Richard P. Wilbur (AC 1942) Papers
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Amherst College Archives and Special Collections
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collection
Wilbur, Richard, 1921-
Biographical History for: Richard P. Wilbur (AC 1942) Papers
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.
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.
Translators -- United States| -- Sources.
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Poets, American -- 20th century -- Sources.
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Amherst College. Class of 1942. Wilbur.
series
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
Subseries A: Published Volumes
Ceremony and Other Poems - worksheets and typescripts for material eliminated from publishing the volume ca. 1950
Ceremony and Other Poems - worksheets and typescripts ca. 1950
Ceremony and Other Poems - galley proofs ca. 1950
Things of This World - typescript, setting copy ca. 1956
Advice to a Prophet - Worksheets and typescripts ca. 1959
Advice to a Prophet - galley and page proofs ca. 1959
Walking to Sleep - worksheets and typescripts ca. 1968
Walking to Sleep - proofs of front matter, dust jacket, and brochure ca. 1968
Walking to Sleep - proofs of text ca. 1968
Correspondence (2 letters from Wilbur, 1 from John Ciardi about Untermeyer's review of Walking to Sleep) 1969 Apr
Pedestrian Flight - typescripts, galley, and page proofs) ca. 1979-1981
Pedestrian Flight - correspondence with Stuart Wright, palaemon Press) ca. 1979-1981
Subseries B: Individual Poems
Advice from the Muse
Advice to a Prophet
After the Last Bulletins
The Agent
Another Voice
The Aspen and the Stream
Ballade for the Duke of Orleans
Baroque Wall-fountain (no text, only Wilbur's commentary)
The Beacon
BeastsSee: "Looking Into History"
A Black Birch in Winter (fair copy mailed to WGBY-TV for its fundraising auction; includes ALS and env.)
A Black November Turkey
A Christmas Hymn
A Chronic Condition
Complaint
Digging for China
Driftwood
Easter Sun ("Parable" was salvaged from this poem)
Exeunt (also published as "Exodus"), with drafts
Exodus - see "Exeunt"
Fall in Corrales (see also "Speech for the repeal of the McCarran Act")
Ferns in Hampshire County
A fire truck
For Kathleen Raine on her sixtieth birthday
From the lookout rock
Gemini
Giraffe - see "Exeunt"
Gnomons
The good servant
A grasshopper
He was
Hole in the floor
Icarium Mare
In a churchyard
In the elegy season
In the smoking car
John Chrysostom
Junk
Lamarck elaborated (with initial notes for "Mind")
A late aubade (includes 1968 Christmas card)
The lilacs (includes proofs of "The proof" and "Seed leaves"
Looking into history (includes initial notes for "Beasts," "A voice from under the table," and some unwritten poems)
Love calls us to the things of this world
Loves of the puppets
Matthew VIII, 28ff
The mechanist
Merlin enthralled
The mill (see also "Speech for repeal of the McCarran Act")
A Miltonic sonnet for Mr. Johnson, on the occasion of his refusal of Peter Hurd's official portrait
Mind (see also "Lamarck elaborated")
Next door
October maples, Portland
On the marginal way
Parable - see "Easter sun"
Piazza di Spagna - see Molière: Misanthrope - worksheets
A plain song for comadre
A postcard for Bob Bly
The proof (includes page proof for Christmas card) See also: "The lilacs"
The Ride
Rillons, rillettes
Running
Seed leaves See also: "The lilacs"
Shad-time
Shame
She
Someone talking to himself
Speech for the repeal of the McCarran Act (also notes on "The Mill," and "Fall in Corrales")
Stop
A summer morning
The terrace
To Ishtar
Two quatrains for first frost
The undead
Under Cygnus (includes Christmas card with personal, handwritten note from Mrs. Wilbur)
A voice from under the table See also: "Looking into history"
Walking to sleep
A Wall in the Woods: Cummington (TS with corrected photocopy)
A wood
Ahkmatova, Anna
Aretino, Pietro
Baudelaire, Charles Pierre
Char, René
Du Bellay, Joachim
Guillen, Jorge
James, Francis
La Fontaine, Jean de
Orléans, Charles, duc d'
Pichette, Henri
Quasimodo, Salvatore
Valéry, Paul
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.
Molière and Hofmannsthal: The bourgeois gentleman - narration to accompany the Boston Symphony performance of the Burger als Edelman by Richard Strauss
Renard, Jules: A romance - corrected typescript
Misanthrope - worksheets, mostly act V (also includes first draft of "Piazza di Spagna")
Misanthrope - typescript, setting copy
Tartuffe - worksheets, typescrpt, and proofs of introduction and front matter.
Tartuffe - Typescript (carbon)
Tartuffe - worksheets for act II
Tartuffe - typescript, setting copy
Tartuffe - galley proofs
Tartuffe - worksheet of curtain verses written for opening night
Tartuffe - additional lines for Lincoln Center performance
Tartuffe - notes and drafts for article on the Lincoln Center performance
Tartuffe - "Instructions to the director of Tartuffe" (TS, 1 p.), contrasting with the Lincoln Center performance
The Misanthrope and Tartuffe - (Harvest Book edition) - worksheets and draft of note to the Harvest edition
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.
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
Arvin, Newton: Longfellow - worksheets for a review
"Blurbs" written by RW - list prepared by RW together with a proof of covers for R. Pau-Llosa's book Sorting Metaphors
Creation of "Blurbs" written by RW - list prepared by RW together with a proof of covers for R. Pau-Llosa's book Sorting Metaphors
Time of Creation of "Blurbs" written by RW - list prepared by RW together with a proof of covers for R. Pau-Llosa's book Sorting Metaphors
Essay on Milton's companion poems - worksheets, typescript, and proof
Essay on Poetry - manuscript draft
Frost, Robert - In the Clearing - drafts and typescript of review
Frost, Robert - Contribution to Robert Frost Commemorative Issue of the Amherst Student - worksheet and typescript
Hillyer, Robert - draft of a memorial note
Loudmouse: story outline, manuscript, and typescript; letter to Louis Untermeyer
Loudmouse: galleys for a new edition
Lowell, Robert: "Skunk hour" - manuscript of commentary
The 1964 International Writers' Seminar at Lahti - notes, manuscript, and typescript of an article
The Poe mystery case - manuscript and typescript
A Poet and the movies - worksheets and typescript
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.
American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters - Remarks by the Chancellor (i.e., RW)
Bishop, Elizabeth - draft and text of introduction to her poetry reading
Films - manuscript and typescript of a panel talk on experimental films
Frost, Robert - introduction to his talk
Frost Library, Amherst College - manuscript and typescript of talk at dedication
The house of Poe - manuscript of lecture
Lawrence College - manuscript, typescript, and printed copy of commencement address
Miller, Henry: Tropic of Cancer - draft of defense testimony
Nash, Ogden - introduction to his lecture
National book award acceptance speech - drafts and final text
On my own work - notes, manuscript, and typescript plus corrected proofs for publication
Poetry and happiness - manuscript of lecture
The present state of Whitman - notes, manuscript and typescript of talk
Roethke, Theodore - Manuscript and typescript of talk
Round about a poem of Housman's - notes, outline, manuscript, and partial typescript of lecture
A tribute to Andrei Voznesensky - prefatory remarks
Washington University - notes and typescript of commencement address
Wilbur bibliography - manuscript and carbon of introductory note
Series 5: CORRESPONDENCE
Baird, Theodore [ca. 1942]-1983
Berg, Steve (American Poetry Review), with TS of the poem "About Lying" 1982-1983
Brower, Reuben 1953 Feb 18
Catoggio, Nicholas (The Amherst Student) 1994 Nov 8
Clarke, Henry L. 1979-1984
Cole, William 1993 May 24
Cooper, Mr. [?] 1977 Jan 13
Craig, Armour 1943-1946
Gauthier, Mr. [?] 1998 Feb 20
Glick, G. Wayne (6 letters + replies) 1998-2005
Hagstrom, Jack W. C. - explaining a cartoon by RW that appeared in The Montclair Times, ca. 1936 1981 Aug
Lancaster, John 1987-2003
Law, Mark (Kolbourne School) 1982 Feb 18
Leekley, Richard 1968-1973
Little, John 1972 Mar 14
Murdoch, Eleanor 1960 Feb 29
Pringle, Roger (Shakespeare Birthplace Trust) 1977 Mar 28
Targ, [William] 1971
Toerien, Barend J. (translator of Wilbur poems into Afrikaans) 1962
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
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.
Light verse on a frog 1968 Feb 12
Answer to questionnaire published in DELOS 1968 Jan-Feb
Political activities 1967-1968
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
Biographical chronology of RW - photocopy with manuscript corrections by RW [1984]