Administrative Information

Access

Collection is open for use without restrictions.

Use Restrictions

none

Preferred Citation

Box/folder, Mary Sinton Leitch Papers, M 52, Special Collections and Archives, James Branch Cabell Library, Virginia Commonwealth University

Acquisition Information

Barbara Murphy, a granddaughter of Mrs. Leitch, gave the papers to Randolph-Macon Women's College, where they were in the custody of Roberta Cornelius, a faculty member. Ms. Cornelius retired in 1968 and sent the collection to Mrs. Emma Gray Trigg. Mrs. Trigg gave the Leitch papers to the Department in November 1968, along with the papers of Marietta Minnegerode Andrews (M189).

Processing Information

Collection processed in March 1984 and revised in June 1990.

Biographical/Historical Information

Mary Sinton (Lewis) Leitch was born 8 September 1876 in New York City, the daughter of Carlton Thomas and Nancy Dunlap (McKeen) Lewis. She received her early education in private prepatory schools and then attended Smith College, Columbia University and schools in France and Germany.

In New York, she served as an inspector of women's prisons and later became a contributing editor to Harper's Monthly, the New York Herald, and the New York Evening Post. On leaving these positions, she began a world tour on sailing ships and tramp steamers in order to gain insight into native languages and customs.

She married John David Leitch on 17 October 1907 and settled in Lynnhaven, Virginia. She became one of the founding members of the Poetry Society of Virginia, served as its president in 1933 and its co- President in 1944-1945. In 1932, Mrs. Leitch edited the highly praised Lyric Virginia Today (vol. 1). She spent the remainder of her life at "Wycherly" in Lynnhaven, Virginia. Mrs. Leitch died 20 August 1954.

Leitch's works include The Wagon and the Star (1922), The Unrisen Morrow (1926), The Black Moon (1929), Spider Architect (1937), From Invisible Mountains (1943), Himself and I (1950), and Nightingales on the Moon (1952).

Scope and Content Information

The Papers of Mary Sinton Leitch consist of various materials of and by this Virginia author. Conatined in the collection are a large number of manuscript poems and short stories by Leitch, her correspondence with other authors (including Carl Sandberg and T.S. Eliot) and a good deal of miscellaneous material. The collection spans the years 1930 through 1968.

Arrangement

Collection is arranged by series and chronological therein.

Series I--Short Stories (n.d., 1929, 1941, 1947)
Series II--Poems (n.d., 1944)
Series III--Correspondence (n.d., Mary Sinton Leitch Papers 1937-1954)
Series IV--Miscellaneous and Clippings (n.d., 1939-1954)
Series V--Publications, Workbooks and Notebooks (n.d., 1936-1954)