Finding Aid for the Vachel Lindsay Papers LSC.0754
Finding aid prepared by Esther Vécsey, January 1962; machine-readable finding aid created by Alight Tsai.
UCLA Library Special Collections
Online finding aid last updated 2002.
Room A1713, Charles E. Young Research Library
Box 951575
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1575
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spec-coll@library.ucla.edu
Contributing Institution:
UCLA Library Special Collections
Title: Vachel Lindsay papers
Creator:
Lindsay, Vachel
Identifier/Call Number: LSC.0754
Physical Description:
0.5 Linear Feet
(1 box)
Date (inclusive): 1910-1929
Abstract: Nicholas Vachel Lindsay (1879-1931) was a highly successful poet on recital tours, especially from 1914-1920. His
Collected Poems appeared in 1923. The collection consists of letters of Lindsay to Wilhelm Miller and family, manuscripts, scrapbooks, ephemera,
and presentation copies of books by Lindsay. There are also ephemera and newspaper clippings by or relating to Lindsay.
Physical Location: Stored off-site. All requests to access special collections material must be made in advance using the request button located
on this page.
Language of Material: Materials are in English.
Restrictions on Access
Open for research. All requests to access special collections materials must be made in advance using the request button located
on this page.
Restrictions on Use and Reproduction
Property rights to the physical objects belong to UCLA Library Special Collections. All other rights, including copyright,
are retained by the creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright
and pursue the copyright owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC Regents do not hold the copyright.
Provenance/Source of Acquisition
Gift of Mary Rogers Miller, 1962.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], Vachel Lindsay Papers (Collection 754). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research
Library, University of California, Los Angeles.
Processing Information
Processed by Esther Vécsey, January 1962.
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UCLA Catalog Record ID
Biography
Nicholas Vachel Lindsay was born on November 10, 1879 in Springfield, Illinois; attended Hiram College for three years, then
studied art in New York with Robert Henri; walked from Illinois to New Mexico, reading his poems in exchange for food and
lodging; in 1913 his poem, General William Booth Enters into Heaven, appeared in Harriet Monroe's magazine,
Poetry; other poems include The Congo (1914), Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight (1914), The Santa Fe Trail (1914), The Chinese Nightingale
(1917), Bryan, Bryan, Bryan, Bryan (1920), The Golden Age of Springfield (1920), The Flower-Fed Buffaloes (1926), and Johnny
Appleseed (1928); was highly successful on recital tours, especially from 1914-1920; his
Collected Poems appeared in 1923; he died on December 5, 1931 in Springfield, Illinois.
Scope and Content
Collection consists of letters of Lindsay to Wilhelm Miller and family, manuscripts, scrapbooks, ephemera, and presentation
copies of books by Lindsay. Includes a presentation copy to the Wilhelm Millers of
The Village Magazine (March 1911, the only number ever issued) with holograph annotations, a copy of
Vision (Spring 1912) containing Lindsay's article, The New Localism, with his illustrations and several holograph and typescript
poems on the other pages. Also contains a presentation copy of his
Rhymes to be Traded for Bread, and his copy of
The Art of the Moving Picture (1915), with copious annotations and corrections. There are also ephemera and newspaper clippings by or relating to Lindsay.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Poets, American -- 20th century -- Archives.
Lindsay, Vachel, 1879-1931--Archives.
box 1
Letters to Wilhelm Miller, and family. Springfield, Illinois.
1913-1929.
General Physical Description note: Holograph. 4 items.
box 1
Vision, village number, no.4. Pennsylvania.
1912.
General Physical Description note: 1 item.
Scope and Contents note
Contains 6 illustrations by Lindsay, and was used by him as a scrapbook for poems: holograph, typescript, and clipped printed
verses with holograph notes throughout. Includes a copy of
Rhymes to be Traded for Bread, and one broadside, The Sangamon County Place Advocate, no.1, Springfield, Illinois, Christmas, 1909, by Lindsay.
Presentation copy to Wilhelm Miller, Springfield, Illinois, October 15, 1913.
box 1
Rhymes to Be Traded for Bread, Springfield, Illinois.
June 1912.
General Physical Description note: 2 items.
Scope and Contents note
A small book of 8 leaves, unbound, ... to be used in exchange for the necessities of life on a tramp-journey from the author's
home town, through the West and back...
One of the copies is inscribed, Wilhelm Miller from N.V. Lindsay, and is marked throughout.
box 1
Adventures While Preaching the Gospel of Beauty. Chapters 2, 4-6.
Forum.
1913-1914.
General Physical Description note: 4 items.
Scope and Contents note
Some holograph notations. Chapters extracted from
Forum, a periodical, are:
In Kansas: The First Harvest
In Kansas: The Second and Third Harvest
The End of the Road, Moonshine, and an Epilogue
box 1
Clipped articles by or
re Lindsay. v.p.
v.d.
General Physical Description note: 9 items.
Vachel Lndsay, by Arthur Waugh, 2 columns from a British newspaper.
Proclamation! by Lindsay, one page from
Rural Manhood, New York.
June 1913.
The New Localism by Lindsay, one page from
Twentieth Century Magazine, n.p.
n.d.
Proclamation of the Gospel of Beauty, n.p.
n.d.
Four illustrations: The Village Improvement Parade, sections 1-4, n.p.
1910.
box 1
The Village Magazine. Springfield, Illinois.
1911.
General Physical Description note: 1 item. 29 cm.
Scope and Contents note
Inscription, in ink, inside front cover: To Wilhelm Miller:-with all good wishes. This being my last battered copy of the
model for a village magazine... the date, in pencil, is October 16, 1913. Contains holograph remarks about some of the poems;
also, on outside front cover, notes in ink, pencil state: By N.V. Lindsay...Reviewed in
Current Literature for March 1911...Only one number ever issued.
box 1
General William Booth Enters into Heaven and Other Poems.... New York: Mithchell Kennerley.
1913.
General Physical Description note: 19.5 cm. Red boards.
Scope and Contents note
Picture of Lindsay is pasted inside front cover. Inscription in holograph: Mary Rogers Miller, from W.M., December 25, 1913.
box 1
The Art of the Moving Picture. New York: the Macmillan Company.
General Physical Description note: 19 cm. Buff-green-black boards.
Scope and Contents note
Includes a long dedication to my dear Miller...Vachel, January 5, 1915, Springfield, Illinois. Also: author's extensive underlinings
and margin notations throughout, as well as a clipped article, Better 'Movies' for Children, by E. Leslie Gilliams.
