Jump to Content

Collection Guide
Collection Title:
Collection Number:
Get Items:
De Voto (Bernard Augustine) Papers
M0001  
View entire collection guide What's This?
Search this collection
Collection Details
 
Table of contents What's This?
  • Conditions Governing Access
  • Immediate Source of Acquisition
  • Biographical / Historical
  • Paging
  • Other Biographical Sources
  • Preferred Citation
  • Scope and Contents
  • Conditions Governing Use

  • Language of Material: English
    Contributing Institution: Department of Special Collections and University Archives
    Title: Bernard Augustine De Voto papers
    Creator: De Voto, Bernard Augustine
    Identifier/Call Number: M0001
    Identifier/Call Number: 1689
    Physical Description: 63 Linear Feet
    Date (inclusive): 1918-1955 (inclusive), 1944-1951 (bulk)
    Date (bulk): 1944-1951
    Abstract: Bernard DeVoto (1897-1955) was a novelist, historian, critic, and editor. His collection includes correspondence, typescripts and galley proofs of 19 major works, 166 articles, 25 short fiction and non-fiction papers, broadcasts, speeches, lectures, and other papers. The correspondence (1948-55) with Harper's magazine relates to DeVoto's column "The Easy Chair", and includes letters from the magazine to senders of letters of condolence, and letters concerning DeVoto. Includes research material used in DeVoto's literary writings and in his work relating to politics, conservation and reclamation, free speech, national parks, and Western Americana. Correspondents include many of the leading persons in contemporary literature, politics, education, and the arts.

    Conditions Governing Access

    Collection is open for research with the exception of the boxes originally numbered 175, 176, and 177, which are closed to researchers. Please page materials at least 36 hours in advance of intended use.
    The family notes located in 1/22/466 are not to be copied although they may be read.

    Immediate Source of Acquisition

    Purchased from the estate of Bernard DeVoto, 1956; supplemented by gifts from various sources.

    Biographical / Historical

    Chronology

    1897 Born, January 11, Ogden, Utah.
    1902 Began schooling at Sacred Heart Academy, Ogden.
    1910 Entered Ogden High School.
    1914 Graduated Ogden H.S.; entered University of Utah.
    1915 Entered Harvard College as a sophomore.
    1917 Enlisted U.S. Army, to 1919.
    1920 Harvard graduation; return to Ogden.
    1922 Appointed as Instructor, Northwestern University.
    1923 Married Helen Avis MacVicar.
    1924 The Crooked Mile.
    1925 "Ogden: The Underwriting of Salvation."
    1926 The Chariot of Fire.
    1927 Writer's Handbook, A Manual of English Composition.
      Moved to Lincoln, Mass.
    1928 The House of Sun-Goes-Down.
    1929 Began part-time teaching at Harvard; instructor and tutor, 1929-1934; lecturer, 1934-36.
    1930 Americana Deserta
      Editor of Harvard Graduate's Magazine, 1930-32.
      Birth of a son, Gordon King.
    1932 Mark Twain's America.
    1934 We Accept With Pleasure.
    1935 Harper's Magazine.
    1936 The Saturday Review of Literature; moved to New York City. Forays and Rebuttals.
    1937 Awarded honorary Litt. D. by Middlebury College.
    1938 The Saturday Review of Literature;
    1939 Troubled Star.
    1940 Mark Twain in Eruption
      Birth of a son, Mark
      Rain Before Seven.
      Minority Report.
    1942 New England Quarterly
      Year of Decision: 1846.
      Advance Agent.
      Awarded honorary Litt. D. by Kenyon College.
      Mark Twain at Work.
    1944 The Woman in the Picture.
      The Literary Fallacy.
      Strange Fruit
    1946 Trip West in summer led to conservation work.
      The Portable Mark Twain
    1947 Editor in chief of the History Book Club.
      Mountain Time.
      Across the Wide Missouri.
    1948 Across the Wide Missouri.
    1950 The World of Fiction.
    1951 The Hour.
    1952 Attacked by Senator Joseph McCarthy.
      The Course of Empire.
    1953 Journals of Lewis and Clark
      Won National Book Award for best non-fiction of 1952.
    1955 The Easy Chair.
    1956 Women and Children First.

    Paging

    Page from Catalog Record: https://searchworks.stanford.edu/view/4082981

    Other Biographical Sources

    For additional material see the following:
    Material in Box labeled "Biographical", including various genealogies, journals, a play concerning his life from 1920 to 1922, and the "Kent Potter" story.
    Dissertation by Robert Edson Lee. (Includes a checklist of DeVoto's works).
    Letters to DeVoto from Avis DeVoto and Marian M. Condliss.
    Letters from DeVoto to Melville Smith, 1920-25;
    Letters from DeVoto to Robert Forsythe, 1927;
    Letters from DeVoto to Adrienne Burke, 3/27/44;
    Letters from DeVoto to Natl. Inst. of Arts and Letters, 12/22/47;
    Letters from DeVoto to Kate Sterne (safe) dated 10/6/27.
    Pseudonyms: Cady Hewes; C.H.; John August; J.A.; Frank Gilbert; Richard Dye; Fairley Blake.

    Preferred Citation

    [Identification of item] Bernard Augustine De Voto Papers, M0001, Dept. of Special Collections, Stanford Libraries, Stanford, Calif.

    Scope and Contents

    The DeVoto Papers contain Bernard DeVoto's correspondence date from 1918 until his death in November 1955. The bulk of the correspondence was written between 1944 and 1951. The collection also includes manuscript, typescript and galley proof copies of nineteen major works, 166 articles, 25 short fiction and non-fiction items, and about 44 broadcasts, speeches and lectures.
    Of primary interest is DeVoto's research material used in his literary output and in his life-long work in many fields, including politics, conservation and reclamation, free speech, the national park systems and Western Americana.
    Correspondents include many of the leading figures in contemporary literature, politics, education and the arts. A partial list of the correspondents is included in the Optional Section of this register.

    Conditions Governing Use

    While Special Collections is the owner of the physical and digital items, permission to examine collection materials is not an authorization to publish. These materials are made available for use in research, teaching, and private study. Any transmission or reproduction beyond that allowed by fair use requires permission from the owners of rights, heir(s) or assigns.

    Subjects and Indexing Terms

    Galley proofs.
    United States -- Politics and government -- 1953-1961.
    Historians.
    United States -- Politics and government -- 1933-1945.
    Lectures.
    United States -- Politics and government -- 1929-1933
    United States -- History -- 1865-1921.
    Speeches.
    United States -- History -- 1849-1877.
    North Africa.
    Natural resources.
    National parks and reserves -- United States.
    Mormons -- Utah -- History.
    Liberty.
    Lewis and Clark Expedition.
    Photoprints.
    Italy -- Civilization -- 476-1268.
    United States -- Politics and government -- 1945-1953.
    Conservation of natural resources.
    Indians of North America.
    Articles.
    Manuscripts (literary).
    Maps
    West (U.S.) -- History.
    Educators.
    Authors.
    Brinton, Clarence Crane
    Bruner, Jerome Seymour.
    Brooks, Van Wyck
    Bowen, Catherine Drinker
    Briggs, L. B. R.
    Brandt, Carl.
    Carlyle, Thomas
    Carhart, Arthur Hawthorne
    Chamberlain, T. G.
    Catton, Bruce
    Buley, R.
    Buck, Pearl S. (Pearl Sydenstr
    Canby, Henry Seidel
    Bundy, McGeorge.
    Crane, Hart
    Mirrielees, Edith Ronald, 1878-1962
    Davis, Elmer.
    De Voto, Bernard Augustine
    Chandler, Raymond
    Church, Frank
    Collins, Carvel Emerson
    Cozzens, James Gould
    Fadiman, Clifton
    Farrell, James T. (James Thoma
    Faulkner, William
    Fischer, John
    Dobie, J. Frank (James Frank. 1888-1964.)
    Douglas, Paul Howard
    Edmonds, Walter Dumaux
    Edsall, John Tileston
    Hurlbut, B.
    Howard, Joseph Kinsey
    Hoover, J. Edgar (John Edgar)
    Holbrook, Stewart Hall
    Ickes, Harold L. (Harold LeCla
    Hillyer, Robert Silliman
    Higginson, Thomas Wentworth
    Hicks, Granville
    Fisher, Dorothy Canfield
    Knopf, Alfred A.
    King, G.
    Kern, Jerome
    Jones, Howard Mumford
    Johnson, Lyndon B. (Lyndon Bai
    Huxley, Aldous
    Hutchinson, W.
    Mansfield, Mike
    Lindsay, Vachel
    Little, Brown and Company.
    Lattimore, Owen
    Kubie, Lawrence Schlesinger
    Lark, C. T.
    Merk, Frederick
    Mencken, H. L. (Henry Louis),
    McCord, David Thompson Watson,
    Mein, F.
    Bliven, Bruce
    Marx, Groucho
    Mattingly, Garrett
    Brooks, Paul,
    Schlesinger, Arthur Meier
    Lewis, Sinclair
    Wylie, Philip
    Willkie, Wendell L. (Wendell Lewis)
    Wolfe, Thomas
    Melville, Herman
    Wecter, Dixon
    Van Doren, Mark
    Untermeyer, Louis
    Twain, Mark, 1835-1910
    Stout, Rex
    Stevenson, Adlai E. (Adlai Ewing)
    Stein, Gertrude
    Stegner, Wallace, 1909-1993
    Stearns, Harold T. (Harold Tho
    Stassen, Harold Edward
    Spillane, Mickey
    Saltonstall, Leverett
    Lodge, Henry Cabbot
    Sandburg, Carl, 1878-1967
    Rhodes, Eugene Manlove
    Robeson, Paul
    Pratt, Fletcher
    Pulitzer, Joseph
    Porter, C.
    Pound, Ezra
    Paine, Albert Bigelow
    Adams, Ansel, 1902-1984
    Perkins, Maxwell E. (Maxwell Evarts)
    Murdock, Kenneth Ballard
    O'Neill, Eugene
    Barrett, Frank.
    Morrison, Theodore, 1901-1988
    Beebe, Lucius.
    Moss, Frank E.
    Alsop, Joseph, 1910-1989
    Morgan, Dale Lowell
    Balch, E.
    Morison, Samuel Eliot