Preliminary Guide to the Lawrence Willson Papers

Preliminary arrangement and description by D. Tambo, J. Mundy, and K. Curren; latest revision by D. Tambo, Feb. 23, 2009.
Department of Special Collections
Davidson Library
University of California, Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara, CA 93106
Phone: (805) 893-3062
Fax: (805) 893-5749
Email: special@library.ucsb.edu
URL: http://www.library.ucsb.edu/speccoll/speccoll.html
© 2011
The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.

Preliminary Guide to the Lawrence Willson Papers

Collection number: UArch FacP 21

Department of Special Collections

Davidson Library

University of California, Santa Barbara
Processed by:
Preliminary arrangement and description by D. Tambo, J. Mundy, and K. Curren; latest revision by D. Tambo
Date Completed:
Feb. 23, 2009
Encoded by:
A. Demeter
© 2011 The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.

Descriptive Summary

Title: Lawrence Willson Papers
Dates: ca. 1912-1995
Collection number: UArch FacP 21
Creator: Willson, Lawrence
Collection Size: 10 linear feet (9 records cartons, 1 document boxes, 2 map cabinet folders, 1 VHS videocassette, and 1 audiocassette).
Repository: University of California, Santa Barbara. Library. Dept. of Special Collections
Santa Barbara, CA 93106
Abstract: The collection contains research files relating to Lawrence Willson's scholarly interests, including Henry D. Thoreau and American literature, as well as copies of his articles and reviews, correspondence, photographs, and files relating to the Thoreau Society, Phi Beta Kappa, early teaching assignments, and the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he taught in the English Department for many years.
Physical location: Boxes 1-10 (SRLF); Map folder (Map Cabinet 19/11); Audiovisual (Annex 2).
Languages: English

Access Restrictions

The majority of this collection is stored offsite. Advance notice is required for retrieval.

Publication Rights

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

Preferred Citation

Lawrence Willson Papers. UArch FacP 21. Department of Special Collections, Davidson Library, University of California, Santa Barbara.

Acquisition Information

Multiple donations from Lawrence Willson and family, ca. 1990-1996.

Biography

Lawrence Willson was born in Lancaster, New Hampshire, on May 6, 1911. He received a bachelor's degree in English from Wesleyan University in Connecticut in 1934 and earned a doctorate in English from Yale University in 1944. He taught at Delaware, Tennessee, Wesleyan, and Berkeley before coming to UCSB in 1947, where he was a professor of English, a Henry D. Thoreau scholar, and a longtime active member in the UCSB Phi Beta Kappa chapter. He retired in 1978 and died in Santa Barbara on January 28, 1996. A Lawrence Willson Memorial Lectureship was established later in 1996 and has been awarded to some of the most distinguished faculty at UCSB.
More information about Lawrence Willson's life is available in the UCSB Public Information Office Biographic Files and the Lawrence Willson oral history Down Country (OH 1), produced by David Russell for the UCSB Oral History Program.

Scope and Content of Collection

The collection contains research files relating to Lawrence Willson's scholarly interests, including Henry D. Thoreau and American literature, as well as copies of his articles and reviews, correspondence, photographs, and files relating to the Thoreau Society, Phi Beta Kappa, early teaching assignments, and the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he taught in the English Department for many years.
The collection is only partially processed, with descriptions at the series and box level. Arrangement of contents is largely as found.

Arrangement

This collection contains the following series:
  • Series I: General – incl. Bio/Personal. Autobiographical and bibliographical materials. Undergraduate and graduate papers, notes from student days at Yale.
  • Series II: Academic Files. Files from before and during working at UCSB. Files from UCSB include English Department files, including Shakespeare and Animals in Art courses.
  • Series III: Professional Organizations. Including extensive Phi Beta Kappa files (undergraduate honors society), Thoreau Society, and UCSB Friends of the Library.
  • Series IV: Research. Files from other American writers including Faulkner and Hawthorne.
  • Series V: Thoreau Files. General files, including correspondence, lectures, writings about Thoreau.
  • Series VI: Writings. Copies of articles by Willson, as well as his dissertation, unpublished novel, and reviews of works by others. Boxes 9-10.
  • Series VII: Oversize. Birthday Posters. Map Folders 19/11.
  • Series VIII: A/V. Audiocassette and VHS videotape: "Lawrence Willson: Self Reliance" bicentennial lecture.

Indexing Terms

The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.
Willson, Lawrence
Thoreau, Henry David, 1817-1862.
University of California, Santa Barbara. Dept. of English

Related Material

Resources in UCSB Special Collections
  • Thoreau [Henry D.] / Lawrence Willson Collection. Mss 187.
  • UCSB Office of Public Information Biographical Files. UArch 11.
  • Willson [Lawrence] Oral History. OH 1.
Resources in the Davidson Library
Writings of Henry David Thoreau / Thoreau Edition
http://www.library.ucsb.edu/thoreau/index.html 

Email the Editor-in-Chief Elizabeth Witherell at witherell@library.ucsb.edu 
Other Resources

 

Series I:  General

Scope and Content Note

Incl. Bio/Personal
Box 1

Bio-Bib

Box 1

Bio – Miscellany

 

Correspondence

Box 1

Cards and Postcards, ca. 1912-1993

Box 1

Hilen, Andrew R.

Box 1

1940s [mainly 1947-1949] – alphabetically arranged

Box 1

Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, ca. 1960-1972

Box 1

Miscellany, 1928, 1949-1988

Box 1

Knowledge Bowl (Santa Barbara), 1969-1970

 

Lancaster, New Hampshire

Box 1

Early memorabilia, dating back to 1921

Box 1

Lancaster Academy

Box 1

Lancaster High School

Box 1

"The Lancastrian" – student literary magazine of the Lancaster Academy, 1928-1929

Box 1

"Young Woodley" – play, with LW as actor, director, producer, 1932

Box 2

Photos – unsorted box, mainly snapshots of family and friends, as well as holiday cards from friends and colleagues; a few with LW

Box 2

Publicity – newspapers about LW

Box 2

Radio Broadcasts, 1948-1949

Box 2

Santa Barbara Civic Theater, 1951-1952

Box 2

Sermons, n.d.

 

Speeches

Box 2

"Self Reliance," 1976

Box 2

Miscellany, n.d.

Box 2

Unitarian Church, ca. 1940s-1950s

 

University Days

Box 2

Notes – undergraduate

Box 2

Papers – undergraduate and graduate, 1930s

Box 2

Wesleyan Alum File, ca. 1930s-1992

Box 2

Wesleyan Cardinal – L.W. contributor and managing editor, 1932-1934

Box 2

Wesleyan – Memorabilia

Box 2

Wesleyan – Transcript

 

Yale Graduate School

Box 2

General

Box 2

Old English Course

Box 2

Miscellany – incl. autographed photographs of actresses and an 1863 letter from the bishop of the Diocese of New Hampshire

 

Series II:  Academic Files

 

General

Box 3

English Drama

Box 3

English Literature Exams

Box 3

English Literature Syllabi

Box 3

English Teaching

 

Lectures

Box 3

Moby Dick

Box 3

Self-Reliance

Box 3

Whitman

Box 3

Speech Course

Box 3

Colgate University

Box 3

Harvard University

Box 3

Immaculate Heart College

Box 3

Loyola University of Los Angeles

Box 3

San Jose State College

Box 3

Santa Barbara City College (SBCC)

Box 3

Santa Barbara City Schools – Adult Education, ca. 1950s-1960

Box 3

University of California, Berkeley, Summer 1951

Box 3

University of California, Davis

 

University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB)

 

General

Box 3

Appointments

Box 3

Chancellors' Representatives for Undergraduate Scholarships (CRUS), 1963-1964

Box 3

Cheadle, Vernon I. (Chancellor)

Box 3

Chron. Files, 1947, 1951-1989

Box 3

College Bowl, 1963

Box 3

Commencement Speech: "The Theory of Books"

Box 3

Distinguished Teaching Award – Lecture: "Image and Illusion," 1978-1979

Box 3

Emeriti Affairs, ca. 1985-1991

Box 3

Frosh Camp, 1966-1967

Box 3

Graduate Affairs, ca. 1968-1971

Box 3

Honors and Scholarships, ca. 1968-1970

Box 3

Huttenback, Robert A. (Chancellor), ca. 1981-1989

Box 3

Regents Scholarship Program, ca. 1973-1986

Box 3

Research Applications – by LW, 1950s

Box 3

Residence Halls Association, ca. 1956

Box 3

Standards

Box 3

Youth Conferences, ca. 1956-1957

Box 4

American Literature Exams

Box 4

American Literature Syllabi

Box 4

English Courses: Eng. 1A-Eng. 265

 

English Department

Box 4

Comprehensive Exams

Box 4

Comprehensive Reading Lists

Box 4

Curriculum Committee, ca. 1950-1951

Box 4

Graduate Courses

Box 4

Graduate Matters – General

Box 4

Hand, George Edgar – Memorial, 1968

Box 4

Poetry Tests

Box 4

Robinson, Robert Elliott – Memorial, 1969

Box 5

Graduate Courses

Box 5

Graduate Matters

Box 5

University of Connecticut

Box 5

University of Delaware, mainly 1937-1939

Box 5

University of Tennessee, mainly 1941-1943

Box 5

University of Washington

Box 5

Uppsala

Box 5

Wesleyan University

Box 5

Yale University

 

Series III:  Professional and Other Organizations

Box 6

Modern Language Association of America, 1946, 1967, 1972

 

Phi Beta Kappa files – LW was founder of the UCSB chapter

Box 6

Associates

Box 6

Council [UCSB – Lambda Chapter of California], ca. 1970-1982

Box 6

Establishment of Chapter at UCSB, 1967

Box 6

Requirements for Election to Phi Beta Kappa

Box 6

Romanell – Phil Beta Kappa Lectures

Box 6

Triennial Council – United Chapters of Phi Beta Kappa, 1970-1988

Box 6

UCSB Commencement Programs [lacking some years] – with mention of Phi Beta Kappa, 1975-1995

Box 6

Miscellany

Box 6

Western College Association, ca. 1950s

 

Series IV:  Research / Author Files

Scope and Content Note

[Other than Thoreau]. Includes related course files; mainly clippings and articles.
Box 7

Faulkner, William

Box 7

Frost, Robert

Box 7

Glasgow, Ellen

Box 7

Hawthorne, Nathaniel

Box 7

Hemingway, Ernest

Box 7

Holmes, Oliver Wendell

Box 7

Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth

Box 7

Lowell, James Russell

Box 7

Melville, Herman

Box 7

Poe, Edgar Allen

Box 7

Pound, Ezra

Box 7

Powell, Lawrence Clark

Box 7

Santayana, George

Box 7

Selby, Hubert

Box 7

Shakespeare, William

Box 7

Twain, Mark

Box 8

Updike, John

Box 8

Veblen, Thorstein

Box 8

Wallant, Edward L.

Box 8

Welty, Eudora

Box 8

West, Nathaniel

Box 8

Wharton, Edith

Box 8

White, E. B.

Box 8

Whitman, Walt

Box 8

Whittier, John Greenleaf

Box 8

Williams, Tennessee

Box 8

Wodehouse, P. G.

Box 8

Wolfe, Thomas

 

Series V:  Thoreau Files

 

Thoreau – General

Box 8

Bibliography – Harvard

Box 8

Cape Cod

Box 8

Correspondence – incl. letters from other Thoreau scholars

Box 8

Harvard University

Box 8

Lectures on Thoreau – by LW

Box 8

Notes (by LW)

Box 8

Thoreau Edition – Walter Harding (State University College, Geneseo, NY), ca. 1967-1971

Box 8

The Thoreau Fellowship

Box 8

Thoreau Journal Quarterly

Box 8

Transcendentalism

Box 8

Transcendentalism Course

Box 8

Turkey Press (Harry and Sandra Reese) – printed ephemera

Box 8

Walking Project – Carolee Campbell, Ninja Press

Box 8

Wolf, Harriet

Box 8

Writings about Thoreau (by others) – incl. articles, dealers' catalogs, manuscript drafts of scholarly papers, publishers' notices, and other similar material

Box 8

The Writings of Henry D. Thoreau – Princeton University

Box 8

The Writings of Henry D. Thoreau – UCSB

Box 8

Miscellany – incl. Thoreau-themed greeting cards

 

Thoreau Society

Box 9

Booklets

Box 9

Bulletins

Box 9

The Concord Saunterer

Box 9

Correspondence

 

Series VI:  Writings

Scope and Content Note

[Writings by LW]
Box 9

Dissertation: The Influence of Early North American History and Legend on the Writings of Henry David Thoreau (Yale University, 1944)

 

Articles by Willson – mainly copies/offprints, a few typescript drafts

Box 9

"American Letters," Arts and Letters, [ca. 1982]

Box 9

"American Letters II," Arts and Letters, [ca. 1985]

Box 9

"American Philosopher," Arts and Letters, [ca. 1986]

Box 9

"Another View of the Pilgrims," New England Quarterly, June 1961

Box 9

"The 'Body Electric' Meets the Genteel Tradition," New Mexico Quarterly, Winter 1956-1957

Box 9

"Education and the American College," Educational Forum, Mar. 1957

Box 9

"The Gods of New England," Pacific Spectator, Spring 1955

Box 9

"The Great Reversal," Dalhousie Review, [1959-1960]

Box 9

"A Jollification of Jameses," Arts and Letters, [Fall 1992]

Box 9

"Ladies at the Escritoire: American Letters III," Arts and Letters, [ca. 1988]

Box 9

"Leftover Letters," Arts and Letters, [ca. 1986]

Box 9

"Man Thinking," typescript

Box 9

"The Puritan Tradition in American Literature," Arizona Quarterly, Spring 1957

Box 9

"The Question of Wilder," Arts and Letters, [ca. 1985]

Box 9

"The Scholar as Teacher," Journal of General Education, Jan. 1955

Box 9

"Shakespeare and the Genteel Tradition in America," New Mexico Quarterly, Spring 1956

Box 9

"Thoreau and New England's Weather," Weatherwise, June 1959

Box 9

"Thoreau: Defender of the Savage," Emerson Society Quarterly, No. 26 (I Quarter 1962)

Box 9

"Thoreau on Education," History of Education Quarterly, Mar. 1962

Box 9

"Thoreau: Student of Anthropology," American Anthropologist, Apr. 1959

Box 9

"Thoreau's Canadian Notebook," Huntington Library Quarterly, May 1959

Box 9

"Thoreau's Medical Vagaries," Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences, 1960

Box 9

"The Transcendentalist View of the West," Western Humanities Review, Spring 1960

Box 9

"Yankee Misanthrope," Arts and Letters, Summer 1992

Box 9

"Yet Another Note on Moby Dick," [1955-1956]

Box 9

Novel – untitled, unpublished

 

Reviews – of other authors' works

Box 9

Journal of Modern Literature – various reviews by LW

Box 10

Key Reporter – reviews by LW on various works, appearing in the Phi Beta Kappa serial; also review notes and related correspondence

Box 10

Koestler, Arthur – The Age of Longing, 1951

Box 10

Modern Language Quarterly

Box 10

Review Notes

Box 10

University of Missouri Press

Box 10

Miscellany – mainly on works about Thoreau, ca. 1965-1967

 

Series VII:  Oversize

Map Cabinet 19/11

Oversize Birthday Posters

 

Series VIII:  Audio / Visual

Tape No. A15284/CS

Audiocassette: L. Willson, Lobero (Theater, Santa Barbara), n.d.

Tape No. V3400/VHS

VHS cassette: "Lawrence Wilson: Self Reliance" Bicentennial Lecture (51.04 minutes)