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Finding Aid to the C. Grant Loomis Papers, 1927-1962
BANC MSS C-B 911  
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Series 1 Correspondence 1927-1962

Creator/Collector: Loomis, Charles Grant
Physical Description: box 1 10.4 linear feet
Physical Location: Many of the Bancroft Library collections are stored offsite and advance notice may be required for use. For current information on the location of these materials, please consult the library's online catalog.
Language of Material: English

Biography/Organization History

C. Grant Loomis, professor and former chairman of the Department of German, Berkeley, was born at Worcester, Massachusetts, on January 21, 1901, took his A.B. at Hamilton College in 1923, and then taught in high schools for a few years in the vicinity of New York City. An important turning point in his life was the two years, 1926-28, which he spent at the University of Munich. Here he came under the influence of the late Max Foerster, distinguished Old English philologist, and this seems to have been the experience which determined him to embark on an academic career. Upon his return to this country he went to Harvard to pursue graduate studies in English, taking the M.A. in 1929 and the Ph.D. in 1933, with a dissertation on Old English saints' lives written under the direction of George Lyman Kittredge. He commenced his teaching in the German field concurrently with his graduate work, becoming instructor in German at Tufts College in Medford, Massachusetts, in 1930, where he remained until 1937. He then returned to Harvard as an instructor in the Department of German and as a tutor in the Division of Modern Languages. In 1941 he was called to an assistant professorship in the Department of German, Berkeley. He was promoted to associate professor in 1947 and professor in 1953, acting as chairman of his department from 1957 to 1962. He held a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1945-46. He died suddenly on March 22, 1963. His career was noteworthy for service to the profession. He spent the year 1952-53 as Associate Secretary of the Modern Language Association in New York, taking an active part in the organizing of a newly founded program for the teaching of the modern foreign languages. He served on the council of the Association from 1951 to 1955 and had been elected its vice-president for 1963. He was a member of the Medieval Academy, the American Folklore Society, and the California Folklore Society, and held official positions in all of them. He gave much energy and thought to his editorship of Western Folklore in the years after 1949. He was the president of the Philological Association of the Pacific Coast for 1958.
The activities of Professor Loomis as teacher and scholar show great variety. In addition to his interest in the teaching of elementary German, he contributed to instruction at a higher level by a large body of translations of materials for courses in German literature of the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries, which have been an indispensable aid in courses in German literature in translation given by the department. His interest in saints' legends continued through many years, and after the publication of various articles culminated in White Magic (Cambridge, Mass., 1951), a survey of a vast field and has proved to be a useful guide for medievalists generally. In the Department of German he taught courses in seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth-century literature and thus showed a competence of unusual range. Folklore was close to his heart. During a long course of years he published critical articles and collections of materials concerned with American aphoristic sayings of various kinds, puns, riddles, and Wellerisms. Perhaps the largest of the collections was an excerpting of proverbs used by William McLeod Raines, a noted author of westerns. He intended to assemble his studies and historical account of these neglected expressions of the folk mind. His intimate knowledge of the materials, his large collections, and his ripe critical judgment would have enabled him to write a significant study in a neglected field.

Arrangement

Alphabetical

Scope and Content Note

Consists of correspondence between C.G. Loomis and colleagues, friends and fellow faculty
The C. Grant Loomis papers were given to The Bancroft Library by Virginia G. Loomis on December 19, 1963.

Access Information

Collection is open for research.

Indexing Terms

University of California, Berkeley. Dept. of German -- Faculty.
Linguistics.
Faculty papers.

box 1, folder 1

A-D miscellaneous

box 1, folder 2

American Folklore Society

box 1, folder 3

American Name Society

box 1, folder 4

Bishop, Morris

box 1, folder 5

Brown, Fritz

box 1, folder 6

Bunting, Virginia

box 1, folder 7

Burgess, Grace E.

box 1, folder 8

Calif. University Librarian

box 1, folder 9

Constance, Lincoln

box 1, folder 10

Culver, Kenneth & Lillian

box 1, folder 11

Day, Cy

box 1, folder 12

de la Harpe, Josephine E.

box 1, folder 13

E-L misc.

box 1, folder 14

Ferry, Frederick

box 1, folder 15

Forster, Max

box 1, folder 16

Freeman, Stephen A.

box 1, folder 17

Fruge, August

box 1, folder 18

Hand, Wayland D.

box 1, folder 19

Haynes, Robert H.

box 1, folder 20

Hesse, Ninon (Mrs. Hermann Hesse)

box 1, folder 21

Hicks, John D.

box 1, folder 22

Ibbotson, Joseph D.

box 1, folder 23

Jameson, R.D.

box 1, folder 24

Jantz, Harold

box 1, folder 25

Lee, Hector

box 1, folder 26

Lehmann, W.P.

box 1, folder 27

Lewis, Calvin L.

box 1, folder 28

M-W misc.

box 1, folder 29

McCollough, Edna

box 1, folder 30

McGalliand, John C.

box 1, folder 31

Magown, Francis P.

box 1, folder 32

Meritt, B.D.

box 1, folder 33

Miles, Josephine

box 1, folder 34

Miller, Charles R.D.

box 1, folder 35

Mills, Randall

box 1, folder 36

Moe, Henry Allen

box 1, folder 37

Mossbach, Lorenz

box 1, folder 38

Mustonoja, Tauno

box 1, folder 39

Nisbet, R.A.

box 1, folder 40

Pearce, Matt

box 1, folder 41

Pettee, Charles

box 1, folder 42

Powell, Lawrence Clark

box 1, folder 43

Price, Lawrence M.

box 1, folder 44

Roser, Hans

box 1, folder 45

Seidlin, Oskar

box 1, folder 46

Silz, Walter

box 1, folder 47

Small, Harold A.

box 1, folder 48

Smith, Roy

box 1, folder 49

Sproul, Robert G.

box 1, folder 50

Starck, Taylor

box 1, folder 51

Stegemeier, Henri

box 1, folder 52

Sullivan, Jack

box 1, folder 53

Sypherd, W.O.

box 1, folder 54

Taylor, Archer

box 1, folder 55

Trumpler, Ernst

box 1, folder 56

Toronoto Univ. Press

box 1, folder 57

Ungar, Frederick, Publishing Co.

box 1, folder 57

Utley, Francis

box 1, folder 58

von Faber du Faur, Curt

box 1, folder 59

unidentified letters

box 1, folder 60

1945-1958 outgoing correspondence

box 1, folder 61

1959-1960

box 1, folder 62

Loomis biographical & personal material

box 1, folder 63

miscellany

 

Series 2 Articles

Physical Description: carton 1

Arrangement

Alphabetical

Scope and Content Note

Articles written by Loomis on folklore (American speech and wordplay in western U.S.), medieval saint's legends and German poetry and culture; printer's copy of book,
carton 1, folder 1

List of articles by C. Grant Loomis

carton 1, folder 2

About American Pseudonomity

carton 1, folder 3

American Limerick Traditions

carton 1, folder 4

The American Tall Tale and the Miraculous

carton 1, folder 5

The Art of Poetry and Other Essays by H.D. Thoreau - edited by C. Grant Loomis

carton 1, folder 6

Bret Harte's Folklore

carton 1, folder 7

California Anecdotes from the East 1849-1858

carton 1, folder 8

California Fertility Lore - 1848-1858

carton 1, folder 9

The Captive B'ar in California

carton 1, folder 10

"A Century of Baroque Riddles", by C.G.L.

carton 1, folder 11

A Century of Mother Goose Parodies, by C.G.L.

carton 1, folder 12

Chinese Lore from Nevada 1867-1878

carton 1, folder 13

Dan de Quille's Mark Twain

carton 1, folder 14

Davy Crockett Visits Boston

carton 1, folder 15

Dissertatio de Diaeta Litteratorum or the Regimen of Scholars

carton 1, folder 16

Writings on Education and the function of the University

carton 1, folder 17

Emerson's Proverbs

carton 1, folder 18

English Writers in Gottsched's Handlexicon

carton 1, folder 19

Erasmus Francisci, A 17th Cenntury Contributor to the History of Medicine1

carton 1, folder 20

Erdmann Neumeister's contributions to 17th Century Bibliography

carton 1, folder 21

Folk Speech and Folk Humor

carton 1, folder 22

Folklore America, by CGL

carton 1, folder 23

Folklore and American Literature, by CG Loomis ms.

carton 1, folder 24

"Four Schillings, Sir": Massachussetts vs. Missouri

carton 1, folder 25

Further Sources of Aelfric's Saints' Lives

carton 1, folder 26

The German Theatre in California 1861-1864, by C. Grant Loomis

carton 1, folder 27

MS. The German Theatre in San Francisco p. 1-60

carton 1, folder 28

MS. The German Theatre in San Francisco p. 61-128

carton 1, folder 29

MS. Ghosts

carton 1, folder 30

The Growth of the St. Edmond Legend

carton 1, folder 31

Hagiological Healing

carton 1, folder 32

Hart's Tall Tales from Nevada

carton 1, folder 33

The Hell You Did Not Say

carton 1, folder 34

The Heritage of Medieval Legend

carton 1, folder 35

Haytian Proverbs

carton 1, folder 36

Indications of Miners' Medecine

carton 1, folder 37

Jonathanisms: American Epigrammatic Hyperbole

carton 1, folder 38

King Arthur and the Saints

carton 1, folder 39

Lapidary Medecine

carton 1, folder 40

Legend and Folklore

carton 1, folder 41

The Legend of St. Edmund

carton 1, folder 42

Martin Opitz - Three articles

carton 1, folder 43

Mary Had a Parody

carton 1, folder 44

Miners Lore

carton 1, folder 45

The Miracle of Ponderosity

carton 1, folder 46

The Miracle Traditions of the Venerable Bede

carton 1, folder 47

More Hart Tall Tales from Nevada

carton 1, folder 48

Morganstern's Mice: Peripheries of Word Play, by C.G.L. M.S.

carton 1, folder 49

Names - American Journalism MS.

carton 1, folder 50

Names in American Limericks

carton 1, folder 51

Notes and Queries - contributions by CGL

carton 1, folder 52

A Notice of Harvard at Riga in 1691

carton 1, folder 53

Proverbs in Business

carton 1, folder 54

Proverbs in "The Farmer's Almanac(k)"

carton 1, folder 55

Proverbs in the "Golden Era"

carton 1, folder 56

The Range of Rilke's Rhymes

carton 1, folder 57

Saint and Courtesan

carton 1, folder 58

Saint Edmund and the Lodbrok (Loyhbrac) Legend

carton 1, folder 59

MS. Shakespeare in Germany

carton 1, folder 60

Some Annotations to the Survival of Ancient Lore at Christmas, by CGL

carton 1, folder 61

Some Call It Money

carton 1, folder 62

Some Interpretations of Modern German Poetry - German Club paper 3/9/1933

carton 1, folder 63

Some Lore of Yankee Genius: 1831-1863

carton 1, folder 64

Some Mexican Lore Prior to 1670

carton 1, folder 65

Some Name Traditions in Epigrammatic Satire

carton 1, folder 66

Some Spanish Proverbs in 17th century German

carton 1, folder 67

MS. Speculations from Speculum

carton 1, folder 68

Surnames in American Wordplay

carton 1, folder 69

The Tale of the Stubborn Thief

carton 1, folder 70

A Tall Tale Miscellany 1830-1866

carton 1, folder 71

Tall Tales of Dan de Quielle

carton 1, folder 72

Thoreau and Zimmerman

carton 1, folder 73

Thoreau as Folklorist

carton 1, folder 74

"Tough Californiana" 1849-1864

carton 1, folder 75

Three Cases of Vaginism

carton 1, folder 76

Traditional American Wordplay

carton 1, folder 77

Traditional American Wordplay: The Conundrum

carton 1, folder 78

Traditional American Wordplay: The Epigram and Perverted Proverbs

carton 1, folder 79

Traditional American Wordplay: Wellerisms or Yankeeisms

carton 1, folder 80

On Translating Modern Poetry

carton 1, folder 81

Two Miracles in the Chevelere Assigne

carton 1, folder 82

An Unnoted German Reference to Increase Mather

carton 1, folder 83

"A Variant of the Hoffmanswaldow Anthology" and "A Note Concerning the Editions of the First Volume of the Hoffmanswaldow Anthology"

carton 1, folder 84

Wellerisms in "Punch"

carton 1, folder 85

Wellerisms in California Sources

carton 1, folder 86

White Magic, by C. Grant Loomis

carton 1, folder 87

Yankee Visions of California MS. by C. Grant Loomis

carton 1, folder 88

Book Reviews by C. Grant Loomis

carton 1, folder 89

Miscellaneous short articles by C.G.L.

carton 1, folder 90

Miscellany

 

Series 3 Notes

Physical Description: cartons 2, 5-8

Arrangement

Hierarchical

Scope and Content Note

Consists of notes on folklore, medieval material, misc. transcripts of writings of Dan de Quille.
carton 2, folder 1

American Speech

carton 2, folder 2

Project C.F. Epigrams

carton 2, folder 3

Riddles

carton 2, folder 4

Word Play

carton 2, folder 5

German Folklore

carton 2, folder 6

17th Cen. German Poetry and Music

carton 2, folder 7

Johann von Besser

carton 2, folder 8

Some Patterns and German Surname Changes

carton 2, folder 9

"There is a Telling" Vol. III 1-19 TV Porogram on Calif. Folklore by Hector Lee

carton 2, folder 10

Tentzel Monatliche Unterredungen - transcriptions + notes by CGL

carton 2, folder 11

Chinese folklore

carton 2, folder 12

Turkish folktales

carton 2, folder 13

Caxton's Calendar of Saints

carton 2, folder 14

St. Cecilia

carton 2, folder 15

Project - Spurious Saints

carton 2, folder 16

Legend - Materials Saints

carton 2, folder 17

Clippings - miraculous events

carton 2, folder 18

Clippings - miracles at tomb of priest

carton 2, folder 19

Birthdays of authors - poets

carton 2, folder 20

Notes on county histories/ California

carton 2, folder 21

Notes on letters of English royalty

carton 2, folder 22

Magic

carton 2, folder 23

Mexican folk songs

carton 2, folder 24

Notes on Chaucer's English

carton 2, folder 25

The number "7"

carton 2, folder 26

Miscellaneous notes

carton 2, folder 27

Der Akermann aus Bohmerz (The Plouwman and the Devil) by Johannes von Saaz, trans. by WC Kraft

carton 2, folder 28

Lying or Tall Tales -- Bartlemez - Bushnell ms

carton 2, folder 29

"Tales from the Redwood Empire" Radio talks on Calif. folklore by Hector Lee

carton 2, folder 30

California folklore society

carton 2, folder 31

Folk music

carton 2, folder 32

Misc. printed folklore material

carton 2, folder 33

Western Anecdotes by Dan de Quille from the Territorial Enterprise

carton 2, folder 34

Western Anecdotes by Dan de Quille from the Territorial Enterprise

carton 2, folder 35

Dan de Quille

carton 2, folder 36

"Washoe Rambles" by Dan de Quille. photocopy of original with notes by CGL

carton 2, folder 37

Palmura mining district, by Dan de Quille/Washoe Rambles to p. 15 of folder A

carton 2, folder 38

Washoe Rambles, by Dan de Quille

carton 2, folder 39

California and Nevada Steamboat and Washoe Valley, by Dan de Quille - this begins p. 15 of folder A

carton 5, box 1

Note cards - Dictionary of American Wordplay

Arrangement

Hierarchical

Scope and Content Note

Consists of note cards related to the Dictionary of American Wordplay
carton 5, box 2

Note cards - "Never Say Die"

Arrangement

Hierarchical

Scope and Content Note

Consists of note cards related to euphemisms for death (tentative title for forthcoming work was "Never Say Die").
carton 5, box 3

Note cards - Sixth Sense Stories

Arrangement

Hierarchical

Scope and Content Note

Consists of note cards related to supernatural encounters.
carton 4, box 4

Note cards - Various

Arrangement

Hierarchical

Scope and Content Note

Consists of notes related to limericks, Californiana and Bret Harte
 

Note cards - Wordplay

Arrangement

Hierarchical

Scope and Content Note

Consists of notes related to general wordplay
carton 5, box 2

Note cards - Poetical Calendar

Arrangement

Hierarchical

Scope and Content Note

Consists of notes for Loomis' poetical calendars.
carton 5, box 3

Note cards - Linguistic Notes

Arrangement

Hierarchical

Scope and Content Note

Consists of notes related to linguistics
carton 5, box 4

Note cards - Proverbial Phrases and Slang

Arrangement

Hierarchical

Scope and Content Note

Consists of proverbial phrases and slang in sports and the work of Sinclair Lewis
carton 6, box 3

Note cards - Teutzel

Arrangement

Hierarchical

Scope and Content Note

Consists of notes on Teutzel
carton 6, box 4

Note cards - Poetical calendar

Arrangement

Hierarchical

Scope and Content Note

Consists of notes on Loomis' poetical calendars.
carton 7, box 1

Note cards - German Notes

Arrangement

Hierarchical

Scope and Content Note

Consists of notes on German language
carton 7, box 2

Note cards - French Notes

Arrangement

Hierarchical

Scope and Content Note

Consists of Notes in French
carton 7, box 3

Note cards - White Magic

Arrangement

Hierarchical

Scope and Content Note

Consists of notes for White Magic
carton 7, box 4

Note cards - White Magic

Arrangement

Hierarchical

Scope and Content Note

Consists of notes for White Magic
carton 8, box 1

Note cards - White Magic

Arrangement

Hierarchical

Scope and Content Note

Consists of notes for White Magic
carton 8, box 2

Note cards - White Magic

Arrangement

Hierarchical

Scope and Content Note

Consists of notes for White Magic
carton 8, box 3

Note cards - White Magic

Arrangement

Hierarchical

Scope and Content Note

Consists of notes for White Magic
carton 8, box 4

Note cards - White Magic

Arrangement

Hierarchical

Scope and Content Note

Consists of notes for White Magic
carton 6, box 2

Note cards - Teutzel, Poetical Calendars, Cinquains

Arrangement

Hierarchical

Scope and Content Note

Consists of notes on Teutzel, two poetical calendars and cinquains
 

Series 4 Transcripts and Translations

Arrangement

Alphabetical

Scope and Content Note

Consists of Loomis' translations of German poetry.
carton 3, folder 1

German 3 and 4

carton 3, folder 2

German Lecture Notes - Historical Literature - German

carton 3, folder 3

Herod and Marianna by Fredrich Hebbel, translated by CGL

carton 3, folder 4

German Prose Translations - Jerimias Gotthelf - How Georgie Looked for a Wife

carton 3, folder 5

German Prose Translations - Gottfried Keller - Clothes Make the Man

carton 3, folder 6

The Mountain Walk by Adelbert Stifter, translated by CGL

carton 3, folder 7

German Prose translations - Adalbert Stifter - Preface to Colored Stories

carton 3, folder 8

German - On Virtues of Brandy - transcription

carton 3, folder 9

Transcription of Stolle's "Vorrede"; Neukirch's "Vorrede"; Juncker - Untersuchung Herrn Gottfried Bejemin Hanckens Welticher Gedichte + notes

carton 3, folder 10

German poets

carton 3, folder 11

Notes on German translations of Frost

carton 3, folder 12

German Poetry - Hermann Hesse

carton 3, folder 14

German Poetry - Hermann Hesse

carton 3, folder 15

German Poetry - Hermann Hesse

carton 3, folder 16

German Poetry - Detlev von Liliencron

carton 3, folder 17

German Poetry - Zugabe Logau - epitaphs

carton 3, folder 18

Z. Lagau - human foibles

carton 3, folder 19

Z. Lagau - misc.

carton 3, folder 20

Z. Lagau - nature

carton 3, folder 21

Z. Lagau - Professions

carton 3, folder 22

Z. Lagau - Proverbs

carton 3, folder 23

Z. Lagau - relations of sexes

carton 3, folder 24

Z. Lagau - religion

carton 3, folder 25

Z. Lagau on the times, customs, etc.

carton 3, folder 26

German Poetry - Christian Morganstern

carton 3, folder 27

Christian Morganstern

carton 3, folder 28

German Poetry - Oearius, Homburg, Wernicke, etc.

carton 3, folder 29

German Poetry

carton 3, folder 30

Misc. notes on German poetry

carton 3, folder 31

Poems A-D

carton 3, folder 32

Poems E-L

carton 3, folder 33

Poems M-Q

carton 3, folder 34

Poems R-Y

carton 3, folder 35

A Calendar for Ariel

carton 3, folder 36

A Calendar for Gnostics, by C. Grant Loomis

carton 3, folder 37

A Calendar for Mystics

carton 3, folder 38

The Fate of Waterloo by CGL (adapted from Stephen Zweig

carton 3, folder 39

Mendocino Monody by C.G.L.

carton 3, folder 40

New England Calendar

carton 3, folder 41

On These Hills - poems by C. Grant Loomis

carton 3, folder 42

Potiphar's Wife by C.G.L.

carton 3, folder 43

Poems by C.G.L. (untitled)

carton 3, folder 44

Poems (untitled)

carton 3, folder 45

Poem series (untitled)

carton 3, folder 46

Poems and Notes (untitled)

carton 3, folder 47

Misc. Poems

carton 3, folder 48

Unidentified poems in German (by Loomis?)

carton 3, folder 49

Poems by C. Grant Loomis 1922-1927

carton 3, folder 50

Story and Poem Ideas, C. Grant Looms

carton 3, folder 51

Scrap Book