box 51, box 73, box 77
Biographical and personal material Series 1.
1903-1995
Physical Description: 0.5 Linear Feet
Scope and Content Summary
The biographical and personal materials series includes Rene Wellek's certificates, passports, awards, honorary diplomas,
some photographs, curricula vitae, narrative biographies, and obituaries. Some family materials, such as family photographs,
are included in this series.
box 1, box 2, box 3, box 4, box 5, box 6, box 7, box 8, box 9, box 10, box 11, box 12, box 13, box 51, box 59, box 68, box 69, box 70, box 71, box 72, box 73, box 74 RESTRICTED, box 75, box 76
Manuscripts and publication files Series 2.
1936-1992
Physical Description: 19 Linear Feet
Access
All student and employee records are restricted for 75 years due to third party privacy issues.
Student records
Series 2. Manuscripts and publication files contains student records including grade sheets, transcripts, recommendation material,
grant applications, exams, and and class lists with social security numbers. Best practices suggest that these records be
closed for 75 years from date of creation. These records have been removed to restricted box 74. Dummy folders have been placed
in the collection with the year the restriction is lifted.
Scope and Content Summary
The manuscripts series contains materials related to Rene Wellek's published and unpublished writing on English and Russian
literature, Aesthetics, Romanticism, and the history of criticism. Included with manuscripts for Wellek's full length works
and articles are lectures for symposia and conferences, reviews written by Wellek on the works of other critics, and entries
for encyclopedias. Materials in the manuscripts series include notes and research materials, typescript and holograph manuscripts,
outlines, copyedited drafts, annotated offprints, correspondence with collaborators and publishers, proofs, and other publishing
material. Of particular interest are correspondence between Wellek and his
Theory of Literature co-author Austin Warren, as well as notes, drafts, and proofs from all eight volumes of his landmark
History of Modern Criticism .
box 18, box 19, box 20, box 21, box 22, box 23, box 24, box 25, box 26, box 27, box 28, box 29, box 30, box 31, box 32, box 33, box 34, box 35, box 36, box 37, box 38, box 39, box 52, box 53, box 54, box 55, box 56, box 59, box 60, box 74 RESTRICTED, box 75, box 78 and accn2018-070
Correspondence and conference material Series 3.
1927-1996
Physical Description: 17.6 Linear Feet
Access
All student and employee records are restricted for 75 years due to third party privacy issues.
Student records
Series 3. correspondence contains student records including grade sheets, transcripts, recommendation material, grant applications,
exams, and and class lists with social security numbers. Best practices suggest that these records be closed for 75 years
from date of creation. These records have been removed to restricted box 74. Dummy folders have been placed in the collection
with the year the restriction is lifted.
Scope and Content Summary
This series contains letters, enclosures, and related subject material received by and sent from Rene Wellek as well as conference
materials he collected between 1930 and 1995.
Correspondence consists of professional, personal, and family material in a variety of languages, including German and Czech.
Of particular interest are letters to and from Wellek's colleagues, Austin Warren, Leo Spitzer, Edith Kern, and William K.
Wimsatt, as well as correspondence between Wellek and his brother Albert, a noted expert in the psychology of music. Some
letters in this series were sent to Nonna Wellek in 1996 following her husband's death in November 1995.
Conference material consists of programs, schedules, notes, lecture drafts and transcripts, and invitations as well as travel
documents and itineraries.
Wellek's correspondence and conference files also contain material related to professional organizations and teaching at the
University of Iowa and Yale.
box 40, box 41, box 57, box 58, box 60, box 61, box 75, box 77, box 76
Notebooks Series 4.
1938-1986
Physical Description: 6 Linear Feet
Scope and Content Summary
The notebooks series contains a large number of notes taken by Rene Wellek on different literary topics throughout his academic
and professional career. Included are notes taken for and at lectures, working notes for essays and longer works, holograph
manuscripts, as well as general research notes. A notebook containing a manuscript of Wellek's doctoral thesis "Thomas Carlyle
and Romanticism" is also included in this series.
box 50
Audio recordings Series 5.
1973-1978
Physical Description: 0.5 Linear Feet
Access
Use copies of each audio recording must be made prior to researcher use of the recordings. 48 hours advance notice is required
in order to create use copies, which will then become a permanent part of the collection. Contact Special Collections and
Archives for further information.
Scope and Content Summary
This series contains audio recordings of interviews and lectures given by Rene Wellek. Several recordings of lectures by Nonna
Wellek on Russian literature have also been included.
box 42, box 43, box 44, box 45, box 46, box 47, box 48, box 49, box 61, box 62, box 63, box 64, box 65
Offprints, periodicals, and clippings Series 6.
circa 1921-1970s
Physical Description: 12.25 Linear Feet
Scope and Content Summary
This series contains offprints of articles, full periodicals, and newspaper clippings collected by Rene Wellek. The offprints
in this series are both by Wellek and his colleagues. Many of the articles by his colleagues were inscribed to him by their
authors. Full issues of journals, often containing articles by Wellek or one of his colleagues have also been included.
box 14, box 15, box 16, box 17, box 65, box 66, box 67, box 75, box 76
Writing of others Series 7.
circa 1940s-1989
Physical Description: 6.75 Linear Feet
Scope and Content Summary
This series contains manuscripts, essays, book drafts, articles, project descriptions and proposals of Rene Wellek's correspondents,
colleagues, friends, and students. Many of these works are annotated, accompanied by letters or are autographed for Wellek
by the author.
box 78 and accn2018-070
Unprocessed addition Accession 2018-070
1985 December 8
Physical Description: 0.02 Linear Feet(1 letter file folder)
Access
This addition to the collection has not been processed but is open for research. Please contact the Department of Special
Collections and Archives in advance to request access.
Series Scope and Contents Summary
This addition to the collection contains a letter from René Wellek to William J. Lillyman, dated December 8, 1985.