Collection Guide
Collection Title:
Collection Number:
Get Items:
Tracy (Robert) Papers
BANC MSS 2016/196
View entire collection guide
Search this collection
Table of contents
Contributing Institution:
The Bancroft Library
Title: Robert Tracy papers
Creator:
Tracy, Robert, 1928-2020
Identifier/Call Number: BANC MSS 2016/196
Physical Description:
24 linear feet
(19 cartons, 1 box, 1 oversize folder)
Date (inclusive): approximately 1950-2015
Language of Material:
English
.
Collection is open to researchers.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
The Robert Tracy papers were purchased from Rebecca Tracy in 2022.
Materials are arranged as they were at the point of acquisition, with the exception of the Seamus Heaney correspondence and
signed poems, which were segretated in their own box for easier access and discoverability. No attempt was made to rearrange
the collection into clear series. There is no discernable series of correspondence in the collection. The correpondence that
exists is scattered throughout the containers.
Robert Tracy served on the faculty of the English Department at the University of California, Berkeley from 1960 until his
retirement in 1993. Tracy was a prominent scholar of British and Irish literature and one of a group of noted Irish Studies
scholars at UC Berkeley that included Thomas Flanagan, Thomas Parkinson, Dan Melia, and Brenan O'Hehir and was one of the
founders of the Celtic Studies Program. Tracy also helped to found the Western chapter of the American Conference for Irish
Studies.
Tracy's areas of scholarly interest included the work of Anthony Trollope and Charles Dickens. He produced important editions
of some of Trollope's works as well as works of Sheridan Le Fanu and Flann O'Brien. Tracy also produced and translation of
the Russian Jewish writer Osip Mandelstaum's first collection of poems. Many of Tracy's writings appear in his book
The Unappeasable Host: Studies in Irish Identities, published in 1998.
Robert and his wife Rebecca Garrison Tracy be-friended many Irish writers who visited Berkeley over the years, including poet
Seamus Heaney, who came to Berkeley to teach in 1970-1971. They remained friends until the end of Heaney's life in 2013.
Robert Tracy papers, BANC MSS 2016/196, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.
Minimally processed at Level 2 by Bancroft Accessioning and Processing staff in 2023. Collections that receive Level 2 processing
processing are provided with a collection-level description and a simple box-level container listing. For this collection,
the simple container listing was, for some containers, enhanced by a content note. The arrangement of the collection generally
remains as it was at the point of acquisition. An exception was made for the Seamus Heaney correspondence and signed poems,
which were segretated in their own box for easier access and discoverability. Some materials in the collection remain in original
folders. Other materials have been refoldered with original folder titles copied by Bancroft staff. Titles were created by
the archivists only when folder titles were lacking.
Collection consists of teaching, research, and other professional materials created by Robert Tracy, faculty member in the
English Department at the University of California, Berkeley. Materials consist of drafts of Tracy's articles and books, including
materials relating to anthologies; research files on various topics in 19th and 20th century Irish and English literature;
conference materials; course materials from courses taught at UC Berkeley as well as courses taught at other institutions.
Also included in the collection are letters and holiday cards received from Irish poet Seamus Heaney and his wife Marie Heaney,
as well are three signed poems, January God, A Drink of Water, and The Tollund Man (which is handwritten.
Some materials in these collections may be protected by the U.S. Copyright Law (Title 17, U.S.C.). In addition, the reproduction
of some materials may be restricted by terms of University of California gift or purchase agreements, donor restrictions,
privacy and publicity rights, licensing and trademarks. Transmission or reproduction of materials protected by copyright beyond
that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the copyright owners. Works not in the public domain cannot be
commercially exploited without permission of the copyright owner. Responsibility for any use rests exclusively with the user.
For additional information about the University of California, Berkeley Library's permissions policy please see: http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/about/permissions-policies
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Heaney, Seamus, 1939-2013
Tracy, Robert, 1928-2020 -- Archives
Heaney, Marie
University of California, Berkeley -- Faculty
University of California, Berkeley. Department of English
English literature -- Study and teaching (Higher)
College teachers -- California -- Berkeley.
Authors, Irish -- 20th century