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Wallace Stevens Oral History Collection: Finding Aid
mssHM 53675-54279
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Table of contents
Title: Wallace Stevens Oral History
Collection
Dates (inclusive): 1975-1985
Bulk dates: 1976-1978
Collection Number: mssHM 53675-54279
Creator:
Stevens, Wallace,
1879-1955.
Extent:
605 pieces in 26 boxes
Repository:
The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens.
Manuscripts Department
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, California 91108
Phone: (626) 405-2129
Email: reference@huntington.org
URL: http://www.huntington.org
Abstract: This collection contains oral history tapes, transcriptions, and
related correspondence created by English professor Peter A. Brazeau during his research for an oral history biography of
American poet Wallace Stevens (1879-1955).
Includes correspondence and interviews with Stevens' relatives, friends, neighbors,
employees, business colleagues, and literary associates.
Language: English.
Access Information
Open to qualified researchers by prior application through the Reader Services Department.
For more information, contact Reader Services.
The master cassettes and reel-to-reel tapes and original transcriptions do not circulate.
The Huntington Library does not require that researchers request permission to quote from
or publish images of this material, nor does it charge fees for such activities. The
responsibility for identifying the copyright holder, if there is one, and obtaining
necessary permissions rests with the researcher.
[Identification of item]. Wallace Stevens Oral History Collection, The Huntington
Library, San Marino, California.
Tapes and transcriptions acquired from J. R. Harrison (executor of Peter Brazeau's
estate) in June 1989. Correspondence acquired from Harrison in July 1990.
Wallace Stevens (1879-1955) was one of the foremost American poets of the first half of the
20th century. Born in Reading, Pennsylvania, Stevens retained an interest during his
lifetime in his native Berks County, Pennsylvania. His wife, Elsie Viola (Moll) Stevens,
came from Reading, and both Stevens and his wife devoted considerable time and energy
tracing their family ancestries (primarily in the 1940s).
Though Stevens refused to consider his life a dichotomy, his poetic activities were
accomplished while he was holding a full-time position as a legal advisor for the Hartford
Accident and Indemnity Company in Hartford, Connecticut, the firm for which he acted as
Vice-President from 1934 until his death in 1955.
Stevens began writing verse as a student at Harvard University and had a number of his
verses published in the
Harvard Advocate and the
Harvard Monthly
between 1898 and 1900. In 1908 and 1909, Stevens presented his future wife, Elsie
Viola Moll, with two little notebooks of poems (
A Book of Verses and
The Little June Book) which gathered together short poems Stevens had been
experimenting with since leaving Harvard. Between 1914 and 1923, Stevens submitted poems to
a number of journals, including
Poetry (edited by Harriet Monroe),
The
Dial
and
Others (edited by Alfred Kreymborg). In 1923, Stevens'
first book of poems,
Harmonium, was published. With
Harmonium,
he began a lifelong association with the publishing firm Alfred A. Knopf Inc. Stevens did,
however, offer the Cummington Press, a small fine press, three of his books:
Notes
Toward a Supreme Fiction
(1942),
Esthétique du Mal (1945), and
Three Academic Pieces (1947). The Alcestis Press, under the direction of
Ronald Lane Latimer, printed
Ideas of Order (1935) and
Owl's Clover
(1936).
Stevens was twice awarded the National Book Award: in 1950 for
The Auroras of Autumn
(1950) and in 1954 for
Collected Poems (1954). He was awarded the
Pulitzer Prize in 1955.
The 137 oral history tapes and 105 transcriptions, together with 363 pieces of
correspondence, that make up this collection were created by Peter A. Brazeau during the
course of his research for his oral history biography of Wallace Stevens:
Parts of a World: Wallace Stevens Remembered (New York: Random
House, 1983). Brazeau, a member of the English Department faculty of St. Joseph College,
wrote to and interviewed dozens of Stevens' relatives, friends, neighbors, employees,
business colleagues, and literary associates and acquaintances in order to elicit their
recollections about the poet.
While Brazeau mined the material fairly thoroughly, the mass of information was too great
for it all to be used in the book, and there yet remains a good deal of unused data.
Therefore, this collection is an excellent research tool for Stevens scholarship.
Researchers are advised to use Brazeau's
Parts of a World: Wallace
Stevens Remembered
as a reference source for the collection, to identify the
people whose interviews and correspondence are contained in the collection.
Note: In no instance will the master tapes or the originals of the transcriptions be provided for research.
Physical Description
There are three formats of material:
There are three formats of material:
1.
Tapes. Duplicate cassette tapes have been made from the
master tapes (which are in both cassette and reel-to-reel formats). A fairly substantial
number of the master tapes are of markedly inferior sound quality, and, while the copies are
no worse in quality, it has not been possible to improve or enhance the quality of the
copies. The most frequent problem is either very low volume or loud background noise, or a
combination of the two.
Researchers are cautioned that there is almost certainly some
duplication in the tapes for some individuals.
This is often due to Brazeau's
inconsistent practice of making a second master of a given interview (in either the same or
a different format), whose contents may or may not exactly match those of the first master.
In almost every instance, the task of exhaustively comparing the contents of two masters
proved too unwieldy and time-consuming and had to be abandoned; all that could be done was
to copy each master tape unless duplicate masters could be readily identified. Moreover,
Brazeau would group interviews on tapes in the most economical manner possible, and these
would not be grouped similarly for duplicate master tapes, e.g., groups of interviews on a
reel-to-reel tape would not then be retained as a group on Brazeau's own second (cassette)
master but would be dispersed to several cassette tapes. This made the identification of
duplicate interviews especially difficult. A third difficulty was Brazeau's frequent habit
of beginning an interview too early on the tape (with far too little leader tape) or with
the volume initially too low, so that his verbal identification of the interviewee and date
of the interview are unintelligible. In short, the tapes were made, not by a professional
oral historian, but by a Stevens scholar who used the craft as a means to pursue his own
research, so the quality of recordings is highly uneven.
2.
Transcriptions. The transcriptions have been xeroxed, and the
xeroxes will be used for research purposes. Both the originals and the xeroxes are difficult
to read, for Brazeau wrote the transcriptions by hand, often in pencil. Moreover,
his transcriptions are not complete but are selective; he omitted
segments that were not of interest for his own research.
3.
Correspondence. The correspondence consists of originals,
most in good condition.
Index of individuals represented
Additional Note
This is a complete list of the people represented in the collection. Each individual's name is followed by columns in which
appear call number(s) for his/her tape(s), transcription(s), and correspondence.
For each individual listed, there will be one or more items in any one or two formats, or in all three (in some cases there
may be nothing in a designated format for that individual).
- Cassette tapes (copies): HM 53675-53811
- Transcriptions (copies): HM 53812-53916
- Correspondence: HM 53917-54279
- Adams, Leonie Fuller HM 53813, HM 53759-53761, HM 54239-40
- Aiken, Mary Augusta (Hoover) HM 53814, HM 53680, HM 53917-8
- Akselhjelm, [?] HM 53919
- American Literature HM 53920
- Anderson, Gwendolyn Gardner HM 53815, HM 53773
- Anderson, Hale HM 53816, HM 53683, 53806, 53808
- Artworks Gallery HM 53933
- Avery, Mrs. Milton HM 53682
- Barter, Mr. and Mrs. John HM 53817, HM 53693-53694
- Barzun, Jacques Martin HM 53921
- Bate, Walter Jackson HM 53922
- Bauer, W. Walt HM 53923
- Beach, Charles HM 53818, HM 53741-53742
- Beecher, Mr. and Mrs. Robert HM 53819, HM 53684
- Berger, Arthur Asa HM 53820, HM 53685, HM 53924
- Berkman, Florence HM 53821, HM 53704
- Bissell, Richard Pike HM 53703
- Bissell, William HM 53822, HM 53742
- Blume, Peter HM 53925
- Boroff, Marie HM 53926
- Brazeau, Peter Alden (misc. notes) HM 54279
- Brinnin, John Malcolm HM 53803, HM 53927-8
- Brock, Marianne HM 53823, HM 53707
- Brooks, Cleanth HM 53824, HM 53731, HM 53929
- Brooks, Ernest HM 53930
- Brown, Ernest Francis HM 53931
- Brown, Lynn HM 53753
- Buchsbaum, Betty HM 53932
- Burdge, Clifford HM 53825, HM 53687
- Burns, Mrs. Charles HM 53686
- Buttel, Robert William HM 53934-6
- Buzzell, Dorothy HM 53937
- Cameron, Kenneth Walter HM 53938
- Carlsen, Robin Woodsworth HM 53939
- Carrier, Constance V. HM 53940-6
- Carruth, Hayden HM 53947
- Cason, Mrs. Frederick HM 53826, HM 53715
- Cassian, Father HM 53810
- Castro, Robert Clayton HM 53948
- Causley, Charles Stanley HM 53949
- Chickering, Elizabeth Ann (Halloran) HM 53827, HM 53710, 53731
- Chickering, Howell D. HM 53950
- Cleary, John HM 53804
- Cole, Thomas HM 53951-2
- Cole, William Rossa HM 53828, HM 53688, HM 53953
- Corn, Naaman HM 53829, HM 53780-53781
- Cowie, E. A. HM 53830, HM 53743
- Cowley, Malcolm HM 53954
- Creeley, Robert White HM 53955
- Crile, Helga Sandburg HM 54278
- Crocket, John HM 53689-53690, HM 53956
- Cross, Richard W. HM 53831, HM 53688, 53807, HM 53957
- Cunningham, Charles Crehore HM 53832, HM 53768, HM 53958
- Curry, Mary HM 53778
- Daugherty, Lillian (Mrs. Ivan, Jr.) HM 53795, 53798
- Deutsch, Babette HM 53959
- DeVore, Robert HM 53833, HM 53692
- DeVore, Robert and Mrs. DeVore HM 53833, HM 53702
- Diamond, Edwin HM 53960
- Doggett, Frank and Dorothy (Emerson) HM 53834, HM 53723, HM 53961-74
- Dow, Paul A. HM 53835, HM 53705, 53742, 53743, HM 53975-6
- Dow, Paul A. and Mrs. Dow HM 53783
- Duncan, Harry HM 53979
- Earle, Sophie (Sigmans) HM 53836, HM 53698, 53765, 53775
- Eberhart, Betty HM 53837, HM 53697
- Eberhart, Richard HM 53837, HM 53695-53697, HM 53980-90
- Engley, Donald Brown HM 53838, HM 53699, HM 53991
- [?], Eulalia HM 54277
- Faber and Faber, Inc. HM 53993-5
- Fadiman, Clifton Paul HM 53992
- Fenn, Francis T. HM 53839, HM 53702, HM 53996
- Fitzgerald, Penny HM 53703
- Fitzgerald, Robert Stuart HM 53997
- Flaxman, Bernard HM 53843, HM 53698, 53704, 53808
- Fletcher, A. J. HM 53840, HM 53705-53706, HM 53998-54000
- Flynn, Anna HM 53841, HM 53749
- Ford, Martha HM 54237
- Ford, William T. HM 54001
- Foulke, Adrienne HM 54002
- Fountain, Gary HM 54003
- Francis, Robert Churchill HM 54004-5
- Frazier, J. HM 53842, HM 53706
- Gallup, Donald Clifford HM 54006
- Gay, James HM 53844, HM 53704
- Gay, John Curry HM 53845, HM 53784
- Gerlach, Kathryn (Mrs. Gerhard) HM 53792, 53799, HM 54007
- Giamatti, Angelo Bartlett HM 54008-10
- Gilmore, John HM 53846, HM 53714
- Gioia, Michael Dana HM 54011-22
- Goldstein, Elliott HM 53847, HM 53708
- Goodenough, Cynthia (Goss) HM 54023
- Green, Elizabeth Alden HM 53848, HM 53707, 53720, HM 54024-6
- Gregor, Arthur HM 54027
- Gregory, Horace Victor HM 54028-9
- Grobe, Newton HM 54030
- Gruen, Jane (Wilson) HM 53849, HM 53709-53710
- Gruen, John HM 53849, HM 53709-53710, HM 54031-3
- Guild of Book Workers HM 54034
- Halloran, Robert HM 53850, HM 53710
- Halpern, Daniel HM 54035
- Hammer, Carolyn P. HM 54036
- Hanley, Rev. Arthur P. HM 53851, HM 53693, HM 54037-9
- Hanley, Frank HM 53852, HM 53800, 53803-53804
- Hanna, Alfred Jackson HM 54040
- Harper, Robert HM 54041
- Harris, Leonard HM 53853, HM 53676, 53784-53785
- Harvard University Library HM 54042-3
- Hatch, Benton C. HM 54082
- Haven, Richard HM 53752
- Heard, Manning HM 53854, HM 53677-53679, 53714
- Heller, Alfred HM 54044
- Hendrick, George HM 54045
- Heringman, Bernard HM 53855, HM 53761-53762, HM 54046-50
- Hill, Russell HM 53806
- Hohmann, J. Tansley HM 53856, HM 53711, HM 53742, HM 53765
- Hollander, John HM 53848, HM 54051
- Horner, Joyce HM 53848, HM 53707, 53720
- Howes, Barbara HM 54052-5
- Hullett, James C. HM 54056
- Hullett, Mrs. James C. HM 54057
- Iles, Mrs. L. D. HM 53715, HM 54058
- Ingalls, Jeremy HM 54059
- Jarrell, Mary (von Schrader) HM 53857, HM 53681, HM 54060-1
- Jhopin(?), Karl HM 54276
- John Ryland Library HM 54161
- Johnston, Coy HM 53858, HM 53707-53708
- Johnston, Mrs. Coy HM 53707
- Johnston, Gladys HM 54169
- Jones, Frank William HM 53859, HM 53712, 53797, HM 54062-3
- Kain, Sister Mary of God HM 54064
- Kearney, Frank HM 53860, HM 53713, 53721
- Kennure, Mary HM 53861, HM 53800
- Kinnell, Galway HM 54071
- Knight, John HM 54065
- Knopf, Alfred A. HM 54066-8
- Korschgen, Sandy HM 54069
- Kuhnly, Hazel HM 53862, HM 43736
- Kunstler, William Moses HM 54070
- Ladish, John E. HM 53863, HM 53711, 53714, 53738-53739, 53776
- Langton, Stephen HM 53864, HM 53769, 53772, 53773
- Laughlin, James HM 54072-3
- Lawrence, Seymour HM 53865, HM 53762-53763, HM 54074
- Laws, Arthur HM 53866, HM 53732
- Ledbetter, John HM 53867, HM 53708
- Lee, Peter Hacksoo HM 53868, HM 53715, HM 54075
- Lensing, George HM 54076
- Levin, Harry Tuchman HM 53869, HM 53716, HM 54077
- Lichtenstein, Stanley HM 53718
- Lukens, John HM 53719
- McCormick, Elva HM 53698, 53765
- McGee, Alan HM 53870, HM 53720
- McKenna, Rollie HM 53871, HM 53685
- McNally, Peter HM 53787
- McPhee, Josephine HM 53872, HM 53721
- Mack, Maynard HM 54078
- Macleish, Archibald HM 54079
- MacLeod, Glen HM 54080
- Martz, Louis Lohr HM 53873, HM 53722, HM 54081
- Matisse, Maria-Gaetana HM 54084
- Matisse, Pierre HM 54083
- Maule, Robert HM 53874, HM 53686, 53725
- May, Lillian M. HM 54085
- May, Philip HM 53723
- Mengel, Elias HM 53681-53682
- Minton, Helen Church HM 53875, HM 53794, 53801
- Mitchell, Stephen HM 53724, 53732
- Moher, James HM 53876, HM 53741
- Moore, Frederick W. HM 53877, HM 53685, 53687, 53725,, HM 54086-7
- Morgan, Frederick HM 53878, HM 53788-53791, 53793 53809, 53810
- Morgan, Marian HM 53780
- Morrison, Theodore HM 54088
- Morse, Samuel French and Morse, Jane (Crowell) HM 53879, HM 53726-53727, 53803, HM 54089-54110
- Murdock, Eleanor (Eckhart) McLaughlin HM 54111
- Myers, John Bernard HM 53880, HM 53771, HM 54112-3
- National Gallery of Ireland HM 54114
- Nemerov, Howard Stanley HM 54115
- The New Republic HM 54116
- Newton, Louie HM 53881, HM 53712, 53724
- O'Brien, Gael M. HM 54117-8
- O'Connor, Mary (Allen) HM 54119
- O'Dowd, Charles HM 53882, HM 53679, 53728-53729
- O'Loughlin, John HM 53883, HM 53675
- Olson, Elder James HM 53884, HM 53759, HM 54120-2
- Osborn, Robert Chesley and Osborn, Elodie (Courter) HM 54123
- Pack, Robert HM 54124
- Palmer, Michael HM 54125
- Parini, Jay Lee HM 54126
- Park, Arthur HM 53764, HM 54127
- Parker, T. H. HM 54128
- Patke, Rajeev Shridhar HM 54129
- Pearce, Roy Harvey HM 54130
- Pia, Adele HM 53885, HM 53729
- Pieraccini, Roland HM 54194
- Polley, Arthur HM 53886, HM 53730-53731
- Posey, Addison Cecil HM 54131-2
- Powell, Esther HM 53887, HM 53732, HM 54133
- Power, Mr. and Mrs. Joseph C. HM 53888, HM 53732, HM 54134
- Powers, James C. HM 54135
- Powers, Margaret (Carhart) HM 53889, HM 53733, HM 54136-45
- Prentiss, Robert HM 54146
- Radcliffe College, Office of Development and Alumnae Affairs HM 54147
- Ramke, Bin HM 54148-50
- Rankin, James HM 53890
- Regnier, [?] HM 53802, 53805
- Reik, James HM 53804, 53805
- Reis, Rebecca HM 54151
- Renill, James HM 54152
- Reyher, Rebecca HM 53798-53799, HM 54153
- Richardson, Joan HM 54154
- Rodman, Selden HM 54155
- Rodriguez Feo, Jose HM 53891, HM 53734, HM 54156-7
- Roesch, Kurt HM 53892, HM 53735-53736, HM 54158
- Rogers, John HM 53893, HM 53737-53738
- Rueckert, Betty (Ehlers) HM 54159
- Ryan, Elizabeth HM 54160
- Sabersky, Jane HM 54162
- Saint Mary's College, College Archivist HM 54163
- Saintonge, Jane HM 54164
- Saintonge, Paul & Constance HM 53894, HM 53807
- Salomon, Isidore Lawrence and Salomon, Frances (Slobodin) HM 53699-53701, HM 54165-8, 54170-93, 54295-7
- Sanders, Mrs. Leroy HM 53745
- Sandy, Stephen Merrill HM 54198
- Sauer, Eleanor (Stevens) HM 53895, HM 53740, 53750, HM 54199
- Sauer, John C. HM 53896, HM 53740-53741, HM 54200-1
- Schoen, Herbert HM 53897, HM 53743, 53748-53749
- Schreibman, Susan HM 54202
- Schulman, Grace HM 54203
- Schwartz, Anna HM 53744, 53807, 53809
- Scotts, Earl K. HM 54204
- Seasongood, Murray HM 54205-9
- Sesnick, Anthony and Sesnick, Mary Catherine (Stevens) HM 53898, HM 53750, 53751, HM 54210
- Sesnick, Joan M. HM 53899, HM 53749, 53751, HM 54211-4
- Sharfman, Etta HM 53701
- Shattuck, Virginia Grigsby Chandler Peabody HM 54215
- Shaw, A. Park HM 53900, HM 54216
- Sigmans, Anthony P. HM 53836, 53901, HM 53704, 53775, 53796-53797, 53811, HM 54217
- Snow, Charles Wilbert HM 54218-20
- Snow, Elizabeth HM 54221
- Soby, James Thrall HM 53902, HM 53774
- "Southern Folks" HM 53757-53758
- Southern Illinois University, Special Coll. HM 54222
- Stanford, Donald Elwin HM 53682, HM 54223-5
- Stevens, Anna May HM 53903, HM 53745-53746
- Stevens, John B. HM 54226
- Sullivan, Florrie HM 53904, HM 53800, 53801
- Sunbury, Richard E. HM 53905, HM 53678, HM 53711, HM 53766-53767, HM 53777, HM 54229
- Sweeney, James Johnson HM 53906, HM 53717
- Sweeney, John L. HM 54230-1
- Sylvester, Milli HM 53907, HM 53684, HM 53691
- Tate, Allen John Orley HM 54232-3
- Taylor, Wilson E. HM 53908, HM 53747, HM 54234
- Thompson, Robert Harris HM 54235
- Tindall, Mr. and Mrs. Wm. York HM 53748, 53763, HM 54236
- Trilling, Diana HM 54238
- Tucker, Leslie F. HM 53687, 53770, HM 54241-4
- Tucker, Robert Gerland HM 53752, HM 54245-6
- University of Dublin HM 53977-8
- Untermeyer, Louis HM 54247
- Vail, Hazel HM 53909, HM 53753, HM 54248
- Vance, Will HM 53911, HM 53771
- Van Doren, Dorothy HM 54249
- Van Raalte, Arlene (Mullen) HM 53910, HM 53786, 53787
- Vazakas, Byron HM 53912, HM 53778-53779, HM 54250-2
- Wade, Jane HM 54253
- Wallace Stevens Society. Journal. HM 54227-8
- Warren, Robert Penn HM 54254
- Weeks, Edward Augustus HM 53913, HM 53763, HM 54255
- Weicker, Lowell Palmer HM 54256
- Weiss, Paul HM 53914, HM 53754-53755, HM 54257-60 54275
- Weiss, Theodore Russell HM 54261-2
- Wescott, Glenway HM 53713
- Wheeler, Monroe HM 53713
- Wilbur, Richard Purdy HM 53782, HM 54263-5
- Wilder, Isabel HM 53791-53792, HM 54266-7
- Wilkins, Richard HM 53682
- Williams, Harry HM 53915, HM 53705
- Williams, William Eric HM 54268
- Wilson, Jane (McFarland) HM 53916, HM 53756, HM 54269-74
- Zaturenska, Marya HM 54029
Boxes 1-4: Cassette tapes (copies).
Boxes 5-8: Transcriptions (copies).
Boxes 9-15: Correspondence.
Boxes 16-19: Transcriptions (masters -- not to be circulated).
Boxes 20-26: Cassette and reel-to-reel tapes (masters -- not to be circulated).
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the
Huntington Library's Online Catalog.
Stevens, Wallace, 1879-1955.
Poets, American -- 20th century -- Archives.
Audiocassettes United States 20th century.
Letters (correspondence) United States 20th century.
Brazeau, Peter.
Knopf, Alfred A., 1892-1984.
MacLeish, Archibald, 1892-1982.
Rodríguez Feo, José.
Tate, Allen, 1899-1979.