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Wallace Stevens Papers: Finding
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mssWAS 1-4262
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Title: Wallace Stevens Papers
Dates (inclusive): 1806-1975
Bulk dates: 1895-1955
Collection Number: mssWAS 1-4262
Creator:
Stevens, Wallace, 1879-1955.
Extent:
approximately 6,815 items in 86 boxes, 6 loose volumes, 2 oversize folders, and 1 rolled item
Repository:
The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens.
Manuscripts Department
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, California 91108
Phone: (626) 405-2191
Email: reference@huntington.org
URL: http://www.huntington.org
Abstract: This collection contains the papers of Wallace Stevens (1879-1955), one of the foremost American poets of the first half of
the 20th century.
The collection is comprised primarily of letters written to Stevens, his carbon copy replies, and
autograph manuscripts and poems. The crux of the collection is the correspondence between Stevens and his family, scholars,
poets, editors, business associates,
and friends, and much of it deals with Stevens' poetry. Also included is an extensive collection of genealogical material,
in the form of letters, documents,
typescripts, and photographs.
Language: English.
Note:
Finding aid last updated on May 22, 2015.
The collection is open to qualified researchers by prior application through the Reader Services Department. For more information,
please visit the Huntington's website:
www.huntington.org.
The Huntington Library holds the literary rights for materials acquired in the original 1974 purchase from Holly Stevens.
Stevens retained the literary rights for items
acquired by the Library later in 1975 consisting of WAS 2325, WAS 2326, WAS 2329, WAS 2330, WAS 3850-3859, WAS 3861-3865,
WAS 3868-3870, WAS 3872, WAS 3874, WAS 3876-3878, WAS 3880, WAS 3882-3889,
WAS 3891-3896, WAS 3898-3902, WAS 3904-3913, WAS 3915-3944, and WAS 3963. Upon the death of Holly Stevens, the rights passed
to her son, Peter Hanchak.
Please contact the Huntington’s Curator of Literary Manuscripts with any questions.
The Huntington Library does not require that researchers request permission to quote from or publish images of this material,
nor does it charge fees for such activities. The responsibility for
identifying the copyright holder, if there is one, and obtaining necessary permissions rests with the researcher.
[Identification of item], Wallace Stevens Papers, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.
Gift of Holly Stevens, 1974. A few of the items catalogued with the collection were gifts from Wilson E. Taylor
and Holly Stevens and later purchases from Holly Stevens. These are noted on the individual folders.
2 boxes of addenda chiefly related to Elizabeth (Stevens) McFarland were the gift of Jane M. Wilson, McFarland's daughter,
in 1977.
The Huntington Library holds the literary rights for materials acquired in the original 1974 purchase from Holly Stevens.
Stevens retained the literary rights for items
acquired by the Library later in 1975 consisting of WAS 2325, WAS 2326, WAS 2329, WAS 2330, WAS 3850-3859, WAS 3861-3865,
WAS 3868-3870, WAS 3872, WAS 3874, WAS 3876-3878, WAS 3880, WAS 3882-3889,
WAS 3891-3896, WAS 3898-3902, WAS 3904-3913, WAS 3915-3944, and WAS 3963. Upon the death of Holly Stevens, the rights passed
to her son, Peter Hanchak.
Please contact the Huntington’s Curator of Literary Manuscripts with any questions.
The Huntington Library does not require that researchers request permission to quote from or publish images of this material,
nor does it charge fees for such activities. The responsibility for
identifying the copyright holder, if there is one, and obtaining necessary permissions rests with the researcher.
The collection was processed and a summary report first created on March 29, 1980. In 1998, an initial EAD-encoded finding
aid was created.
In April 2015, Diann Benti created a box list for the collection and this updated version of the finding aid.
Wallace Stevens (1879-1955) was one of the foremost American poets of the first half of
the 20th century. Born in Reading, Pennsylvania, Stevens retained an interest during his
lifetime in his native Berks County, Pennsylvania. His wife, Elsie Viola (Moll) Stevens,
came from Reading, and both Stevens and his wife devoted considerable time and energy
tracing their family ancestries (primarily in the 1940s).
Though Stevens refused to consider his life a dichotomy, his poetic activities were
accomplished while he was holding a full-time position as a legal advisor for the
Hartford Accident and Indemnity Company in Hartford, Connecticut, the firm for which he
acted as Vice-President from 1934 until his death in 1955.
Stevens began writing verse as a student at Harvard University and had a number of his
verses published in the
Harvard Advocate and the
Harvard Monthly between 1898 and 1900. In 1908 and 1909, Stevens presented his future wife, Elsie
Viola Moll, with two little notebooks of poems (
A Book of Verses and
The Little June Book) which gathered together short poems Stevens had been
experimenting with since leaving Harvard. Between 1914 and 1923, Stevens submitted poems
to a number of journals, including
Poetry (edited by Harriet Monroe),
The Dial and
Others (edited by Alfred Kreymborg). In 1923,
Stevens' first book of poems,
Harmonium, was published. With
Harmonium, he began a lifelong association with the publishing firm Alfred A.
Knopf Inc. Stevens did, however, offer the Cummington Press, a small fine press, three
of his books:
Notes Toward a Supreme Fiction (1942),
Esthétique du
Mal
(1945), and
Three Academic Pieces (1947). The Alcestis Press,
under the direction of Ronald Lane Latimer, printed
Ideas of Order (1935)
and
Owl's Clover (1936).
Stevens was twice awarded the National Book Award: in 1950 for
The Auroras of
Autumn
(1950) and in 1954 for
Collected Poems (1954). He was
awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1955.
This collection contains the papers of American poet Wallace Stevens and is comprised primarily of letters written to Stevens,
his carbon copy replies, and
autograph manuscripts and poems, as well as family photographs, an extensive collection of genealogical research material
on the Stevens and allied families, and some ephemera.
The crux of the collection is the correspondence between Stevens and his family, friends, scholars, poets, editors, and business
associates (although there are
no letters from the files of Stevens' employer, the Hartford Accident and Indemnity Company). Much of the correspondence deals
with Stevens' poetry, or provides
biographical or ideological information about Stevens. In addition to the 58 boxes of correspondence, there is an additional
series containing xeroxes of Stevens
correspondence and manuscripts held by other institutions.
The Stevens family, including Stevens' wife Elsie and their daughter, Holly Bright Stevens, are well represented in the collection,
as are Stevens' friends Barbara
Church and Henry Hall Church. In addition, there are two boxes of addenda chiefly consisting of documents and photographs
related to Stevens' eldest sister Elizabeth (Stevens) McFarland, which
were added to the collection in 1977. Other individuals represented in the collection include: E. E. Cummings, Alfred A. Knopf,
Robert McAlmon, Thomas MacGreevy,
Archibald MacLeish, Marianne Moore, Jose Rodriguez Feo, and John Orley Allen Tate.
In addition to photographs and documents produced by Stevens family members, there are also over 2,000 pieces of genealogical
material, in the form of letters,
documents and typescripts, that reflect Wallace and Elsie Stevens' interest in tracing their family ancestry beginning in
the early 1940s.
Items in the manuscripts and correspondence series have been fully indexed alphabetically and chronologically on cards in
the Manuscript Catalogue in the Library.
Related materials in the Huntington Library
- Wallace Stevens Oral History Collection, 1975-1985 (bulk 1976-1978). (mssHM 53675-54279 )
- Letter to Wallace Stevens, December, 1936 (mssHM 80440-80441)
- Letters to Wilson E. Taylor, 1937, April (mssHM 80452-80453)
The collection is arranged in 10 series:
- I. Manuscripts
- II. Correspondence
- III. Photographs
- IV. Honorary Awards
- V. Xeroxes
- VI. Genealogical Material
- VII. Ephemera
- VIII. Appraiser's Report
- IX. Audio materials
- X. Addenda
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the
Huntington Library's Online Catalog.
Stevens, Wallace, 1879-1955 -- Archives.
Poets, American -- 20th century -- Archives.
Reading (Pa.)
Letters (correspondence) -- United States -- 20th century.
Manuscripts -- United States -- 20th century.
Poems -- United States -- 20th century.
Cummings, E. E. (Edward Estlin), 1894-1962.
Knopf, Alfred A., 1892-1984.
McAlmon, Robert, 1896-1956.
MacGreevy, Thomas, 1893-1967.
MacLeish, Archibald, 1892-1982.
Moore, Marianne, 1887-1972.
Rodríguez Feo, José.
Tate, Allen, 1899-1979.