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Table of contents What's This?

box 1-8

Series 1: Poetry 1920-2004

Scope and Contents

Box 1: Individual Poems and Adair's lists 1930s - 1970s; poetry notebooks Box 2: Individual Poems and Lists 1980s - 2000s (incl. Adair's lists for poetry readings) Box 3: Poems in File Folders arranged alphabetically by subject, from "Aging" to "Zen" Box 4: Poems Collected into Subject Binders (arranged alphabetically by title) A-E Box 5: Poems Collected into Subject Binders (arranged alphabetically by title) F - N Box 6: Poems Collected into Subject Binders (arranged alphabetically by title) O - Z Box 7: Poems Collected as Proposed Book Manuscripts, Unpublished Box 8: Poems by Monthly Output 1995 - 2001;haiku notebook handwritten during Christmas/NewYear's 1986-1987
box 1

Individual poems, Adair's lists, and poetry notebooks 1930s-1970s

box 2

Individual Poems and Lists (incl. Adair's lists for poetry reading) 1980s- 2000s

box 3

Poems in File Folder Arranged Alphabetically by Subject , From "Aging" to "Zen"

box 4

Poems Collected into Subject Binders (arranged alphabetically by title) A-E

box 5/6

Poems Collected into Subject Binders (arranged alphabetically by title) F-N

box 5/6

Poems Collected into Subject Binders (arranged alphabetically by title) O-Z

box 7

Poems Collected as Proposed Book Manuscripts, Unpublished

box 8

Poems by Monthly Output 1995-2001 1986- 1987, 1995- 2001

box 9

Series 2: Prose Writings 1920-2004

Scope and Contents

Box 9: Adair's prose works such as plays, short stories, and essays; non-fiction autobiographies, book reviews, etc. Of special interest is a notebook ["Visions"] prepared for submission along with a letter to Oliver Sacks containing prose descriptions of recurring "visions" or "apparitions" during waking hours. These visions included human figures, buildings, objects, etc. that were like a movie on a screen inside her eyes. Often they would reappear after a hiatus, and she would welcome them as familiar totems. The notebook also contains a poem titled "Blindsight."
box 10

Series 3: Artworks 1920-1921

Scope and Contents

Box 10: drawings, a calendar handwritten and illustrated by Virginia Hamilton Adair, handmade paper dolls in 1920s fashion, two hand-colored block prints created at Williamsburg as small posters with colonial-era admonitions to children for church and table etiquette; a handmade flip-book for children, featuring drawings of animals and people, with poems, cut into four strips to mix-and-match.
box 11-16

Series 4: Personal Papers 1920-2004

Scope and Contents

The series includes Adair's daily notes, biographical materials, personal and business correspondence, family miscellany, and writings by others, and publications and clippings about others.
box 11

VHA's typed daily notes, including instructions to helpers, random thoughts, ideas for poems and actual poems; autobiographical details, and musings 1994- 2002

box 12

Biographical material such as helpers' logbook pages; calendars showing events, appointments, topics of discussion, etc. re VHA 1996- 2004; lists of addresses; obituary notes, etc.

box 13

Personal correspondence to and from friends and family; fan letters, etc., arranged alphabetically by name

box 13A

Personal correspondence to and from friends and family; fan letters, etc., arranged alphabetically by name

box 13B

Personal correspondence to and from friends and family; fan letters, etc., arranged alphabetically by name

box 13C

Personal correspondence to and from friends and family; fan letters, etc., arranged alphabetically by name

box 13D

Personal correspondence to and from friends and family; fan letters, etc., arranged alphabetically by name

box 13E

Personal correspondence to and from friends and family; fan letters, etc., arranged alphabetically by name

box 13F

Personal correspondence to and from friends and family; fan letters, etc., arranged alphabetically by name

box 14

Business correspondence, permissions, contracts, translations, etc.; lists of poems for public readings, etc.

box 15

Family miscellany, honor, certificates; books, travel journals and sketches; photographs

Scope and Contents

Includes Elena DeLaurentiis' Americane in Collegio (American Girls in College) translated from the Italian original, with chapters devoted to particular classmates, among them "Ariel" who represented Virginia Hamilton.
box 16

Adair's saved poems and collections of her "fortnightly poetry group" friends and others, such as family members; prose writings of friends; publications and clippings of/about people and subjects that interested Adair, such as Billy Collins, Harvey Shapiro, Poetry and Writing, Religion, etc.

box 17-21/22

Series 5: Publications 1930-2000

Scope and Contents

This series is of publications that contain Adair's poems, which she collected from her college days, up till the year of her death; newspaper clippings about Adair, including obituaries; copies of The New York Times and The New York Times Book Review with her Millennium poem, and files on her books.
box 17

Publications containing poetry 1930s- 1971

box 18

Publications containing poetry 1972- 1981

box 19

Publications containing later poetry, book reviews, interviews 1990s- 2000s

box 20/21, box 21/22

Books - Ants on the Melon, Beliefs and Blasphemies, and Living on Fire

Scope and Contents

The file includes pre-publication material, stages, and publisher's "dead matter."
box 23

Series 6: Recordings

Scope and Contents

This series consists of cassette recordings and videos of Adair interviews and poetry readings. Of special interest are some examples from "The Writer's Almanac" program on PBS, which aired some of her poems.
box 23

Video and audio recordings of Adair's books, musical settings, interviews, etc. Audio cassette recordings of Adair's favorite music, poetry readings, etc.

box 24

Series 7: Realia

Scope and Contents

Collected here are Adair's Olympia typewriter, her large-print New Testament; a writing template for the vision-impaired; other objects.
box 24

Adair's large-print New Testament; a writing template for the vision-impaired; other objects

 

Adair's Olympia typewriter

box 25

Series 8: Photographs