Contents


Collection Overview

Biographical Note

Scope and Contents of the Collection

Organization of the Collection

Search Terms

Series 1: POETRY

Series 2: TRANSLATIONS AND ADAPTATIONS

Series 3: PROSE

Series 4: LECTURES AND SPEECHES

Series 5: CORRESPONDENCE

Series 6: MISCELLANEOUS

Richard P. Wilbur (AC 1942) Papers

Finding Aid

Finding aid prepared by J. Richard Phillips.

© 2007

Collection Overview

Creator: Wilbur, Richard, 1921-
Title: Richard P. Wilbur (AC 1942) Papers
Dates: ca. 1945-2005
Abstract: Worksheets, notes, typescripts, and galley proofs for published poems (sometimes together with associated correspondence), poetry translations and prose pieces by Richard Wilbur.
Extent: 4 archives boxes(2 linear ft.)
Language: English.

Biographical Note

Poet, translator and critic Richard Purdy Wilbur was born in New York City in 1921. He graduated from Amherst College in 1942 and has taught English at Harvard and Wesleyan Universities and Wellesley and Smith Colleges. He has been awarded a number of honors for his poetry, including the National Book Award, the Pulitzer Prize (twice), the Wallace Stevens Award, the Aiken Taylor Award for Modern American Poetry, the Frost Medal, the Gold Medal for Poetry from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Bollingen Prize, the T. S. Eliot Award, a Ford Foundation Award, two Guggenheim Fellowships, the Edna St. Vincent Millay Memorial Award, the Oscar Blumenthal Prize for Poetry, the Harriet Monroe Poetry Award, the National Arts Club medal of honor for literature, two PEN translation awards, the Prix de Rome Fellowship, and the Shelley Memorial Award. He was elected a chevalier of the Ordre des Palmes Académiques and is a Chancellor Emeritus of The Academy of American Poets.

In addition to poetry, he has also published numerous translations of plays by Molière and Racine, contributed the lyrics for Leonard Bernstein's musical Candide, written several books for children, and produced two collections of critical writing. In 1987-1988 Richard Wilbur served as Poet Laureate of the United States; the following year he was the Robert Frost Library Fellow at Amherst College, where he has spoken and read his work on numerous occasions.

Return to the Table of Contents

Scope and Contents of the Collection

Worksheets, notes, typescripts, and galley proofs for published poems (sometimes together with associated correspondence), poetry translations and prose pieces by Richard Wilbur.

Return to the Table of Contents

Search Terms

Return to the Table of Contents

Organization of the Collection

This collection is organized into six series:

Return to the Table of Contents

Series 1: POETRY

Series 1, POETRY, is further organized into two sub-series: A. Published Volumes, ca. 1950-1969, includes materials used in the preparation of the following volumes of Wilbur's poetry: Ceremony and Other Poems (1950); Things of This World (1956); Advice to a Prophet (1961); and Walking to Sleep (1969). Arranged chronologically. B. Individual Poems, includes early worksheets and drafts of individual poems, including some translations. (Other translations are found in Series 2.) Arranged alphabetically by title.

Subseries A: Published Volumes


Box
Folder
1 1
Ceremony and Other Poems - worksheets and typescripts for material eliminated from publishing the volume ca. 1950

2
Ceremony and Other Poems - worksheets and typescripts ca. 1950

3
Ceremony and Other Poems - worksheets and typescripts ca. 1950

4
Ceremony and Other Poems - galley proofs ca. 1950

5
Things of This World - typescript, setting copy ca. 1956

6
Advice to a Prophet - Worksheets and typescripts ca. 1959

7
Advice to a Prophet - galley and page proofs ca. 1959

8
Walking to Sleep - worksheets and typescripts ca. 1968

9
Walking to Sleep - proofs of front matter, dust jacket, and brochure ca. 1968

10
Walking to Sleep - proofs of text ca. 1968

10a
Correspondence (2 letters from Wilbur, 1 from John Ciardi about Untermeyer's review of Walking to Sleep) 1969 Apr

10b
Pedestrian Flight - typescripts, galley, and page proofs) ca. 1979-1981

10c
Pedestrian Flight - correspondence with Stuart Wright, palaemon Press) ca. 1979-1981

Subseries B: Individual Poems


Box
Folder
1 11
Advice from the Muse

11a
Advice to a Prophet

12
After the Last Bulletins

13
The Agent

14
Another Voice

15
The Aspen and the Stream

16
Ballade for the Duke of Orleans

17
Baroque Wall-fountain (no text, only Wilbur's commentary)

18
The Beacon



Box
Folder
1 18a
A Black Birch in Winter (fair copy mailed to WGBY-TV for its fundraising auction; includes ALS and env.) 1974 Apr

19
A Black November Turkey

20
A Christmas Hymn

21
A Chronic Condition

22
Complaint

23
Digging for China

24
Driftwood

25
Easter Sun ("Parable" was salvaged from this poem)

26
Exeunt (also published as "Exodus"), with drafts

-
Exodus - see "Exeunt"

Box
Folder
1 27
Fall in Corrales (see also "Speech for the repeal of the McCarran Act")

28
Ferns in Hampshire County

29
A fire truck

30
For Kathleen Raine on her sixtieth birthday

31
From the lookout rock

32
Gemini



Box
Folder
1 32a
Gnomons

33
The good servant

34
A grasshopper

35
He was

Box
Folder
2 1
Hole in the floor

1a
Icarium Mare

2
In a churchyard

3
In the elegy season

4
In the smoking car

5
John Chrysostom

6
Junk

7
Lamarck elaborated (with initial notes for "Mind")

8
A late aubade (includes 1968 Christmas card)

9
The lilacs (includes proofs of "The proof" and "Seed leaves"

10
Looking into history (includes initial notes for "Beasts," "A voice from under the table," and some unwritten poems)

11
Love calls us to the things of this world

12
Loves of the puppets

13
Matthew VIII, 28ff

14
The mechanist

15
Merlin enthralled

16
The mill (see also "Speech for repeal of the McCarran Act")

17
A Miltonic sonnet for Mr. Johnson, on the occasion of his refusal of Peter Hurd's official portrait

18
Mind (see also "Lamarck elaborated")

19
Next door

20
October maples, Portland

21
On the marginal way

-
Parable - see "Easter sun"


Piazza di Spagna - see Molière: Misanthrope - worksheets

Box
Folder
2 22
A plain song for comadre

23
A postcard for Bob Bly

24
The proof (includes page proof for Christmas card) See also: "The lilacs"

24a
The Ride

25
Rillons, rillettes

26
Running

27
Seed leaves See also: "The lilacs"

27a
Shad-time

28
Shame

29
She

30
Someone talking to himself

31
Speech for the repeal of the McCarran Act (also notes on "The Mill," and "Fall in Corrales")

32
Stop

33
A summer morning

34
The terrace

35
To Ishtar

36
Two quatrains for first frost

37
The undead

38
Under Cygnus (includes Christmas card with personal, handwritten note from Mrs. Wilbur)

39
A voice from under the table See also: "Looking into history"

40
Walking to sleep

40a
A Wall in the Woods: Cummington (TS with corrected photocopy)

41
A wood

42
Ahkmatova, Anna

43
Aretino, Pietro

44
Baudelaire, Charles Pierre

45
Char, René

46
Du Bellay, Joachim

47
Guillen, Jorge

48
James, Francis

49
La Fontaine, Jean de

50
Orléans, Charles, duc d'

51
Pichette, Henri

52
Quasimodo, Salvatore

53
Valéry, Paul

54
Voznesensky, Andrei

Series 2: TRANSLATIONS AND ADAPTATIONS

Series 2, TRANSLATIONS AND ADAPTATIONS, is further organized into two sub-series: A. Translations of Individual Poems, arranged alphabetically by poet. B. Other Translations, namely of works by Molière and Renard.


Box
Folder
3 1
Molière and Hofmannsthal: The bourgeois gentleman - narration to accompany the Boston Symphony performance of the Burger als Edelman by Richard Strauss

2
Renard, Jules: A romance - corrected typescript

3
Misanthrope - worksheets, mostly act V (also includes first draft of "Piazza di Spagna")

4
Misanthrope - typescript, setting copy

5
Tartuffe - worksheets, typescrpt, and proofs of introduction and front matter.

5a
Tartuffe - Typescript (carbon)

6
Tartuffe - worksheets for act II

7
Tartuffe - typescript, setting copy

8
Tartuffe - galley proofs

9
Tartuffe - worksheet of curtain verses written for opening night

10
Tartuffe - additional lines for Lincoln Center performance

11
Tartuffe - notes and drafts for article on the Lincoln Center performance

11a
Tartuffe - "Instructions to the director of Tartuffe" (TS, 1 p.), contrasting with the Lincoln Center performance ca. 1967-1969

12
The Misanthrope and Tartuffe - (Harvest Book edition) - worksheets and draft of note to the Harvest edition

13
The Misanthrope and Tartuffe - (Harvest Book edition) - proofs of front matter and Tartuffe

Series 3: PROSE

Series 3, PROSE, includes essays, reviews, memorial notes, appreciations, etc., organized alphabetically by title or subject.


Box
Folder
3 14
American Academy of Arts and Letters and National Institute of Arts and Letters, Proceedings of - corrected ms. of article, with accompanying TLS to Margaret Mills 1972 Apr-Sep

15
Arvin, Newton: Longfellow - worksheets for a review

16
"Blurbs" written by RW - list prepared by RW together with a proof of covers for R. Pau-Llosa's book Sorting Metaphors 1983

17
Essay on Milton's companion poems - worksheets, typescript, and proof

18
Essay on Poetry - manuscript draft

19
Frost, Robert - In the Clearing - drafts and typescript of review

20
Frost, Robert - Contribution to Robert Frost Commemorative Issue of the Amherst Student - worksheet and typescript

21
Hillyer, Robert - draft of a memorial note

21a
Loudmouse: story outline, manuscript, and typescript; letter to Louis Untermeyer 1962 Jun 11

21b
Loudmouse: galleys for a new edition

22
Lowell, Robert: "Skunk hour" - manuscript of commentary

23
The 1964 International Writers' Seminar at Lahti - notes, manuscript, and typescript of an article

24
The Poe mystery case - manuscript and typescript

25
A Poet and the movies - worksheets and typescript

26
Shakespeare's poems - all matter for an introduction

Series 4: LECTURES AND SPEECHES

Series 4, LECTURES AND SPEECHES, includes texts prepared by Wilbur for occasions of public speaking, including introductions of other speakers.


Box
Folder
4 1
American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters - Remarks by the Chancellor (i.e., RW) 1977 May 18

1a
Bishop, Elizabeth - draft and text of introduction to her poetry reading

2
Films - manuscript and typescript of a panel talk on experimental films

3
Frost, Robert - introduction to his talk

4
Frost Library, Amherst College - manuscript and typescript of talk at dedication

5
The house of Poe - manuscript of lecture

6
Lawrence College - manuscript, typescript, and printed copy of commencement address

7
Miller, Henry: Tropic of Cancer - draft of defense testimony

8
Nash, Ogden - introduction to his lecture

9
National book award acceptance speech - drafts and final text

10
On my own work - notes, manuscript, and typescript plus corrected proofs for publication

11
Poetry and happiness - manuscript of lecture

12
The present state of Whitman - notes, manuscript and typescript of talk

13
Roethke, Theodore - Manuscript and typescript of talk

14
Round about a poem of Housman's - notes, outline, manuscript, and partial typescript of lecture

15
A tribute to Andrei Voznesensky - prefatory remarks

16
Washington University - notes and typescript of commencement address

17
Wilbur bibliography - manuscript and carbon of introductory note

Series 5: CORRESPONDENCE

Series 5 is correspondence arranged alphabetically by correspondent name.


Box
Folder
4 18
Baird, Theodore [ca. 1942]-1983

19
Berg, Steve (American Poetry Review), with TS of the poem "About Lying" 1982-1983

20
Brower, Reuben 1953 Feb 18

21
Catoggio, Nicholas (The Amherst Student) 1994 Nov 8

22
Clarke, Henry L. 1979-1984

23
Cole, William 1993 May 24

24
Cooper, Mr. [?] 1977 Jan 13

25
Craig, Armour 1943-1946

26
Gauthier, Mr. [?] 1998 Feb 20

27
Glick, G. Wayne (6 letters + replies) 1998-2005

28
Hagstrom, Jack W. C. - explaining a cartoon by RW that appeared in The Montclair Times, ca. 1936 1981 Aug

29
Lancaster, John 1987-2003

30
Law, Mark (Kolbourne School) 1982 Feb 18

31
Leekley, Richard 1968-1973

32
Little, John 1972 Mar 14

33
Murdoch, Eleanor 1960 Feb 29

34
Pringle, Roger (Shakespeare Birthplace Trust) 1977 Mar 28

35
Targ, [William] 1971

36
Toerien, Barend J. (translator of Wilbur poems into Afrikaans) 1962

37
Untermeyer, Louis - concerning an anthology, Modern American and Modern British Poetry, Shorter Revised Edition (1955), on which Wilbur and Karl Shapiro served as editorial "consultants" with Untermeyer 1954-1955

38
Wright, Stuart (Palaemon Press) 1980-1985

Series 6: MISCELLANEOUS

Series 6, MISCELLANEOUS, includes light verse, an answer to a questionnaire, a statement of political activities.


Box
Folder
4 39
Light verse on a frog 1968 Feb 12

40
Answer to questionnaire published in DELOS 1968 Jan-Feb

41
Political activities 1967-1968

42
Three drawings by Wilbur - caricatures of T. W. White IV, Prof. Oscar Schotté, and Prof. Laurence Packard (Gift of Thomas H. White AC 1941) ca. 1940-1941

43
Biographical chronology of RW - photocopy with manuscript corrections by RW [1984]