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Title: Kathleen Raine Papers,
Date (inclusive): ca. 1913-1986 (bulk 1950-1975)
Collection number: MS-L004
Creator:
Raine, Kathleen, 1908-
Extent:
15.6 linear feet (35 boxes)
Repository:
University of California, Irvine. Library. Special Collections and Archives.
Irvine, California 92623-9557
Shelf location: Stored offsite at SRLF. Forty-eight hours advance notice is required for access to the papers.
Abstract: The papers of Kathleen Raine, English poet and Blake and Yeats scholar, include journals, correspondence, photographs, draft
versions of poems, essays, reviews, critical work, and her published autobiographical trilogy. The majority of Raine's writings
in the collection focus on her careers as a poet and a literary critic. Other items reflect personal life, including family
photographs, personal photographs and journals describing her dreams and her interest in seances.
Language:
English.
Collection is open for research. Forty-eight hours advance notice is required for access because materials are stored offsite.
Property rights reside with the University of California. Literary rights are retained by the creators of the records and
their heirs. For permissions to reproduce or to publish, please contact the Head of Special Collections and Archives.
Kathleen Raine Papers. MS-L04. Special Collections and Archives, The UC Irvine Libraries, Irvine, California.
Acquired in ten accessions, ca. 1970 to 1986.
Minimally processed by Special Collections staff. Inventory edited by Laura Clark Brown in 1998. Finding aid edited by Lynette
J. Stoudt in 2001.
Kathleen Raine, a poet and literary scholar, was born on June 14, 1908 in London. She was
educated at County High School in Ilford and Girton College in Cambridge and received a
master's degree in natural sciences from Girton in 1929. Raine began her literary career
as a poet, publishing her first volume of poetry,
Stone and Flower: Poems 1935-43,in 1943. She later wrote extensively on both Yeats and Blake in works such as
Yeats, The Tarot, and The Golden Dawn (1973) and
From Blake to a
Vision
(1979), and she frequently reviewed books by other literary scholars. She
also wrote several autobiographical works, including
Farewell Happy Fields(1973),
The Land Unknown (1975) and
The Lion's Mouth(1977).
Raine was a research fellow at Girton College from 1955 to 1961, and in 1962 she was the
Andrew Mellon Lecturer at the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. She received
honorary doctorates from universities in the United Kingdom, France and the United States
and has won numerous awards and honors, including the Harriet Monroe Memorial Prize
(1952), Arts Council Award (1953), Oscar Blumenthal Prize (1961), the Smith Literary
Award (1972), and the Queen's Medal for Poetry (date unknown).
Raine married and later divorced Charles Madge with whom she had two children. She
resides in London as of 1998.
Collection Scope and Content Summary
The papers of Kathleen Raine, English poet and Blake and Yeats scholar, include journals,
correspondence, photographs, draft versions of poems, essays, reviews, critical work, and
her published autobiographical trilogy. Materials date from circa 1913 to 1986, with the
bulk of items dating from 1950 to 1975. The majority of Raine's writings in the
collection focus on her careers as a poet and a literary critic. Other items reflect
personal life, including family photographs, personal photographs and journals describing
her dreams and her interest in seances.
The collection is arranged in the order in which it was received from the vendor and is therefore
somewhat difficult to use. Materials in a single genre, from a particular period, and
even drafts of the same work may be spread throughout the collection.
Many of Raine's writings appear in holograph notebooks in which she wrote on disparate
topics. One convention she used was to fill an entire notebook on one side of the pages,
and then to turn the notebook upside down and to fill the reverse pages from the back.
The container list does not indicate in which direction of the notebook a researcher will
need to look for a specific poem or essay.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.
Raine, Kathleen, 1908- --Archives.
Blake, William, 1757-1827--Criticism and interpretation--Archival resources.
Yeats, W.B. (William Butler), 1865-1939--Criticism and interpretation--Archival resources.
Criticism--Archival resources.
English literature--History and criticism--Archival resources.
English poetry--20th century--Archival resources.
Diaries.
Photographic prints.
Poems.
Poets.
Literary critics.