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Guide to the Clayton Stafford Papers,
1911-1981
Special Collections M434
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Table of contents
Title: Clayton Stafford Papers,
Date (inclusive): 1911-1981
Collection number: Special Collections M434
Creator: Stafford, Clayton
Extent:
1.25 linear ft.
Repository:
Stanford University. Libraries. Dept. of Special Collections and University Archives.
Language:
English.
None.
Property rights reside with the repository. Literary rights reside with the creators of the documents or their heirs. To obtain
permission to publish or reproduce, please contact the Public Services Librarian of the Dept. of Special Collections.
Gift of Mrs. Clayton Stafford, 1985 and 1986.
[Identification of item] Clayton Stafford Papers, M434, Dept. of Special Collections, Stanford University Libraries, Stanford,
Calif.
Clayton I. Stafford was born September 17, 1903 in Albany, New York and died in June of 1981 in Los Altos, California. He
studied engineering in college and, after a brief tour in the Navy in the 1920s, joined the Pacific Company in 1930. He served
in WWII in the Army from 1942 to 1946 working on radio research and development. During his life Stafford lived mainly in
the San Francisco area and was married three times to Jean Adams, Adelaide Fairbanks Ellsworth, and Ruth Homer . His last
wife, Ruth, survived him, and is responsible for the selection and donation of the collection, as well as the many notes throughout.
Clayton Stafford is primarily remembered as a writer and poet from the 1950s and 1960s. He published several works in periodicals
and a book of poetry, The Swan and the Eagle, in 1968 (collection includes TMS). He was a close friend and contemporary of
such notable writers as Howard Baker, J.V. Cunningham, Janet Lewis, and Yvor Winters. The collection includes some of Stafford's
correspondence, as well as works by these and other writers. Stafford was also an avid book collector, gardener, and researcher
and kept many notebooks on these subjects, which are included in the collection. Stafford's autobiography, Fragments of an
Autobiography, was published posthumously in 1983 (collection includes TMS).
Poems, an unfinished novela, an autobiography, and notes by Clayton Stafford. Poems by and correspondence with Howard Baker,
J.V. Cunningham, Barbara Gibbs, Francis Golffing, Janet Lewis, Henry Ramsey, Ann Stanford, and Yvor Winters.