other personal material, including diaries, photographs, and drawings. Throughout his writing career, Ferdinand Reyher wrote short fiction and articles for many magazines. Reyher was active in Hollywood during the 1930s and early 1940s as a film doctor and screenwriter at several studios, including RKO, MGM, and Paramount. Ferdinand Reyher was among those who helped to extricate German playwright, poet, and dramatic theorist Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956) and his family from Nazi Germany in 1941. Reyher and Brecht made attempts to collaborate on various works in the late 1930s to mid-1940s, and he actively promoted the translation and performance of Brecht's work in the United States. Reyher was an acquaintance of many well-known twentieth-century literary figures, prominent photographers, screenwriters and producers of Hollywood's golden era, and artists. Figures represented in the collection include Ford Maddox Ford, Wallace Stevens, Sinclair Lewis, John Huston , and Paul Henreid. Other notable correspondents include journalist George Seldes, publisher John Rodker, and Reyher's first wife, suffragette, political activist, and author, Rebecca Hourwich Reyher. Also represented in Reyher's papers is his second wife, Chinese writer and translator Eileen Chang (1920-1995).
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Karl Shapiro papers, ca. 1917-1968. 1.00 linear feet.
Location: Literature and Rare Books
Karl Shapiro (1913-2000) was an American poet and literary critic who was born in Baltimore, Maryland. He was strongly influenced by the works of W. H. Auden, Walt Whitman, and William Carlos Williams. His work has been recognized with a number of major awards, including the Pulitzer prize for V-Letter and Other Poems in 1945; he later became consultant in poetry at the Library of Congress. He also published a novel, an autobiography, and poetry anthologies. Shapiro taught at many universities, including Johns Hopkins University, University of Nebraska, University of Illinois at Chicago Circle, and University of California, Davis. His papers consist of correspondence, manuscripts of poems, and photographs and are mostly from 1941 to 1944.
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Myra Sklarew papers, 1858-2008. 15 linear feet.
Location: Literature and Rare Books
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Papers of Gertrude Stein and Her Circle, 1927-1938. 0.50 linear feet.
Location: Literature and Rare Books
Gertrude Stein (1874-1946) was an American-born poet, novelist, and playwright who lived for a time in Baltimore, Maryland, but spent most of her life in France and England. The collection consists of correspondence, biographical materials, work papers, and photographs and is mostly in French. Significant figures represented include Georges Hugnet, Georges Maratier, Jacques Stettiner, John Boulton, Bernard Fry, and Pablo Picasso.
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John Steinbeck Papers, circa 1960-1961. 0.5 linear feet and 7 items.
Location: Literature and Rare Books
American author John Steinbeck (1902-1968) was born in Salinas, California. His upbringing in a rural town and summers spent working alongside migrant workers at neighboring ranches would provided themes and settings for his characteristically regional style. In 1919, Steinbeck graduated from Salinas High School and attended Stanford University intermittently until 1925, eventually leaving without a degree. Steinbeck moved to New York City, attempting to live a writer's life, but failing to publish, he returned to California. He spent most of the years of the Great Depression in the Monterey Peninsula in California, his literary activities supported by his father. Steinbeck's first successful novel Tortilla Flat was published in 1935, for which he received the California Commonwealth Club's Gold Medal. The next four years brought what has become known as his "Dust Bowl" fiction: Of Mice and Men (1937) and the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Grapes of Wrath (1939). Steinbeck's most well known works of fiction include: Cannery Row (1945), The Pearl (1947), East of Eden (1952), and The Winter of Our Discontent (1961), his final novel. Steinbeck's oeuvre also includes six non-fiction works and five collections of short stories, as well as numerous journalistic pieces from his time as a war correspondent for the New York Herald Tribune during World War II. Many of his novels were successfully adapted for the screen. In 1962, Steinbeck was honored with the Nobel Prize for Literature. The collection consists of manuscripts of galley and page proofs for The Winter of Our Discontent, as well as a metal die used for imprinting the volume's spine title.
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Reed Whittemore papers, c. 1913-1985. 26 linear feet.
Location: University of Maryland
Reed Whittemore (b. 1919) is a poet and emeritus professor of English at the University of Maryland, where he taught from 1967 to 1984. He also served twice as the Poetry Consultant for the Library of Congress. The author of a major biography of William Carlos Williams, he has also written numerous volumes of poems and essays. Whittemore's papers include correspondence, manuscripts, drafts, notes, galleys, proofs, scrapbooks, diaries, published materials, newspaper and magazine clippings, audiotapes, and photographs documenting his life, literary work, and teaching. Significant correspondents represented in the collection include Arthur Mizener and John Pauker. An addendum to the collection--consisting of correspondence, publications, press releases, and work papers--is available; it is described in a preliminary inventory.
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Desmond Willson Papers, 1956-1995. 0.25 linear feet (24 items).
Location: Literature and Rare Books
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