A Guide to the Papers of Charles Wright ca. 1890-1998 Wright, Charles. 11437

A Guide to the Papers of Charles Wright ca. 1890-1998

A Collection in
The Special Collections Department
Accession number 11437


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Processed by: Special Collections Department

Repository
Special Collections, University of Virginia Library
Accession number
11437
Title
Papers of Charles Wright ca. 1890-1998
Physical Characteristics
38 Hollinger boxes, ca. 16 linear shelf feet
Language
English
Abstract
This collection consists of the papers of American poet and University of Virginia English professor, Charles Penzel Wright (1935 - ), ca. 5,000 items (38 Hollinger boxes, ca. 16 linear shelf feet), ca. 1890-1999, including manuscripts, poetry and translation notebooks kept by Charles Wright, professional and personal correspondence, photographs, printed material, news clippings, artwork, interviews, book reviews, and tape recordings.

Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

The collection is without restrictions.

Use Restrictions

See the University of Virginia Library’s use policy.

Preferred Citation

Papers of Charles Wright, Accession # 11437, Special Collections Dept., University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Va.

Acquisition Information

This collection was acquired by the University of Virginia Library from Charles Wright, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, on October 5, 1998, and is unrestricted.

Biographical/Historical Information

Charles Wright was born in Pickwick Dam, Hardin County, Tennessee on August 25, 1935, to Charles Penzel and Mary Castleman (Winter) Wright, and was educated at Davidson College (B.A., 1957), the University of Iowa Writer's Workshop (M.F.A., 1963) and the University of Rome (1963-1964). He served in the United States Army Intelligence Corps, 1957-1961, where he studied at the Army Language School, Monterey, California, the first year. He spent the remaining three years of service in and around Verona, Italy, returning there to study on a Fulbright grant in 1963-1964.

Since 1966, Wright has been an English professor, first at the University of California, Irvine (1966-1983), and then at the University of Virginia (1983 until the present). He married Holly McIntire in 1969, and published his first book of poems, The Grave of the Right Hand , in 1970. Other titles of poetry include: Hard Freight (1973); Bloodlines (1975); China Trace (1977); The Southern Cross (1981); Country Music: Selected Early Poems (1982); The Other Side of the River (1984); Zone Journals (1988); The World of Ten Thousand Things: Poems 1980-1990 (1990); Chickamauga (1995); Black Zodiac (1997) and Appalachia (1998). During his entire career, Wright has won national recognition for his poetry. Several of these awards include the Edgar Allan Poe Award from the Academy of American Poets for Bloodlines (1976), the National Book Award in poetry for Country Music: Selected Early Poems (1983), the Ruth Lilly Poetry prize (1993), the Academy of American Poets Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize for Chickamauga (1996), and the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for Black Zodiac (1998). He has also received awards for his work in translation, notably the PEN Translation Prize for his translation of the Italian poet Eugenio Montale's The Storm and Other Things . Wright has also published translations of the Italian poet Dino Campana ( Orphic Songs , 1984).

For more complete biographical and professional information consult the Gale Literary Database on Contemporary Authors and the web site for the Pulitzer Prizes on the Internet, Wright's essay in The Contemporary Authors Autobiography Series , the essay about Wright by George F. Buttrick in The Dictionary of Literary Biography , the volume The Point Where All Things Meet: Essays on Charles Wright collected and edited by Tom Andrews, and the biographical folder in Box 36. Also helpful are the two collections of critical essays and interviews about Wright published in Halflife: Improvisations and Interviews , 1977-1987, University of Michigan Press (1988) and Quarter Notes: Improvisations and Interviews , University of Michigan Press (1995).

Scope and Content Information

This collection consists of the papers of American poet and University of Virginia English professor, Charles Penzel Wright (1935 - ), ca. 5,000 items (38 Hollinger boxes, ca. 16 linear shelf feet), ca. 1890- 1999, including manuscripts, poetry and translation notebooks kept by Charles Wright, professional and personal correspondence, photographs, printed material, news clippings, artwork, interviews, book reviews, and tape recordings.

The correspondence files with other poets and literary persons and family, have been arranged by the last name of the correspondent (Boxes 1-17). The more frequent correspondents and correspondence with some of the other Pulitzer Prize winners in poetry have been placed in separate folders with the total number of letters noted in the guide.

Correspondence with persons who have been awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry include: John Ashbery (1 item), Louise Gluck (6 items), Jorie Graham (13 items), Anthony Hecht (1 item), Richard Howard (4 items), Donald Justice (142 items), Galway Kinnell (3 items), Yusef Komunyakaa (1 item), Maxine Kumin (1 item), Philip Levine (207 items), William Meredith (3 items), W.S. Merwin (11 items), Lisel Mueller (1 item), Charles Simic (31 items), James Tate (27 items), Robert Penn Warren (2 items), and Richard Wilbur (2 items).

Other types of correspondence are arranged chronologically in a separate subseries B (Boxes 17-21). This includes correspondence about awards, conferences, workshops, poetry readings and other professional engagements, poems submitted to or accepted by poetry magazines and anthologies, and requests for Wright to judge poetry contests, write recommendations or evaluate candidates for academic positions; greeting cards; post cards; and invitations and announcements.

Of special interest in series two containing manuscripts by Charles Wright are the twelve volumes of hand-written poetry kept by Wright in bound notebooks, from 1968 until the present. These contain his autograph poems in chronological order as they were written. When the poems were used in his published books, Wright would mark through them in pencil. The manuscript series also has an autograph volume for Wright's translation work and one called "Halflife ( A Commonplace Notebook)," where he has recorded quotes or his own thoughts about poetry and related subjects.

Also present in a second subseries and arranged according to the title of the book, are typescripts, setting copies, page proofs, and galleys, for many of his published works, although some typescripts of early manuscripts had already been sold to private collectors in the early eighties prior to the acquisition of these papers by the Library.

A third subseries contains copies of miscellaneous manuscripts by Charles Wright, including: a copy of his Masters Thesis submitted at the University of Iowa, typescripts and galleys of individual poems published in magazines such as The New Yorker , and miscellaneous other manuscripts by Wright.

A third series contains manuscripts by other authors sent to Wright for his comment or enjoyment and are arranged by the last name of the author. Most are not complete manuscripts of books by other authors, but when they are and the title of the book is known, it is included in the guide. Some are accompanied by letters from the authors, often discussing their work.

Series four contains miscellaneous papers including: interviews and essays about Charles Wright, artwork by other people, biographical entries about Wright, contracts and publication agreements, a dissertation chapter about Wright, news clippings and printed, photographs, programs, reviews of books by Wright, royalties and honorariums, student papers about Wright, translations of Wright's poetry into Italian and German, interviews and poetry readings by Wright on audio tape, and oversize photographs, artwork, news clippings, dust jackets, and a Winter family genealogical chart.

Organization

This collection has been arranged in the following series and subseries:
Series I: Correspondence:
Subseries A: Alphabetical Correspondence arranged by last name of correspondent (Boxes 1-17)
Subseries B: Chronological Correspondence arranged by date (Boxes 17-21)
Series II: Manuscripts of Works by Charles Wright
Subseries A: Bound Volumes of Poetry & Translation Notebooks kept by Charles Wright (Boxes 21-23)
Subseries B: Poetry Manuscripts Arranged by Title of Book (Boxes 24-29)
Subseries C: Miscellaneous Manuscripts (Box 29)
Series III: Manuscripts by Other Authors arranged by the name of the author (Boxes 30-35)
Series IV: Miscellaneous Papers (Boxes 36-38)

Contents List

Series I
Correspondence 1967-1998, n.d.
Box 1-21

Arranged alphabetically by last name of correspondent

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Series II
Manuscripts of Works by Charles Wright 1963-1999, n.d.
Box 21-29
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Series III
Manuscripts by Other Authors 1974-1998, n.d.
Box 30-35

arranged by the name of the author

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Series IV
Miscellaneous Papers ca. 1890-1998, n.d.
Box 36-38
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