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University of Chicago Library

Guide to the Modern Poetry Collection of Miscellaneous Manuscripts 1920-1964

© 2007 University of Chicago Library

Descriptive Summary

Title:

Modern Poetry Collection of Miscellaneous Manuscripts

Dates:

1920-1964

Size:

.25 linear feet (1 box)

Repository:

Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center
University of Chicago Library
1100 East 57th Street
Chicago, Illinois 60637 U.S.A.

Abstract:

The Modern Poetry Collection of Miscellaneous Manuscripts consists of miscellaneous contemporary poetry manuscripts collected by Judith Bond while she was Curator of the Harriet Monroe Library of Modern Poetry. Most of the manuscripts were contributed by the poets at Bond’s request, and several of them show the work either in rough draft or in successive stages of completion. Also appearing in the collection is a fair amount of correspondence, most of it exchanges between Judith Bond and the various poets whose work appears within. The collection itself spans the period of 1920 through 1964, with some of the material remaining undated.

Information on Use

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Citation

When quoting material from this collection, the preferred citation is: Modern Poetry Collection of Miscellaneous Manuscripts, [Box #, Folder #], Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library

Historical Note

A 1923 graduate of the University of Chicago, Judith Bond was offered and accepted the Curatorship of the Harriet Monroe Library of Modern Poetry in 1937, a library whose collection included a valuable assortment of first editions, proof-sheets, and letters from major poets. In her work at the Library, Bond, through careful selection and a marked enthusiasm, increased the size of the collection from an initial 2,000 volumes to over 7,000. Additionally, Judith Bond established a series of lectures and readings of poetry by contemporary poets that were widely attended by students, faculty, and the general public. It was during her tenure as the head of the Harriet Monroe Library of Modern Poetry that Bond solicited and obtained the correspondence and manuscripts that would become the basis for this collection.

The library’s namesake, Harriet Monroe, was the founder and editor of Poetry: A Magazine of Verse. The journal, which began publication in 1912, was one that Monroe hoped would create an audience for modern poetry, as well as introduce readers to new writers and ideas. Poetry raised the visibility and status of poetry, as well as published and promoted the careers of a galaxy of poets who came to define twentieth century modernism, from T.S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, and Marianne Moore to Wallace Stevens, William Carlos Williams, Robert Frost, and Langston Hughes, among many others

Scope Note

The Modern Poetry Collection of Miscellaneous Manuscripts consists of miscellaneous contemporary poetry manuscripts collected by Judith Bond while she was Curator of the Harriet Monroe Library of Modern Poetry. Most of the manuscripts were contributed by the poets at Bond’s request, and several of them show the work either in rough draft or in successive stages of completion. Also appearing in the collection is a fair amount of correspondence, most of it exchanges between Judith Bond and the various poets whose work appears within. Additionally included, in Folder 5, is a photograph of poet Bliss Carman and Mitchell Vennerlly. The collection itself spans the period from 1920 through 1964, with some of the material remaining undated. The Modern Poetry Collection of Miscellaneous Manuscripts is organized, at the folder level, alphabetically by the poet’s (or correspondent’s) last name. Within each folder, a listing of correspondence appears first, followed by the title and date (if known) of included poems.

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Subject Headings

INVENTORY

Box 1   Folder 1

Auden, W.H. (1960-1964):

  • Four Occasional Poems:
  • "A Toast" (Christ Church Gaudy, 1960)
  • "A Short Ode to a Philologist" (1962)
  • "Elegy for J.F.K." (22 November 1963)
  • "Lines for Elizabeth Mayer" (6 April 1964)
Box 1   Folder 2

Binyon, Lawrence (1934 and undated):

  • "Ultima Thule" (August 1934)
  • "Shelley’s Pyre" (undated)
Box 1   Folder 3

Bode, Carl (1959-1960 and undated):

  • Correspondence: Carl Bode to Judith Bond, 12 August 1959
  • Short Bode bio written by Judith Bond (7 March 1960)
  • "The Black Flower" (four drafts, undated)
Box 1   Folder 4

Bodenheim, Maxwell (1954 and undated):

  • Correspondence: Judith S. Bond to Maxwell Bodenheim, 6 January 1954
  • Correspondence: Maxwell Bodenheim to the University of Chicago, 1 January 1954
  • "To A Rose" (undated)
Box 1   Folder 5

Carman, Bliss (1920-1921 and undated):

  • Photograph: Bliss Carman and Mitchell Vennerlly (April 1921)
  • Correspondence: Bliss Carman to Agnes Gale, 31 December 1920
  • "Off Monomoy" (undated)
Box 1   Folder 6

Carruth, Hayden (1948-1949 and undated):

  • "The Wreck of the Circus Train" (20 February 1948)
  • "The Aardvark" (20 February 1948)
  • "Redemption of Atropos" (two worksheets, undated)
  • Postcard: Carleton Smith to Hayden Carruth, 21 February 1949
Box 1   Folder 7

Ciardi, John (1947 and undated):

  • Correspondence: Judith Bond to John Ciardi, 14 July 1947
  • Correspondence: John Ciardi to Judith Bond, 28 August 1947
  • "Elegy Just in Case" (undated)
  • "Squire’s House, An Ode to New England" (July 1947)
  • "Finnegan’s Suicide" (undated)
  • "Finnegan’s Suicide" (draft, undated)
  • "Chicken Hawk" (14 July 1947)
  • "Homecoming" (undated)
  • "Homecoming" (draft, undated)
Box 1   Folder 8

Eberhart, Richard (1940 and undated):

  • Correspondence: Richard Eberhart to Judith Bond, 25 November 1940
  • "In a Hard Intellectual Light" (undated)
  • "My Bones Flew Apart" (undated)
  • "Request for Offering" (undated)
  • "For a Lamb" (undated)
  • "The Groundhog" (undated)
Box 1   Folder 9

Monroe, Harriet (undated):

  • Postcard: Harriet Monroe to [John Robert?] Quinn (undated)
Box 1   Folder 10

Moses, W.R. (1941 and undated):

  • Correspondence: W.R. Moses to Judith Bond, 10 September 1941
  • Correspondence: Judith S. Bond to W.R. Moses, 29 February 1941
  • Correspondence: Judith S. Bond to W.R. Moses, 15 August 1941
  • "February Cardinal: Anatomy" (undated)
  • "Angina Pectoris" (undated)
  • "A Little Song in Heaven’s Despite" (undated)
  • "A Trip in a Boat" (undated)
  • Folder11: Sarton, May (1945 and undated):
  • "Two Sonnets" (May 1945)
  • Rough drafts of the sonnets (undated)
Box 1   Folder 11

Spencer, Theodore (1945 and undated):

  • Correspondence: Theodore Spencer to Judith Bond, 12 April 1945
  • Correspondence: Theodore Spencer to Judith Bond, 14 May 1945
  • "A Kind of Circle" (undated)
  • "A Circle" (two drafts, undated)
  • "The Day" (undated)
  • "Song" (undated)
Box 1   Folder 12

Tinkham, Charles B. (undated):

  • Folder inventory (undated)
  • "What I Want to Say to Him" (first draft, undated)
  • "What I Want to Say to Him" (undated)
  • "The Season Following Death" (first draft, undated)
  • "The Season Following Death" (second draft of first two stanzas, undated)
  • "In the Morning Everybody’s a Poet" (undated)
  • "Who Sleep Tonight" (first draft, undated)
  • "Land of the Sea" (undated)
Box 1   Folder 13

Young, Marguerite (1934 and undated):

  • Folder inventory (undated)
  • "A Bouquet of Poesy..." [handwritten poetry booklet]: Contains: "The Tree" (November 1934), "Song’s Preface" (undated), "Spring" (undated), "Anthology Piece" (November 1934), "Mothers" (December 1934), "Song’s Dissemination" (undated), "Like Secret Roots" (undated), "Brave Youth" (undated), "Eclipse" (undated), "Whorl" (undated), "Minnows and a Monster" (undated), "Twilight" (undated)
Box 1   Folder 14

Lewis, Janet (Winters) (1937 and undated):

  • "A Merry Christmas" (undated)
  • "The April Hill" (April 1937)
  • "The white fire touches Latmos!..." (undated)
  • "To a Poet, for His Verse" (undated)
  • "At the Concert" (undated)
Box 1   Folder 15

Bond, Judith (1964):

  • Correspondence: Judith Bond to Fred Millett, 22 January 1964
Box 1   Folder 16

Church, Richard (1934-1958 and undated):

  • Correspondence: Richard Church to D. Kilham Roberts, 16 August 1934
  • Correspondence: Richard Church to D. Kilham Roberts, 5 November 1935
  • Correspondence: Richard Church to [D. Kilham] Roberts, 15 June 1936
  • Correspondence: Richard Church to Arthur Harrison, 21 May 1958
  • "Small Mercies" (undated)
  • "The Friends" (clipping, undated)
  • "Secret Service" (clipping, undated)