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Guide to the Papers concerning proposed anthology of western poetry, 1905-1908
BANC MSS C-H 111  
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  • Collection Summary
  • Information for Researchers
  • Biography
  • Scope and Content

  • Collection Summary

    Collection Title: Papers Concerning Proposed Anthology of Western Poetry,
    Date (inclusive): 1905-1908
    Collection Number: BANC MSS C-H 111
    Creator: Nye, Alfred Bourne, 1853-1913
    Extent: Number of containers: 2 boxes
    Repository: The Bancroft Library
    Berkeley, California 94720-6000
    Physical Location: For current information on the location of these materials, please consult the Library's online catalog.
    Languages Represented: English

    Information for Researchers

    Access

    Collection is open for research.

    Publication Rights

    Copyright has not been assigned to The Bancroft Library. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Head of Public Services. Permission for publication is given on behalf of The Bancroft Library as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the reader.

    Preferred Citation

    [Identification of item], Papers concerning proposed anthology of western poetry, BANC MSS C-H 111, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.

    Biography

    In 1905, Alfred B. Nye, who was at the time private secretary to the governor of California, began collecting poems by California and other Pacific Coast writers, with the intention of publishing a volume of the selections and brief biographies of the authors. Accordingly, he wrote the authors, asking permission to publish certain poems and requesting biographical data. The response was generally very favorable, the authors granting the request and often suggesting the poems they regarded as their best. After the San Francisco earthquake and fire, Nye was compelled to abandon work on the project for many months. In November 1906 he was appointed state controller and found the work so time consuming that there was none to devote to his literary pursuits. To one of the sympathetic poets he wrote:
    Moreover, I am wondering whether the good people of the State would not regard it as evidence of dangerous unsoundness if their head bookkeeper (which is what the State Controller is) should be announced as the publisher of a compilation of poetry?
    He apparently never completed the project.

    Scope and Content

    These papers, which consist of copies of Nye's letters, the replies he received from the various authors, and copies of the poems selected for inclusion in the anthology, came to the Bancroft Library in September 1959 as the gift of Robert A. Waring.