Collection Guides

Abstract

This collection contains seven letters from Robert Penn Warren to Robert Harris Chapman, and one poem by Robert Penn Warren.

Abstract

This collection contains the papers of Brainard Bartwell Cheney and Frances Neel Cheney. Major topics of interest include multiple versions of Brainard Cheney’s novels, the Pine Barrens and Rivers of Southeastern Georgia, materials relating to the Cheney’s friendships with many of the Fugitive/Agrarian writers, Brainard Cheney’s interest in Catholicism, Tennessee Politics in the late 1940’s and 1950’s, race relations and civil rights, Library Science and reference services.

Abstract

Walter Clyde Curry (1887-1967), a long-time member of the Department of English at Vanderbilt, was a scholar of Chaucer, Shakespeare, and Milton. He was one of the initial members of the Fugitive literary movement.

Abstract

This small collection of 11 typescript poems with some holograph notes by Donald Davidson dating from 1916. These poems were never published in the Fugitive or in any other collection. They were written just as Davidson was joining members of what was to be the Nashville Fugitive poet group in discussions of poetry, philosophy, literature, and political ideas, and so are an important addition to an understanding of his early work.

Abstract

The Donald Davidson Papers (1906 - 1968) include correspondence and writings by Davidson as well as reviews, research materials, publications materials, publicity for books, legal and financial documents, family records, newspaper clippings and photographs, segregation materials, and manuscripts of writings by others. The bulk of the materials come from the 1920's through the 1960's.

Abstract

This collection contains 1.67 linear feet of materials on the Fugitive Poets and the Nashville Agrarians. Most of the materials have to do with the years in the 1920’s when the Fugitive poet group was formed and the resulting poems, manuscripts, and correspondence. In addition there are a few items, mostly articles, that concern the Agrarian group.

Scope and Content Note

This collection, 3.34 linear feet, is an addition to the Fugitive and Agrarian Collection MSS 160. It includes a wide range of items relating to the Fugitive and Agrarian groups and is especially valuable in the holdings of items from the 1980’s and 1990’s including correspondence, articles, book reviews, and other materials. In addition to the Fugitives and Agrarians themselves, whose biographical notes follow below, associates represented in this collection include:

Scope and Content Note The papers of David McDowell, editor, were acquired by Speical Collections in 1983. The collection, consisting mostly of incoming correspondence, covers a period of 1939-1980. While attending St. Andrew's in Sewanee, Vanderbilt, and Kenyon College, McDowell became acquainted with many of the laureates of Southern literature whose letters can be found in this collection. David McDowell strengthened these ties when he served as an editor for several of the writers at Random House and...

Abstract

This collection is an exchange of letters between Arthur Mizener and John Crowe Ransom, Mizener and Robert Penn Warren, and Mizener and Allen Tate. It covers the years 1938 through 1974. Literature, criticism, research, publishing, and employment possibilities are the major subjects of the letters.

Abstract

This collection contains mostly original poetry by Margaret Moore dating from the 1930s to 1990s.

Scope and Content Note This small collection .21 linear feet is made up of photocopies of correspondence between Eugene Nassar and Cleanth Brooks, and between Nassar and John Crowe Ransom, for the years 1966-1993. The collection also contains an obituary of Cleanth Brooks and two articles by Eugene Nassar “Rhodes Institutes in America?” in the American Oxonian and “Symbols and Texts: A Personal Sketch of Literary Criticism Since the Fifties” in The Virginia...

Abstract

The papers of Frank Lawrence Owsley (1913-1959) consist of ten cubic feet of materials and are primarily concerned with the professional life and career of this historian, author, and teacher. The major series in the papers include the Correspondence, the Writings, Personal and Biographical Materials, Agrarians, Publication Material, Academic Career, Professional Activities, and Research Materials.

Scope and Content Note

William Plumley presents this small archive of material on and from Robert Penn Warren as it reveals Warren’s working as a poet and writer. He corresponded with Warren in the years 1969 through 1984, and that correspondence is an important component of this collection.

Abstract

This collection contains four typed and signed letters from John Crowe Ransom to Ann Mitchner, a friend and novice writer. The collection was purchased in early 2006. The four letters are dated January 17, February 2, March 15, and March 26, 1950, and include handwritten corrections and some tape repairs. This small correspondence collection records Ransom’s editorial and critical advice over the period of three months to aspiring writer Ann Mitchner.

Abstract

The letters in this small collection were written between September 17, 1959 and June 30, 1966 from John Crowe Ransom to Joseph Edgar Simmons, an aspiring poet and teacher. The letters consist primarily of advice, information, and concern Ransom gives for Simmons’ personal and professional growth as a poet, writer, and teacher. Altogether there are 17 letters. These letters were purchased in the fall of 2001.

Scope and Content Note

This small collection (.21 linear feet) includes correspondence from John Crowe Ransom to Robert Graves during the years 1922 to 1926. Also included are poems, newspaper clippings, reviews of books about Ransom, and materials concerning Ransom’s 80th birthday celebration at Kenyon College.

Scope and Content Note This is a collection of 14 pieces of correspondence ranging from 1927 to 1957 that represents Ransom’s correspondence with various publishers and editors with whom he worked over the course of his career. Many of the letters are written while he was editor of The Kenyon Review, a journal which he co-founded, from 1939-1959. The 8 letters from 1950-1956 to World Publishing Company relate to the publication of a reader titled Kenyon...

Abstract

The Papers of John Crowe Ransom (1888-1974), poet, educator, editor, critic, Vanderbilt alumnus (B.A. 1909) and former Vanderbilt faculty member (1914-1937).