Lily Bess Campbell papers, 1907-1968

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Summary

Creators:
Campbell, Lily Bess, 1883-1967.
Abstract:
Lily Bess Campbell (1883-1967) was a professor of English at UCLA (1922-50), won the achievement award from the American Association of University Women in 1960, and was named Woman of the Year by the Los Angeles Times in 1962. The collection consists of research notes, personal and professional correspondence and documents, and two photographs.
Extent:
12 boxes (6 linear ft.)
Language:
Finding aid is written in English.

Background

Scope and content:

The collection consists of research notes, personal and professional correspondence and documents, and two photographs.

Biographical / historical:

Lily Bess Campbell was born on June 20, 1883 in Ada, Ohio. She received her B. Litt. in 1905 and her MA in 1906 from the University of Texas. After a long period of ill health, she began her professional career as Instructor in English at the University of Wisconsin (1911-1918) and received her Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1921. Though her first published work treated Victorian poetry (The Grotesque in the Poetry of Robert Browning, Austin, Texas: University of Texas, 1907), her major contributions to the academic field were made as scholar of Renaissance drama and an eminent Shakespearean authority. Campbell taught at UCLA from 1922 until she retired in 1950 (among the many students she influenced was dancer-choreographer Agnes De Mille). In 1923, she published Scenes and Machines on the English Stage during the Renaissance, a Classical Revival, a work based on her 1921 dissertation. Her next important book was Shakespeare's Tragic Heroes, Slaves of Passion (Cambridge U.P., 1930). She went on to produce the first modern edition of The Mirror for Magistrates based on originals in the Huntington Library in 1938. In his "Dedicatory Preface" to Essays Critical And Historical Dedicated to Lily B. Campbell (1950), Folger Shakespeare Library scholar Louis B. Wright wrote, "Miss Campbell's edition of the Mirror and its later augmentations perhaps will stand as her most enduring contribution to the advancement of Renaissance learning" (vii). Campbell later published Shakespeare's "Histories"; Mirrors of Elizabethan Policy (The Huntington Library Press, 1947). In addition to her scholarly work, she published a satirical novel in 1929 entitled These Are My Jewels. A complete bibliography of her work can be found in Essays Critical And Historical Dedicated to Lily B. Campbell. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1950, on pages 285-286.

Lily Bess Campbell is remembered as a strong and early leader in the development of the Department of English and in UCLA's transition from an undergraduate college to a research university. While at UCLA, she served on the Faculty Senate. When the University of Chicago celebrated its fiftieth anniversary in 1941, Campbell was chosen as one of the 50 most distinguished American scholars and was granted an honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters. She also received a Litt.D from Ohio Northern University in 1940 and an LL.D from UC Berkeley in 1951. Campbell won the achievement award from the American Association of University Women in 1960, and was named Woman of the Year by the Los Angeles Times in 1962. Lily Bess Campbell died on February 18, 1967, leaving a sizable bequest to the university to provide assistance for doctoral students working on their dissertations. UCLA's Campbell Hall is named after her.

Sources:

  • Archival materials in the UCLA University Archives
  • Wright, Louis B. "Scholar of Wit and Wisdom: Dedicatory Preface" in Essays Critical And Historical Dedicated to Lily B. Campbell. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1950.

Acquisition information:
Gift, 1969.
Physical location:
Stored off-site at SRLF. Advance notice is required for access to the collection. Please contact the UCLA Library Special Collections Reference Desk for paging information.
Rules or conventions:
Finding aid prepared using Describing Archives: a Content Standard

Access and use

Location of this collection:
A1713 Charles E. Young Research Library
Box 951575
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1575, US
Contact:
(310) 825-4988
AskLSC@library.ucla.edu
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