Correspondence between Walter Clark, Jr. and John Ridland, 1953-2019, bulk 1953-2008

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Summary

Title:
Correspondence between Walter Clark, Jr. and John Ridland
Dates:
1953-2019, bulk 1953-2008
Creators:
Clark, Walter, 1931-2008, Ridland, John, and Clark, Francelia Mason, 1938-
Abstract:
This collection consists of correspondence between poets Walter Clark, Jr. (University of Michigan, Ann Arbor) and John Ridland (University of California, Santa Barbara), dating from 1953-2008.
Extent:
0.83 linear feet (2 document boxes)
Language:
English and The collection is in English.
Preferred citation:

[Identification of Item], Correspondence between Walter Clark, Jr. and John Ridland, Mss 376. Department of Special Research Collections, UC Santa Barbara Library, University of California, Santa Barbara.

Background

Scope and content:

This collection consists of correspondence between poets Walter Clark, Jr. (University of Michigan, Ann Arbor) and John Ridland (University of California, Santa Barbara).

Both attended Swarthmore College, where they met in 1953. After graduation, Clark and Ridland maintained a lifelong correspondence. Collected and arranged into volumes by date, the letters trace events in the personal lives of Clark and Ridland, their friendship, their development as poets and educators, and above all, their ideas about both the craft and teaching of poetry. The letters include poems by Clark and Ridland.

Correspondence continued until 2008, the year of Clark's death. The correspondence was meticulously arranged into volumes (by date) by Francelia Clark, Clark's widow, and John Ridland. This arrangement has been preserved. The collection also contains a folder of correspondence between John Ridland and Francelia Clark, dating from 2011 to 2019.

Biographical / historical:

Walter Houston Clark, Jr. (1931-2008) was born in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. Clark received his bachelor's degree from Swarthmore and a PhD in philosophy and education from Harvard. Clark taught at the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor) from 1965 until his retirement 28 years later. Clark published one book of poetry, View from Mount Paugus and Other Poems (Abattoir Editions, 1976), and published many of his poems in literary journals and magazines. Clark's wife, Francelia Clark, arranged a posthumous volume Like a Bird Flying Home: Poetry and Letters to his Daughter from New Hampshire (Bauhan Publishing, 2013). Clark founded the New England Literature Program (NELP) in 1975, which he co-directed until 1991. Walter Clark Jr. obituary. 2008. The University Record Online, http://www.ur.umich.edu/0708/Jun09_08/obits.php. Accessed on 4 September, 2019.

John Ridland (1933-2020) was born in London and grew up in California. He earned his PhD from Claremont Graduate School and published numerous books and chapbooks, including Ode on Violence (1969), In the Shadowless Light (1978), Palms: Six Ballads (1993), A Brahms Card Ballad (2007), Happy in an Ordinary Thing (2013), and A. Lincolniad: An Epic Poem Honoring the Memory of President Abraham Lincoln (2014), among many others. With his wife Muriel he wrote And Say What He Is: The Life of a Special Child (1975). Ridland was also a translator and published translations of the Middle English poems Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and Pearl as well as books of selected poems of the Hungarian poets Sándor Márai and Miklós Radnóti and many others here and in Hungary. Ridland published a verse translation of the Hungarian folk epic John the Valiant (Corvina Press, 1999). In 2010, Ridland was recognized with the Balassi Sword Award for his translations of Hungarian literature. Ridland received a gold medal from the Arpad Society of Cleveland Ohio. He taught for over forty years at the University of California Santa Barbara and served as a professor emeritus of the college.

Acquisition information:
Gift of Francelia Clark and John Ridland, 2019.
Processing information:

Correspondence arranged by Francelia Clark and John Ridland, 2018-2019.

Physical location:
Special Research Collections, UC Santa Barbara Library
Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

About this collection guide

Collection Guide Author:
Finding aid prepared by Zachary Liebhaber, 2019.
Date Encoded:
This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2019-12-03 11:23:45 -0800 .

Access and use

Restrictions:

The collection is open for research.

Terms of access:

Copyright has not been assigned to the Department of Special Research Collections, UCSB. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Head of Special Research Collections. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the Department of Special Research 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:

[Identification of Item], Correspondence between Walter Clark, Jr. and John Ridland, Mss 376. Department of Special Research Collections, UC Santa Barbara Library, University of California, Santa Barbara.

Location of this collection:
UC Santa Barbara Library
Santa Barbara, CA 93106-9010, US
Contact:
(805) 893-3062
special@library.ucsb.edu
Website