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© 2006 University of Chicago Library
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When quoting material from this collection, the preferred citation is: Elder Olson. Papers, [Box #, Folder #], Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library
Elder Olson was born in 1909 in Chicago, Illinois. He studied at the University of Chicago, where he received his B.A. (1934), M.A. (1935), and Ph.D. (1938).
Olson became a visiting Assistant Professor of English at the University of Chicago in 1942, Professor in 1955, and Distinguished Service Professor in 1973.
Olson published many volumes of poetry and literary criticism. Things of Sorrow, Poems (1934), was published while he was an undergraduate at the University of Chicago. Among his other books of poetry are: The Cock of Heaven (1940), The Scarecrow Christ, and Other Poems (1954), and Olson's Penny Arcade: Poems (1975). Olson's literary criticism includes: The Poetry of Dylan Thomas (1954), Tragedy and the Theory of Drama (1961), and On Value Judgments in the Arts and Other Essays (1976).
Elder Olson died on July 25, 1992 in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
The Elder Olson Papers consist of undated typescript poems, reprints of poems and articles (1939-1974), galleys and proofs of Olson's Penny Arcade, manuscripts, and correspondence.
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