Archives West Finding Aid
Table of Contents
The Richard Hugo Collection, 1959-2012
Overview of the Collection
- Title
- The Richard Hugo Collection
- Dates
- 1959-2012 (inclusive)19592012
- Quantity
- 1 box, (.2 cubic feet)
- Collection Number
- OLPb140HUG
- Summary
- This collection is an assembly of materials documenting the relationship between the poet Richard Hugo and the poet William Stafford. The collection also includes drafts of some of Hugo's writings that were sent to Stafford for input.
- Repository
-
Lewis & Clark College, Special Collections and Archives
Aubrey R. Watzek Library
615 S. Palatine Hill Rd.
Portland, OR
97219
Telephone: 5037687758
Fax: 5037687282
archives@lclark.edu - Access Restrictions
-
This collection has no restrictions and is open for research.
- Languages
- English
Biographical NoteReturn to Top
Richard Hugo was born December 21, 1923 in Seattle and was raised in White Center, a working class district of Seattle. Hugo lived with his grandparents for most of his childhood and early adult life. He served as a bombardier in Italy during World War II. Following the war, Hugo attended the University of Washington, where he studied writing with Theodore Roethke. He earned a BA in 1948 and a MA in 1952. In 1959 Hugo, along with Carolyn Kizer, Earl Pritchard and Nelson Bentley, founded the literary magazine Poetry Northwest.
While continuing to write poetry, Hugo supported himself for 13 years by working for the Boeing Aircraft Company in various jobs, including that of a technical writer. In 1963 he left Boeing to revisit Italy. He returned to the United States in 1964 to accept a teaching position at the University of Montana, where he became Director of the Creative Writing Program in 1971, and where he continued to teach until his death.
During the last two decades of his life, Hugo's reputation as a writer grew with the publication of nine collections of poetry, three chapbooks, a collection of essays and a detective novel. He was twice nominated for the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize. In 1968, the Rockefeller Foundation awarded him a traveling grant which allowed him to revisit Italy. In 1976 he was appointed editor of the Yale Younger Poets Series. In 1977 Hugo received a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, which allowed him to live in Scotland from 1977-1978. At various times he was a guest lecturer at the University of Iowa, University of Arkansas, University of Colorado, and University of Washington. Hugo survived the loss of a lung to cancer in 1980, but died of leukemia in Seattle on October 22, 1982.
Posthumous publications of Hugo's work include a chapbook, Sea Lanes Out; collected poems, Making Certain It Goes On; and a collection of autobiographical essays, The Real West Marginal Way.
Content DescriptionReturn to Top
The collection includes copies of correspondence between Hugo and Stafford, typed drafts and copies of some of Hugo's books, publications featuring Hugo, and a research paper on the relationship between Hugo and William Stafford.
Use of the CollectionReturn to Top
Restrictions on Use
Permission to publish, exhibit, broadcast, or quote from materials in the Watzek Library Archives & Special Collections requires written permission of the Head of Archives & Special Collections.
Preferred Citation
The Richard Hugo Collection (OLPb140HUG), Lewis & Clark College Aubrey Watzek Library Archives & Special Collections, Portland, Oregon.
Administrative InformationReturn to Top
Arrangement
Arranged in a single series of items grouped by material type and date.
Location of Collection
Special CollectionsLocation of Originals
Some of the materials in the collection are photocopies from the William Stafford Archives at Lewis & Clark College and from the Richard Hugo Papers at the University of Washington.
Custodial History
Assembled by Lewis & Clark College Special Collections staff from materials originally owned by William Stafford and from copies of materials in the Richard Hugo Papers at the University of Washington.
Processing Note
Processed in 2013.
Related Materials
The William Stafford Archives at Lewis & Clark College also includes photographs of Richard Hugo taken by Stafford.
Detailed Description of the CollectionReturn to Top
The following section contains a detailed listing of the materials in the collection.
Container(s) | Description | Dates |
---|---|---|
Box/Folder | ||
1.1 | Listing and summaries of letters between Richard Hugo and William Stafford compiled by Garrett Chavis | 2012 |
1.2 | Hugo-Stafford Correspondence 89 letters
Letters are photocopies from the William Stafford Archives at Lewis & Clark College and the Hugo Papers at University of Washington.
|
1959-1982 |
1.3 | "Random Reactions to The Dyer's Hand" by Richard Hugo
photocopy of typed manuscript from William Stafford's library.
|
undated |
1.4 |
A Run of Jack's by Richard Hugo
Original typed manuscript from William Stafford's library.
|
1960 |
1.5 |
The Lady in Kicking Horse Reservoir by Richard Hugo
Mimeographed typed manuscript from William Stafford's library.
|
1970 |
1.6 |
The New Salt Creek Reader, vol. 6, no. 4
Includes an interview with Richard Hugo.
|
Spring 1974 |
1.7 | "The Collected Correspondence of William Stafford and Richard Hugo" by Garrett Chavis
A research paper and materials for an exhibit on Hugo and Stafford.
|
2012 |
Names and SubjectsReturn to Top
Subject Terms
- American poetry--Northwest, Pacific
- Authors, American--20th century
Personal Names
- Hugo, Richard, 1923-1982--Correspondence
- Stafford, William, 1914-1993--Correspondence
Form or Genre Terms
- Correspondence