Category: American literature
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[Autographed letter signed] 1905 July 12, Wyncote, Pennsylvania [from] Ezra Pound These materials may be under copyright. To learn more, contact the Curator, Yale Collection of American Literature. Call Number: YCAL MSS 175 Related Collections Ezra Pound Papers, YCAL MSS 43 William Carlos Williams papers, YCAL MSS 116 H. D. Papers, YCAL MSS 24 Bryher papers, GEN MSS 97
Gift of Langston Hughes and bequest of the estate of Langston Hughes, ca. 1940-67. These materials may be under copyright. Permission from the Langston Hughes Estate is required to publish materials by Langston Hughes in any format. Contact information for the Estate may be found in the WATCH File . To learn more, contact the appropriate curator. Call Number: JWJ MSS 26
American photographer Robert Giard is renowned for his portraits of American poets and writers; his particular focus was on gay and lesbian writers. Some of his photographs of the American gay and lesbian literary community appear in his groundbreaking book Particular Voices: Portraits of Gay and Lesbian Writers , published by MIT Press in 1997. Giard’s stated mission was to define the literary history and cultural identity of gays and lesbians for the mainstream of American society, which perceived them as disparate, marginal individuals possessing neither. In all, he photographed more than 600 writers. The archive is a unique and important collection providing a significant resource for the study of literary America in the late twentieth century.
1 July 1944 Richard Wright (1908-1960) is perhaps best known for his critically-acclaimed collection Uncle Tom’s Children: Four Novellas (1938), his groundbreaking novel Native Son (1940) and his autobiography, first published as Black Boy: A Record of Childhood and Youth (1945). Black Boy was the on the bestseller list from April 29 to June 6 of that year, despite being denounced as obscene in the U.S. Senate by Democrat Theodore Bilbo of Mississippi, and it solidified Wright’s reputation, at the time, as the most famous black author in America.
About the Crawl Space The poems in Crawl Space were composed using a typewriter, working on commercial paint sample cards; each card is an example of a different shade of white interior house paint. The tools of composition provided useful constraints and suggestions, which are evident in both the form and content of the poems-a meditation on walls, both real and metaphorical, in marriage and the trappings of domesticity. I drafted versions of each of the poems (necessitating frequent trips to Home Depot to replenish paint card supplies) and eventually made a few complete sets, one of which is housed in the Yale Collection of American Literature at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University.
The Most Peculiar History of the Chewing Gum Man, Gelett Burgess (1866-1951), San Francisco, California, 1894 November. About the Author Gelett Burgess was a very prolific author, writing rhymes and stories, drawing pictures, teaching art, and editing a famous humor magazine, The Lark . Among his best-known creations are The Goops, round little creatures he used to demonstrate good and bad behavior. Burgess made a few special books for his friends and family. The ?Chewing Gum Man? was made for his sisters. This story was eventually published in The Burgess Nonsense Book in 1901.
The Elizabeth Jenks Clark Collection of Margaret Anderson contains correspondence, writings, photographs, sound recordings, and other papers of writer and editor Margaret Anderson. The material documents Anderson's life, work, and personal relationships with many noted writers, poets, artists, photographers and performers of the twentieth century, in particular her romantic relationships with co-editor and writer Jane Heap, writer Solita Solano and close friendship with sculptor Elizabeth Jenks Clark. The papers span the entirety of Anderson's life, though the bulk of them document her personal and professional life after the Little Review .
James Baldwin, 1955 September 13, by Carl Van Vechten The provenance of the James Baldwin Early Manuscripts and Papers collection is a matter of some intrigue. The donor, Bart Kaplan, acquired the papers through eminent domain, after his company took possession of a storage building in downtown Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, sometime in the early 1960s. The space in which they were stored had apparently once belonged to a publishing company which had left behind a suitcase containing these materials from James Baldwin. The relationship between Baldwin and the publishing company, as well as how a small parcel of his earliest literary effects was left with them, is uncertain.
Marjory Stoneman Douglas (1890-1998) led an extraordinary, long life, and established herself as one of South Florida's premier personalities of the twentieth century. Douglas' importance as a female writer and reporter of both local and national significance is further impacted by her pioneering role as an environmental and political activist. As a writer and reporter she enjoyed a distinguished career first as an assistant editor for the Miami Herald and later as an O. Henry Award winning short story writer and novelist.
History of Medicine Charlotte Perkins Gilman writing at her desk, ca. 1916-1922 Dr. S. Weir Mitchell, author and physician, 1906 Charlotte's doctor, nerve specialist Dr. S. Weir Mitchell, had built an eminent medical career working with soldiers injured during the Civil War. He then focused on the treatment of women with nervous exhaustion, devising a “rest cure” in which the patient was not allowed to read, write, feed herself, or talk to others.
Holmes was a part of many different and overlapping worlds. His poetry and other literary endeavors constitute one such world, but there were also worlds of family, friends, colleagues, his lifetime relationship with Tufts, as well as the realities of the larger world. These exhibits provide insights into some parts of Holmes' world, primarily through his poetry.
As a teacher and mentor of young poets, Holmes was concerned about imparting the work of writing poetry to his students. Using drafts and notes as well as letters and sketches which are contained in the collection, this exhibit traces the evolution of several poems from first draft to finished product.
