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Finding Aid for the John Conley Papers, 1934-1993
569  
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Table of contents What's This?
  • Descriptive Summary
  • Administrative Information
  • Biography
  • Scope and Content
  • Organization and Arrangement
  • Indexing Terms

  • Descriptive Summary

    Title: John Conley Papers,
    Date (inclusive): 1934-1993
    Collection number: 569
    Creator: Conley, John, 1912 Jan. 2-
    Extent: 1 oversize box
    Repository: University of California, Los Angeles. Library. Department of Special Collections.
    Los Angeles, California 90095-1575
    Physical location: Stored off-site at SRLF. Advance notice is required for access to the collection. Please contact the UCLA Library, Department of Special Collections Reference Desk for paging information.
    Abstract: John Conley was a scholar, educator, short story writer, poet, and translator. He was a student of Yvor Winters and remained a lifelong friend of Winters and his wife, Janet Lewis. As a student at Stanford, he met and became the lifelong friend of J.V. Cunningham. In addition to carrying on a correspondence, Cunningham sent him many manuscripts (some 84 of them) of his poems and verse translations that are included among the papers. Additionally, at Stanford and also at Berkeley, Conley became acquainted with the scholar, poet, and novelist, Howard Baker (a large number of whose manuscripts are among the papers) and the poet, Lincoln Fitzell (a fair number of whose manuscripts, most of them signed, are also among the papers). Conley published fiction in a journal edited by Alan Swallow, two of whose letters are present.
    Language: English.

    Administrative Information

    Restrictions on Use and Reproduction

    Property rights to the physical object belong to the UCLA Library, Department of Special Collections. Literary rights, including copyright, are retained by the creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright and pursue the copyright owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC Regents do not hold the copyright.

    Restrictions on Access

    COLLECTION STORED OFF-SITE AT SRLF: Advance notice required for access.

    Additional Physical Form Available

    A copy of the original version of this online finding aid is available at the UCLA Department of Special Collections for in-house consultation and may be obtained for a fee. Please contact:
    • Public Services Division
    • UCLA Library, Department of Special Collections
    • Room A1713, Charles E. Young Research Library
    • Box 951575
    • Los Angeles, CA 90095-1575
    • Telephone: 310/825-4988 (10:00 a.m. - 4:45 p.m., Pacific Time)
    • Email: spec-coll@library.ucla.edu

    Preferred Citation

    [Identification of item], John Conley Papers (Collection 569). Department of Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.

    UCLA Catalog Record ID

    UCLA Catalog Record ID: 4435536 

    Biography

    John A. Conley was born January 2, 1912 and died November 4, 1999. Originally from Montana, he was educated at Berkeley (B.A. English, 1934) and Stanford (Ph.D. English, 1956). He taught at Stanford, Ohio State University, John Carroll University, Brandeis University, Queens College (New York City), University of California, Riverside, and University of Illinois at Chicago (where he was named professor emeritus in 1977). His specialties were Old English, Middle English, and Middle Scots. He was the author of The Middle English Pearl: Critical Essays (University of Notre Dame Press, 1970) and he co-authored The Mirror of Everyman's Salvation: A Prose Translation of the Original Everyman (Rodopi, 1985).

    Scope and Content

    John Conley was a scholar, educator, short story writer, poet, and translator. He was a student of Yvor Winters at Stanford and remained a lifelong friend of him and his wife, Janet Lewis. While at Stanford he met and became lifelong friends with J.V. Cunningham. In addition to carrying on a correspondence, Cunningham sent him many manuscripts (some 84 of them) of his poems and verse translations that are included among the papers. Additionally, at Stanford and also at Berkeley, Conley became acquainted with the scholar, poet, and novelist, Howard Baker (a large number of whose manuscripts are among the papers) and the poet, Lincoln Fitzell (a fair number of whose manuscripts, most of them signed, are also among the papers). Conley published fiction in a journal edited by Alan Swallow, two of whose letters are present.
    Portions of this collection are in German.

    Organization and Arrangement

    Arranged in the following series:
    1. J.V. Cunningham letters to John Conley (1939-1959).
    2. J.V. Cunningham letters to John Conley (1960-1984).
    3. J.V. Cunningham poetry manuscripts.
    4. J.V. Cunningham essays and miscellaneous.
    5. J.V. Cunningham miscellaneous.
    6. Letters to John Conley.
    7. Yvor Winters on The Gyroscope.
    8. Lincoln Fitzell poetry.
    9. Howard Baker poetry.
    10. Howard Baker prose.

    Indexing Terms

    The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.
    Conley, John, 1912 Jan. 2- --Archives.
    Baker, Howard, 1905- .
    Cunningham, J.V. (James Vincent), 1911- .
    Fitzell, Lincoln, 1903- .
    Lewis, Janet, 1899- .
    Winters, Yvor, 1900-1968.
    Scholars--United States--Archival resources.
    Scholars--United States--Correspondence.
    Poets--United States--Archival resources.
    Poets--United States--Correspondence.
    English language--Middle English--Study and teaching--Archival resources.