Archives West Finding Aid
Table of Contents
- Overview of the Collection
-
Biographical Note
- Content Description
- Administrative Information
-
Detailed Description of the Collection
- Biographical material and personal papers
- Correspondence
- Poems
- Published articles and reviews
- Translations
- Educational records
- Academic career records
- Course material
- Boise poetry series
- Associations and programs (professional and cultural)
- Miscellaneous
- Bound volumes and tape recordings
- Oversize items
- Names and Subjects
Charles David Wright Papers, 1931-1984
Overview of the Collection
- Creator
- Wright, Charles David, 1931-1978
- Title
- Charles David Wright Papers
- Dates
- 1931-1984 (inclusive)19311984
- Quantity
- 14.5 linear feet, (21 boxes)
- Collection Number
- MSS 086
- Summary
- The Charles David Wright papers document his literary, cultural, and academic careers. The collection includes correspondence (literary, professional, and personal); juvenile writings; student notes and papers from his graduate studies at the University of Iowa; lecture notes from is teaching career at Boise State University and the University of North Carolina; published articles on Matthew Arnold, Victorian literature, and James Joyce; and records from his work with cultural and professional organizations. The heart of the collection, however, is made up of Wright's poems, more than 125 of them, in variant drafts and various stages of evolution. It is possible to trace the development of many of the poems from the earliest idea to the final published form. Charles David Wright worked hard at his poetry, writing and rewriting, returning to his poems again and again to refine them and improve them. The record of that effort is preserved in the poetry files.
- Repository
-
Boise State University Library, Special Collections and Archives
Special Collections and Archives
1910 University Drive
Boise ID
83725
Telephone: 2084263990
archives@boisestate.edu - Access Restrictions
-
Collection is available for research.
- Languages
- English
- Sponsor
- Funding for encoding this finding aid was provided, in part, by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities
Biographical NoteReturn to Top
Charles David Wright was born on June 2, 1931, the first son of a Scottish immigrant coal miner. During his childhood in Marion, Illinois, his father also baked bread and worked for the WPA. In 1940, the family moved to Detroit, where Wright attended public schools. His mother worked as a domestic for a high school home economics teacher. This experience instilled in her a sense of "gracious living" which included an appreciation of writers like Edgar A. Guest, the Detroit Free Press, and the Harvard Classics, as well as for proper table setting, which she passed on to Charles. Her family had lived on a triangle of land between railroad tracks; Charles would have choices.
Intent on the ministry, Charles David Wright was influenced in his teenage years by his Baptist youth minister, who fed him books: American and British classics, as well as some that shook his fundamentalist beliefs. While he flunked high school English, he made it into Wayne State University in 1949, where his passion turned to the social gospel. His writings began to reflect a concern for issues such as race relations and workers' rights. During the summers he worked in Ford plants and in construction. His diaries reveal that folk music, the Student League for Industrial Democracy, and a love of Jewish culture were shaping his thinking. Wright's mentors at Wayne included a Victorian scholar, Jim McCormick, whose intellectual life, family, and knowledge of food and wine became a model for Wright's own sense of good living. Another, Vincent Wall, a professor and playwright, produced a one-act play by Wright that had won a playwriting competition. Wright graduated from Wayne in 1953 with a degree in English. In 1954 Charles David Wright enrolled in the graduate program at the University of Wisconsin. He earned a masters degree in English in 1954.
His political activism grew at Wisconsin, and he became close friends with George Rawick, a fellow student working on a Ph.D. about the political left movements of the thirties. Awaiting the draft in Detroit, Wright met Ruth Petty. In 1955 they were married in Alaska where he spent two years in the U.S. Army driving oversnow vehicles and editing a newspaper. He also taught a community college course in English and once graded exams by the light of candles fashioned of tent rope and butter. He smuggled moose steaks in water tanks on winter maneuvers, always carried something to eat, read, and smoke. He would later say that the inhumanity of the Army made him the best possible civilian.
In 1957 the Wrights moved to Germany, where Charles David Wright spent a year studying German history and literature at Tubingen University. On their return to the United States, he entered the Ph.D. program at the University of Iowa. He completed the requirements for a Ph.D. in English in 1962 with a doctoral dissertation entitled Matthew Arnold's Response to German Culture. The literature of the Victorian period, as well as poetry (both writing and appreciation) would be Wright's areas of concentration during his teaching career. The Wright's two children were born in Iowa: a son, David, in 1958, and a daughter, Vivian, in 1960. While at Iowa, Wright picketed for racial equity in student housing, wrote quatrains, and kept a sign above his desk which read "Graduate school is not life." Charles David Wright's first academic appointment came in 1962 when he joined the English faculty at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. He spent ten years at North Carolina, where he attained the rank of Associate Professor with tenure. In 1965 he won an award from the student government for excellence in undergraduate teaching. He served as state coordinator for the North Carolina Poetry Circuit and organized the Southeastern Conferences of Little Magazines in 1968. Both he and his wife were active in the civil rights movement during the mid-1960s, and he served as Democratic precinct chairman, PTA officer, and Cub Scout leader. In 1969, he was an unsuccessful candidate for the Carrboro, N.C., board of aldermen, campaigning on a ticket with a black candidate. During the campaign, he politicked in the backwoods of rural Carrboro and received harassing phone calls. One caller challenged, "Mr. Wright, I hear you're a god damned atheist." To which he responded, "Well now, how can you know a man's heart?" Religious values, indeed, were important in his life. He affiliated with religiously liberal congregations and participated in programs of the Society for Religion in Higher Education. He was a Danforth Foundation fellow at the University of North Carolina, and maintained a lifelong correspondence with his childhood friend David M. Gracie, who had become an activist Episcopal priest. Exploration of religious concepts was an important part of their correspondence. While on the faculty at Chapel Hill, Charles David Wright resumed the writing of poetry. He had stopped writing seriously during graduate studies, not wanting to be just "another earnest young poet." A turning point came when he was sleeping one night and sat bolt upright in bed exclaiming, "I've got a poem!" The poem was initially rejected by magazine publishers, but his friend and colleague, O.B. Hardison, pushed him to resubmit it. The poem "Dimensions" was accepted for publication in Harper's in 1965. It was among the first of more than 50 poems to be published in magazines, literary journals, and anthologies. Wright began reading his poetry in North Carolina at conferences and small poetry gatherings. During the summers of 1969 and 1972, he taught poetry at the Pythagoreion Institute of Art on the island of Samos, Greece, and in 1970 he read at the Struga Poetry Festival in Yugoslavia. He published scholarly articles on Matthew Arnold in Victorian Poetry and Studies in Philology in 1967 and 1968, and on James Joyce in the James Joyce Quarterly in 1968. Charles David Wright spent the academic year 1970-71 at Freiburg University in Germany on a post-doctoral, cross-disciplinary fellowship sponsored by the Society for Religion in Higher Education. His principal topics of study were 19th century German religious criticism and the English response.
Even before his return to North Carolina, however, he began actively seeking a faculty position elsewhere. In a letter to the chairman of the English Department at Boise State College, he wrote: "UNC is devoting its main resources to growth in its graduate program. I have enjoyed the graduate teaching I have done, but as a teacher and developing humanist I am more interested in undergraduate teaching... and in terms of our national culture, I give the higher priority to undergraduate and 'adult' education." Boise State College was not the only undergraduate institution to which he applied; he expressed interest in academic deanships as well as teaching positions at several colleges and universities. He was particularly interested in programs of innovative undergraduate education, such as residential colleges, which had been part of his focus in teaching at UNC. He had been offered a position at University of the Pacific's Raymond College in 1969, but declined it to undertake the post-doctoral fellowship in Germany. When Boise State College offered him an appointment on the English faculty in 1972, he accepted. Wright and his family relocated to Boise in time for the 1972 fall semester. They purchased and remodeled a 1918 house on two acres of land on Manitou Street in South Boise where--driven by ecological convictions--they developed a mini-farm: goats, chickens, rabbits, steers, ducks and a large garden. Wright taught courses on poetry, creative writing, and Victorian literature at Boise State, developed several interdisciplinary courses with faculty from other departments, and participated in the planning of the university's Humanities program. Wright continued to write poetry and actively sought opportunities t read his poems at universities and conferences. He read twice at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., and in 1976 was awarded a Creative Writing Fellowship by the National Endowment for the Arts. Wright was active in the organization of the Association for the Humanities in Idaho and served as its first chairman, 1973-75. He coordinated the Poetry-in-the-Schools program and the Boise Poetry Series, a grant-funded program of poetry readings held at the Boise Gallery of Art. Among the poets and writers that Wright brought to Boise were Robert Bly, Alan Dugan, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Judith Guest, Carolyn Kizer, Marge Piercy, and Gary Snyder. Wright once said, "If I'd been born during the Renaissance, I would have been a minstrel." He believed that the public sharing of poetry sustained the life blood of the community, and he continued to write poems meant to be read aloud.
In the fall of 1977 Wright discovered that he had cancer. After initial treatments revealed the progress of the disease, he decided not to undergo extensive therapies. He wrote "A Killing Frost" during this time and said, "It's the only poem I'm going to write about dying; death is so full of clichés." Charles David Wright died at home on July 13, 1978. His life was celebrated at a memorial poetry reading at the Boise Gallery of Art six days later. He was survived by his wife Ruth and his children David and Vivian. Wright's poems have been published in book form in two collected editions. The first, Early Rising, was published by the University of North Carolina Press in 1968. The second, Clearing Away, was issued posthumously in 1980 by Confluence Press of Lewiston, Idaho.
Prepared by Ruth and Vivian Wright
Content DescriptionReturn to Top
The papers of Charles David Wright document his career as a poet, professor, graduate student, and active participant in the cultural affairs of the state of Idaho. The collection includes correspondence (literary, professional, and personal); juvenile writings; student notes and papers from his graduate studies at the University of Iowa; lecture notes from is teaching career at Boise State University and the University of North Carolina; published articles on Matthew Arnold, Victorian literature, and James Joyce; and records from his work with cultural and professional organizations. The heart of the collection, however, is made up of Wright's poems, more than 125 of them, in variant drafts and various stages of evolution. It is possible to trace the development of many of the poems from the earliest idea to the final published form. Charles David Wright worked hard at his poetry, writing and rewriting, returning to his poems again and again to refine them and improve them. The record of that effort is preserved in the poetry files.
The Charles David Wright collection also documents the business and promotional aspects of the poet's craft. Contracts, correspondence with editors, and the inevitable collection of rejection slips all illustrate the effort necessary to get a written poem into print. Charles David Wright read his poems, too, and the reading process (from solicitation of engagements through final arrangements) is well documented.
Among the notable items in the collection are letters between Wright and leading poets of the day (Series 2 and 9); tape recordings of Wright and Lawrence Ferlinghetti reading their poetry together (Series 12); and a number of magazines and journal issues in which Wright's poems appeared (Series 12).
Forms part of the Idaho Writers Archive.
Use of the CollectionReturn to Top
Preferred Citation
[item description], Charles David Wright Papers, Box [number] Folder [number], Boise State University Special Collections and Archives.
Administrative InformationReturn to Top
Arrangement
The Charles David Wright papers have been divided into twelve series: 1. Biographical material and personal papers; 2. Correspondence; 3. Poems; 4. Published articles and reviews; 5. Translations; 6. Educational records; 7. Academic career records; 8. Course material; 9. Boise poetry series; 10. Associations and programs (professional and cultural); 11. Miscellaneous; and 12. Bound volumes and tape recordings
Detailed Description of the CollectionReturn to Top
1: Biographical material and personal papersReturn to Top
This series contains biographical sketches, resumes, obituaries, photos, and miscellaneous personal papers of Charles David Wright, including letters of condolence sent to his wife, Ruth Petty Wright, at his death. Notable items include the poems, essays, and plays written by Wright during his teenage years (Folders 5 to 8) which reflect his early religious beliefs and the changes in his religious convictions during his late high school and early college career.
Container(s) | Description | Dates | |
---|---|---|---|
Box | Folder | ||
1 | 1 | Biographical sketches and resumes |
|
1 | 2 | Obituaries |
1978 |
1 | 3 | Photos |
|
1 | 4 | Ruth Petty Wright |
|
1 | 5 | Juvenilia: Poems |
1941-1952 |
1 | 6 | Juvenilia: One-act play |
|
1 | 7 | Juvenilia: Church-related writings |
|
1 | 8 | Juvenilia: Stories and essays |
1946-1952 |
1 | 9 | Baby Book (1931) |
|
1 | 10 | Diaries: Inventory (see Box 18) |
1947-1952 |
1 | 11 | Miscellaneous notes and quotations |
|
1 | 12 | Civil rights clippings |
1964 |
1 | 13 | Home loans |
1964-1977 |
1 | 14 | Medical records |
1977-1978 |
1 | 15 | Final notes |
1978 |
1 | 16 | Calendars |
1978 |
1 | 17 | Memorial Poetry Reading |
1978 |
1 | 18 | Memorial Poems |
1978 |
1 | 19-24 | Condolences |
2: CorrespondenceReturn to Top
The correspondence files include letters both to and from Charles David Wright. Most of the correspondents listed below are poets, professors, or colleagues from graduate school. Topics of the letters include academic life, writing, publishing, literary affairs. Many files contain poems by the correspondents. The largest file of letters is from the Rev. David M. Gracie, a childhood friend and prominent social activist of Philadelphia. In their letters, Wright and Gracie discuss religious, social, and theological issues (particularly as they relate to the crises of the 1960s) as well as literary topics. The Ray Bradbury file contains the typescript of a poem "yet unpublished" which he calls "my White Whale Noah Ahab Far Space poem." The letter accompanying the poem is addressed to a Mrs. Meschuk and is dated "April 26, Apollo Year One."
Patricia Kordas is an artist who, with Russell Kordas, operated the Kordas Painting Workshop on Samos, Greece. Wright was twice poet-in-residence at the associated Pythagoreion Institute. The file of family correspondence (Box 3, Folder 30) includes one letter (undated) from Wright's brother Douglas describing experiences as a soldier in Vietnam.
Correspondence with poets visiting Boise as part of the Boise Poetry Series coordinated by Wright is found in the Boise Poetry Series, Box 16.
Container(s) | Description | Dates | |
---|---|---|---|
Box | Folder | ||
2 | 1 | Armitage, Christopher M. |
1974-1982 |
2 | 2 | Armstrong, Kathleen McCullen |
1975 |
2 | 3 | Beckett, Carolyn |
1972-1978 |
2 | 4 | Bradbury, Ray |
1970 |
2 | 5 | Coleman, James R. |
1962-1970 |
2 | 6 | Cornwell, John |
1956 |
2 | 7 | DeLaura, David J. |
1965-1970 |
2 | 8 | Dieter, Alice |
1970s |
2 | 9 | Gillette, David |
1976-1978 |
2 | 10-12 | Gracie, David M. |
1953-1968 |
2 | 13 | Grossbardt, Andrew |
undated |
2 | 14 | Guest, Judith |
1978 |
2 | 15 | Hansen, David A. |
Undated |
2 | 16 | Hardison, O.B. |
1978 |
2 | 17 | Hecht, Merna |
1976-1978 |
2 | 18 | Hepworth, James R. |
1973-1978 undated |
2 | 19 | Hewitt, Geof |
1968-1978 |
2 | 20 | Heynen, Jim |
1974-1978 |
2 | 21 | Hollis, Carroll and Alice |
1974-1978 |
2 | 22 | Howe, Irving |
1981 |
2 | 23 | Hugo, Richard |
1972-1976 |
2 | 24 | Jackson, Robert S. |
1971-1975 |
2 | 25 | Kaish, Luise |
1960-1978 |
2 | 26 | Kizer, Carolyn |
1968-1978 |
2 | 27 | Kordas, Patricia |
1972-1978 |
3 | 1 | Lehrman, Lew |
1956 |
3 | 2 | Lyon, Richard C. and Denny |
1971-1978 |
3 | 3 | Matthews, William |
1967-1975 |
3 | 4 | Matthews, William: Manuscript, Rising and Falling
|
|
3 | 5 | Matthews, William: Ms., Prose Poems of Jean Follain
|
|
3 | 6 | McCormick, James Patton |
1957-1978 |
3 | 7 | McCullough, Ken |
1974-1975 |
3 | 8 | McFadden, Charles William |
1970-1971 |
3 | 9 | McFarland, Ronald E. |
1976 |
3 | 10 | Mueller, Lisel |
1978 |
3 | 11 | Paris, Cindy |
1972-1974 |
3 | 12 | Rawick, George P. |
1956-1978 |
3 | 13 | Reedy, Penelope |
1977 |
3 | 14 | Riddle, James Douglas and Marilyn |
1976-1978 |
3 | 15 | Root, William Pitt |
1978 |
3 | 16 | Rutsala, Vern |
1977 |
3 | 17 | Simic, Charles D. |
1976-1978 |
3 | 18 | Smith, Goldwin |
1959-1978 |
3 | 19 | Smith, Harry |
1971-1978 |
3 | 20 | Soucek, Judith |
1971-1977 |
3 | 21 | Spencer, Helen (Folger Library) |
1975-1980 |
3 | 22 | Stafford, William |
1976-1978 |
3 | 23 | Stenger, Wallace |
1977-1978 |
3 | 24 | Studebaker, William |
1975-1977 |
3 | 25 | Townsend, Dean |
1977-1978 |
3 | 26 | Viereck, Peter |
1976-1977 |
3 | 27 | Wagner, Durrett (Swallow Press) |
1970-1978 |
3 | 28 | Ward, A. MacArthur ("Maggie") |
1975-1976 |
3 | 29 | Welzel, Hartmut and Sabina |
1959-1978 |
3 | 30 | Wright family |
1955-1978 |
3 | 31-33 | Miscellaneous |
1950s-1970s |
3 | 34 | Poems by friends and acquaintances |
|
3 | 35 | Requests to judge and review |
3: PoemsReturn to Top
The Poems series documents Charles David Wright's writing, publishing, and reading. Most of the files contain notes and early versions, as well as the poems in published form. Particularly well documented in these files are the poems Desperate Measures, Dimensions, Diving in the Veritas Ditch, Early Rising, The Good Drinker, More Rejoicing in Heaven, and One Hephasteus, One Aphrodite. The poetry workbooks and journals (Box 18) also contain early versions of poems as well as notes, jottings, and experimentations that led to their writing. The small file of translations (Box 5, Folder 73) contains typescripts of poems translated by Wright.
Wright's files on the Publication of his poetry contain letters to poetry editors and a log chronicling his poetry submissions (Box 6, Folder 1). The files on Readings document the promotional, organizational, and logistical details of arranging poetry readings.
Container(s) | Description | Dates | |
---|---|---|---|
Notes |
|||
Box | Folder | ||
4 | 1 | Notebooks and workbooks: Inventory |
|
4 | 2 | Notebook |
|
4 | 3 | Journal |
|
4 | 4-5 | Notes and fragments |
|
Manuscripts and drafts |
|||
Box | Folder | ||
4 | 6 | About the Pig |
|
4 | 7 | Admire the Fox |
|
4 | 8 | Almost Panta Rhea |
|
4 | 9 | Apage, Maria! |
|
4 | 10 | Apology in Order |
|
4 | 11 | August Becomes an Old and Easy Lover |
|
4 | 12 | The Bale |
|
4 | 13 | Banality of Evil and others |
|
4 | 14 | The Bearings Game |
|
4 | 15 | A Beast of Might and Will |
|
4 | 16 | The Belled Cat |
|
4 | 17 | Bird Burial |
|
4 | 18 | Broken Glass |
|
4 | 19 | The Burning Glass |
|
4 | 20 | By Dent of Joy |
|
4 | 21 | Campo di Fiori |
|
4 | 22 | Campus Dogs |
|
4 | 23 | Catechism/Bayonet Training |
|
4 | 24 | Chignon |
|
4 | 25 | Clearing Away |
|
4 | 26 | Compensation |
|
4 | 27 | The Contest |
|
4 | 28 | A Cure in Close Times |
|
4 | 29 | A Cutting |
|
4 | 30 | Dancer Well With Child |
|
4 | 31 | Dead Reckoning |
|
4 | 32 | Desperate Measures |
|
4 | 33 | Dimensions |
|
4 | 34 | Direct Early Warning |
|
4 | 35 | Diving in the Veritas Ditch |
|
4 | 36 | The Divorced Man and His Flute |
|
4 | 37 | The Dog in the Moat |
|
4 | 38 | Dressing Up |
|
4 | 39 | Early Rising |
|
4 | 40 | Epistle Upon the Occasion of Townsend's Exile to England |
|
4 | 41 | The Escape Artist/The Modesty Panel |
|
4 | 42 | Family Photo, Lebanon, Kansas |
1896 |
4 | 43 | Finding the Line |
|
4 | 44 | The Foolhen |
|
4 | 45 | For Hartmut, Formerly of Hitler Youth |
|
4 | 46 | Free of Choice |
|
4 | 47 | From An Old Anthology |
|
4 | 48 | A Gesture for Animals |
|
4 | 49 | Going Down |
|
4 | 50 | The Good Drinker, for Dean Townsend |
|
4 | 51 | The Goodnight |
|
4 | 52 | Having Given Up the Dance |
|
4 | 53 | He, She, It |
|
4 | 54 | Her Note on the Kitchen Table |
|
4 | 55 | Hilda |
|
4 | 56 | Hinton |
|
4 | 57 | His Wonders to Perform |
|
4 | 58 | How Hugh Wright Observed the Lord's Day and His Own |
|
5 | 1 | I Do Not Like the Poor |
|
5 | 2 | I Went for a Hike Up Murdoch Creek...... |
|
5 | 3 | I'm for Feasting |
|
5 | 4 | Ice Fisherman |
|
5 | 5 | Idaho Summer Rain |
|
5 | 6 | Interruption |
|
5 | 7 | The Jogger |
|
5 | 8 | A Killing Frost |
|
5 | 9 | Kordas Going Deep |
|
5 | 10 | The Land Inside Two |
|
5 | 11 | Late News |
|
5 | 12 | Leaving in the Morning |
|
5 | 13 | Letting Go of the Dark |
|
5 | 14 | Losing the Scent |
|
5 | 15 | Love Poem |
|
5 | 16 | Love's Chamelion |
|
5 | 17 | The Man of Feeling |
|
5 | 18 | Midweek Morning |
|
5 | 19 | The Mirror |
|
5 | 20 | More Rejoicing in Heaven |
|
5 | 21 | The Mushroom Hunter |
|
5 | 22 | Me Dixie Plaque |
|
5 | 23 | Naming Day |
|
5 | 24 | Naming the Kiln at Sun Valley |
|
5 | 25 | Not Passing |
|
5 | 26 | October Ending |
|
5 | 27 | Old Baggage |
|
5 | 28 | On Getting From Geof Hewitt Pictures of the Demolition of Donnelly's Bar |
|
5 | 29 | On Grading English 21 Examinations |
|
5 | 30 | One Hephaestus, One Aphrodite |
|
5 | 31 | One Way to Tell |
|
5 | 32 | The Outhouse Wagon |
|
5 | 33 | The Palsied Girl Walks in the Park |
|
5 | 34 | The Party |
|
5 | 35 | Passing Time Outside Surgery |
|
5 | 36 | Pieces of Early April |
|
5 | 37 | Prepping 203A |
|
5 | 38 | Properly Mounted |
|
5 | 39 | Recalling Anchorage |
|
5 | 40 | Red Rover |
|
5 | 41 | Rosewood |
|
5 | 42 | St. John of English 1 |
|
5 | 43 | Self Study Report |
|
5 | 44 | Shaving |
|
5 | 45 | Showing the Catch on Samos |
|
5 | 46 | Sick and Poor |
|
5 | 47 | Sleeping Dog |
|
5 | 48 | Some Semblance of Order |
|
5 | 49 | The Spider Vendor |
|
5 | 50 | Sudden Flaring |
|
5 | 51 | Symposium |
|
5 | 52 | Syn Oor Guid Dean's Awa |
|
5 | 53 | Taking Our Time |
|
5 | 54 | There Comes a Wind |
|
5 | 55 | To John Tagliabue |
|
5 | 56 | Tongues of Men and Angels |
|
5 | 57 | Tumult |
|
5 | 58 | The View From Boise Valley |
|
5 | 59 | Waiting For Guests |
|
5 | 60 | Wearing Well |
|
5 | 61 | The Woman on the Roof |
|
5 | 62 | Words For Between Floors |
|
5 | 63 | Workshops |
|
5 | 64 | Untitled ("Again our class holidays")/)MLaise) |
|
5 | 65 | Untitled ("Behind the Preacher Christ.....") |
|
5 | 66 | Untitled ("Blowing a blade drawn tight....") |
|
5 | 67 | Untitled ("My Sorrow for those......") |
|
5 | 68 | Untitled ("Negroes Still Cannot Get In")/(When) |
|
5 | 69 | Untitled ("Oh the Night was Mighty Chill...") |
|
5 | 70 | Untitled ("One reading of 'maturo'...") |
|
5 | 71 | Untitled ("Waking and coming in ...")/(Peppercorns) |
|
5 | 72 | Untitled ("You Don't Have to Say....") |
|
5 | 73 | Translated Poems |
|
Publication correspondence |
|||
Box | Folder | ||
6 | 1 | Submission logs |
|
6 | 2-4 | Journals |
|
6 | 5 | Anthologies |
1969-1981 |
6 | 6 | Arts in Society |
1974-1976 |
6 | 7 | Harpers |
1964-1975 |
6 | 8 | New American Review |
1968-1970 |
6 | 9 | Rendezvous |
|
6 | 10 | Saturday Review (J. Ciardi) |
1963-1964 |
6 | 11 | Slackwater Review |
1975-1976 |
6 | 12 | Southern Poetry Review (Guy Orr) |
1969-1976 |
Publication in book form - Early Rising |
|||
Box | Folder | ||
6 | 13 | Correspondence and contract |
1967-1976 |
6 | 14 | Contents |
|
6 | 15 | Typescript |
|
6 | 16 | Typescript, with printer's marks |
|
6 | 17 | Corrected galleys |
|
6 | 18 | Reviews and advertisements |
|
Publication in book form - Clearing Away |
|||
Box | Folder | ||
6 | 19 | Correspondence, Confluence Press |
1976-1982 |
6 | 20 | Correspondence, LSU Press |
1976-1978 |
6 | 21 | Correspondence, University of Illinois Press |
1977-1978 |
6 | 22 | Correspondence |
|
6 | 23 | Biographical statement |
|
6 | 24 | Contents |
|
6 | 25 | Typescript |
|
6 | 26 | Typing instructions |
|
6 | 27 | Reviews |
1981-1982 |
Poetry readings |
|||
Box | Folder | ||
6 | 28 | Correspondence, General |
1972-1978 |
6 | 29 | Clemson University |
1969 |
6 | 30 | University of North Carolina Educational Television |
1969 |
6 | 31 | Pythagoreion Institute (Samos, Greece) |
1969 1972 |
6 | 32 | Struga Poetry Festival (Yugoslavia) |
1970 |
6 | 33 | Master Poets Program (Colorado) |
1974 |
6 | 34 | Rocky Mountain Modern Language Assn. |
1974 |
6 | 35 | Benson County Fair (Wash.) |
1975 |
6 | 36 | Boise State University |
1975 |
6 | 37 | Folger Library (Washington, D.C.) |
1975 |
6 | 38 | Idaho Writers League |
1975 |
6 | 39 | Lewis-Clark State College |
1975 |
7 | 1 | Colorado State University |
1976 |
7 | 2 | Idaho State University |
1976 |
7 | 3 | University of Idaho |
1976 |
7 | 4 | American Assn of University Women (Boise) |
1977 |
7 | 5-6 | Boise Gallery of Art |
1977 |
7 | 7 | Folger Library (Washington, D.C.) |
1977 |
7 | 8 | Idaho Council of Teachers of English |
1977 |
7 | 9 | Rocky Mountain Modern Language Assn. |
1977 |
4: Published articles and reviewsReturn to Top
This series consists chiefly of photocopies and offprints of articles and reviews by Charles David Wright. Only in the case of "Melancholy Duffy and Sanguine Sinico" is there a manuscript in the file. The magazines from which these photocopies and offprints were taken are located in Box 19 of the collection.
Container(s) | Description | Dates | |
---|---|---|---|
Box | Folder | ||
7 | 10 | How Matthew Arnold Altered 'Goethe on Poetry' (Victorian Poetry) |
1967 |
7 | 11 | Matthew Arnold on Heine as 'Continuator of 'Goethe' (Studies in Philology) |
1968 |
7 | 12 | Melancholy Duffy and Sanguine Sinico: Humors in 'A Painful Case' James Joyce Quarterly
|
1966 |
7 | 13 | Review of Sleeping With One Eye Open, by Mark Strand Kenyon Review
|
1966 |
7 | 14 | Reviews, Copper Canyon Press books |
1975 |
5: TranslationsReturn to Top
Charles David Wright worked for many years with the German scholar Walter Schirmer translating Schirmer's study of German and English literature of the 19th century. The bulk of this series (Folders 16-24) documents that never-completed project. Translations by Wright of poems by German and Yugoslav poets are filed in Series 3 (Poems), Box 5, Folder 73.
Container(s) | Description | Dates | |
---|---|---|---|
Box | Folder | ||
7 | 15 |
Lübeck als geistige Lebensform, by Thomas Mann |
|
7 | 16-24 |
Der Einfluss der deutschen Literatur auf die englische im 19 Jahrhundert, by Walter Schirmer |
1963-1973 |
6: Educational recordsReturn to Top
The graduate essays, papers, and course notes in this series are from Wright's PhD. studies at the University of Iowa.
Container(s) | Description | Dates | |
---|---|---|---|
General records |
|||
Box | Folder | ||
8 | 1 | Transcripts and certificates |
1946-1961 |
8 | 2 | Ph.D. diploma |
1963 |
8 | 3 | Correspondence, Study in Europe |
1955-1957 |
8 | 4 | Universität Tübingen |
1957 |
8 | 5 | German Year of Study: Official correspondence |
1970-1971 |
8 | 6 | German Year of Study: Study grant, Society for Religion in Higher Education |
1970-1971 |
8 | 7 | German Year of Study: Notebooks |
1970-1971 |
Graduate essays and papers |
|||
Box | Folder | ||
8 | 8-10 | Der Messias |
1959 |
8 | 11 | Cosmological References in Herbert's Imagery |
1958 |
8 | 12 | The Role of the Poet, According to Bacon |
|
8 | 13 | Hawthorne's and Whitman's Concepts of Evil |
1959 |
8 | 14 | Hawthorne's Ambiguous Use of the Fantastic |
1959 |
8 | 15 | Shadwell's Concept of "Plays of Humor" |
1958 |
8 | 16 | Matthew Arnold and Germany |
1960 |
8 | 17 | Two Transcendentalists as Prose Stylists: Emerson and Parker |
1959 |
8 | 18 | The Conflict of Theme and Effect in Frank Norris' Epic of the Wheat |
1959 |
8 | 19 | 'Imagination' in Johnson's Lives of the English Poets |
1959 |
8 | 20 | The Monthly Review on the Novel of Sentiment, 1749-1784 |
1959 |
8 | 21 | William Hazlitt's Levels of the Laughable |
1960 |
Graduate class notes and examinations |
|||
Box | Folder | ||
9 | 1-2 | 18th Century Drama |
1960 |
9 | 3-4 | Age of Johnson |
1959 |
9 | 5-6 | Age of Tennyson |
1959 |
9 | 7-8 | American Realistic Literature, 19th Century |
1959 |
9 | 9 | Chaucer |
|
9 | 10 | Hawthorne and Whitman |
1959 |
9 | 11-12 | Restoration Drama |
1958 |
9 | 13-14 | Selected American Authors |
1958 |
9 | 15-16 | Transcendentalists |
1958 |
9 | 17 | Notes |
|
20-21 | Notecards |
||
Ph.D. dissertation material |
|||
Box | Folder | ||
10 | 1-6 | Drafts and exams |
7: Academic career recordsReturn to Top
Container(s) | Description | Dates | |
---|---|---|---|
Correspondence (in application for appointment) |
|||
Box | Folder | ||
10 | 7 | Boise State University |
1970-1972 |
10 | 8 | Evergreen State College |
1970-1972 |
10 | 9 | Johnson State College (VT) |
1971-1972 |
10 | 10 | Montana State University |
1971-1972 |
10 | 11 | Portland State University |
1970-1976 |
10 | 12 | Sangamon State University (IL) |
1971-1974 |
10 | 13 | Thomas Jefferson College (MI) |
1971 |
10 | 14 | University of Alaska |
1971-1973 |
10 | 15 | University of Idaho |
1970-1971 |
10 | 16 | University of Massachusetts |
1974 |
10 | 17 | University of New Mexico |
1971 |
10 | 18 | University of the Pacific |
1969 |
10 | 19 | University of Utah |
1971-1972 |
10 | 20 | University of Wisconsin-Green Bay |
1971 |
10 | 21 | Western Washington State College |
1969-1975 |
10 | 22 | Miscellaneous |
1969-1974 |
10 | 23 | Placement file |
1969 |
University of North Carolina |
|||
Box | Folder | ||
11 | 1 | Miscellaneous material |
1967-1972 |
11 | 2 | North Carolina Poetry Circuit: Correspondence |
1964-1972 |
11 | 3 | North Carolina Poetry Circuit: Correspondence, Alan Dugan |
1968-1969 |
11 | 4 | Pitcher Pamphlets |
1970 |
11 | 5 | Southeastern Little Magazines Conference |
1968 |
Boise State University: general |
|||
Box | Folder | ||
11 | 6 | Miscellaneous material |
1972-1978 |
11 | 7 | Contracts, schedules |
1973-1978 |
11 | 8 | Evaluations |
1973-1978 |
11 | 9 | Evaluations (by students) |
1974-1978 |
11 | 10 | Professional activity reports |
1974-1977 |
11 | 11 | Tenure consideration |
1973-1975 |
11 | 12 | Tenure and promotion policies |
|
11 | 13 | Students' poems and papers |
|
Boise State University: projects and committee work |
|||
Box | Folder | ||
11 | 14 | Cold Drill |
1974-1978 |
11 | 15 | Creative Writing Program |
1978 |
11 | 16 | General education requirements |
1977 |
11 | 17-18 | Humanities program proposal |
1973-1974 |
11 | 19 | Humanities program |
1978 |
11 | 20-21 | Liberal Arts on the Job Market workshop: Background |
1972-1978 |
11 | 22 | Poetry in the Schools |
1972-1978 |
11 | 23 | Poetry readings by others |
1974-1975 |
11 | 24 | Promotion Committee (Divisional) |
1976-1977 |
11 | 25 | Promotion and Tenure Criteria Committee (Departmental) |
1976-1977 |
11 | 26 | Self-Evaluation (English Dept.): Planning papers |
|
11 | 27 | Summer School Poetry Workshop |
1977 |
8: Course materialReturn to Top
This series contains lecture notes, source material, class syllabi, and tests for classes Charles David Wright taught at the University of North Carolina and Boise State University.
Container(s) | Description | |
---|---|---|
By topic |
||
Box | Folder | |
12 | 1-2 | Arnold, Matthew |
12 | 3 | Carlyle, Thomas |
12 | 4 | Conrad, Joseph |
12 | 5 | Ford, Ford Madox |
12 | 6 | Gissing, George |
12 | 7 | Hardy, Thomas |
12 | 8 | Hopkins, Gerard Manley |
12 | 9 | Housman, A.E. |
12 | 10 | Huxley, Thomas Henry |
12 | 11 | Kipling, Rudyard |
12 | 12 | Meredith, George |
12 | 13 | Mill, John Stuart |
12 | 14-15 | Milton, John |
12 | 16 | Morris, William |
12 | 17 | Newman, John Henry |
12 | 18 | Pater, Walter |
12 | 19 | Rossetti, Dante Gabriel |
12 | 20 | Ruskin, John |
12 | 21 | Shaw, George Bernard |
12 | 22 | Swinburne, Algernon |
12 | 23 | Tennyson, Alfred, Lord |
12 | 24 | Wells, H.G. |
12 | 25 | Wilde, Oscar |
12 | 26 | Yeats, William Butler |
12 | 27 | Miscellaneous authors |
13 | 1 | American Jewish Writers |
13 | 2 | Creative Writing |
13 | 3 | English literature, 19th Century |
13 | 4 | Literature of the American Indian |
13 | 5-6 | Miscellaneous |
13 | 7 | English 21: English Literature |
13 | 8 | English 21: English Literature (Chaucer) |
13 | 9 | English 21: English Literature (Shakespeare) |
13 | 10-11 | English 25: Introduction to Poetry |
13 | 12 | English 73: Victorian Literature |
13 | 13 | English 78: English Literature, 1890-1920 |
13 | 14 | English 93: British Novel, 1870-World War II |
13 | 15 | English 174: Major Figures, Victorian Literature |
By course, Boise State University |
||
Box | Folder | |
13 | 16-18 | English 101 and 102: Composition |
13 | 19 | English 111: Honors Composition |
13 | 20 | English 112: Honors Composition |
13 | 21-23 | English 205: Creative Writing -- Poetry |
13 | 24 | English 206: Creative Writing -- Fiction |
14 | 1-3 | English 297/497: American Life and Literature, 1930s |
14 | 4-6 | English 297: American Life and Literature, 1960s |
14 | 7-8 | English 297: Christianity in Literature |
14 | 9 | English 297: Utopia in Literature |
14 | 10 | English 305: Advanced Composition -- Poetry |
14 | 11-14 | English 366: Victorian Prose |
15 | 1-15 | English 385: Anglo-American Poetry, 20th Century |
15 | 16 | English 393: History of Literacy Criticism |
15 | 17-24 | English 487: British and American Poetry, 20th Century |
15 | 25 | English 496: Independent Study |
15 | 26-31 | English 497: American Life and Literature, 1950s |
15 | 32 | English 497: The Byronic Hero in Literature |
15 | 33 | English 498: Senior Seminar |
15 | 34 | English 530: Period Study: Victorian Literature |
15 | 35 | Humanities 102/108: Introduction to Humanities |
15 | 36 | Philosophy 297 and 497: Death |
9: Boise poetry seriesReturn to Top
During the late 1970s Charles David Wright directed a successful series of poetry readings that brought poets of national reputation to Boise. The series was cosponsored by a number of cultural and educational organizations known collectively as the Boise Readings Consortium, and later the Boise Public Reading Consortium. After Wright's death his wife Ruth continued working with the series; these records document their organizational efforts. The files on the poets include biographical sketches, photographs, itineraries, newspaper articles reporting on the readings, and correspondence with them. Lawrence Ferlinghetti asked to be lodged at a hotel "in the old style" and inquired if there would be anything his 14-year old son could do in town if he came along.
Container(s) | Description | Dates | |
---|---|---|---|
Box | Folder | ||
16 | 1 | Bylaws, Boise Public Reading Consortium |
1979 |
16 | 2 | General Notes |
|
16 | 3 | Grant information |
1976-199 |
16 | 4 | Miscellaneous planning papers |
|
16 | 5 | Wright Memorial Fund |
1978 |
16 | 6 | General |
1976-1977 |
16 | 7 | Accounting |
1976-1977 |
16 | 8 | Robert Bly |
1976-1977 |
16 | 9 | L. Ferlinghetti |
1976-1977 |
16 | 10 | William Matthews |
1976-1977 |
16 | 11 | Sandra McPherson |
1976-1977 |
16 | 12 | Marge Piercy |
1976-1977 |
16 | 13 | General |
1977-1978 |
16 | 14 | Accounting |
1977-1978 |
16 | 15 | Alan Dugan |
1977-1978 |
16 | 16 | Judith Guest |
1977-1978 |
16 | 17 | Carolyn Kizer |
1977-1978 |
16 | 18 | Lisel Mueller |
1977-1978 |
16 | 19 | William Pitt Root |
1977-1978 |
16 | 20 | Gary Snyder |
1977-1978 |
16 | 21 | General |
1978-1979 |
16 | 22 | Galway Kinnell |
1978-1979 |
16 | 23-25 | General |
1970-1980 |
16 | 26 | James Broughton |
1983-1984 |
16 | 27 | Clayton Eshelman |
1983-1984 |
16 | 28 | Dennis Folly |
1983-1984 |
16 | 29 | Kathleen Fraser |
1983-1984 |
16 | 30 | Joanne Kyger |
1983-1984 |
16 | 31 | Daphne Marlatt |
1983-1984 |
10: Associations and programs (professional and cultural)Return to Top
These files contain papers relating to Wright's activities with the named organizations. He served as the first chairman of the Association for the Humanities in Idaho (Folders 3 and 4), and he and his wife were Danforth Foundation associates at both the University of North Carolina and Boise State University (Folders 5 and 6). The Society for Religion in Higher Education (later the Society for Values in Higher Education) (Folder 12) funded Wright's postdoctoral studies in Germany, 1970-71. Other material relating to the Society is found in the Correspondence file with Harry Smith (Box 3, Folder 19) and in the files pertaining to the post-doctoral fellowship (Box 8, Folders 5, 6, and 7).
Container(s) | Description | Dates | |
---|---|---|---|
Box | Folder | ||
17 | 1 | American Council for the Arts in Education |
1970-1977 |
17 | 2 | Associated Writing Programs |
1970-1973 |
17 | 3-4 | Association for the Humanities in Idaho |
1972-1977 |
17 | 5 | Danforth Foundation |
1967-1979 |
17 | 6 | Danforth Foundation: Study of Campus Ministries |
1969 |
17 | 7 | National Council on the Humanities: Nomination |
1977 |
17 | 8 | National Endowment for the Arts: Fellowship application |
1973 |
17 | 9 | National Endowment for the Arts: Fellowship grant |
1976-1977 |
17 | 10 | National Endowment for the Humanities: Consultantships |
1974-1976 |
17 | 11 | National Endowment for the Humanities: Proposed reorganization |
1977-1978 |
17 | 12 | Society for Values in Higher Education |
1977 |
17 | 13 | Other organizations and programs |
11: MiscellaneousReturn to Top
Container(s) | Description | Dates | |
---|---|---|---|
Box | Folder | ||
17 | 14 | Collected poetry: Michael Horovitz |
|
17 | 15 | Collected poetry: Wallace Stevens |
|
17 | 16 | Collected poetry: James Wright |
|
17 | 17 | Collected poetry: Other poets |
|
17 | 18 | Reports: Residential Colleges and collegiate reform |
1960s |
17 | 19 | Syllabus: Communication course |
1971-1972 |
17 | 20 | Notes on Greece |
|
17 | 21 | Essay: Matthew Arnold and German Philosophy |
12: Bound volumes and tape recordingsReturn to Top
This series contains diaries from Charles David Wright's high school and college years, his poetry workbooks, tape cassettes, and issues of magazines and journals with poems and articles by Wright in them. The magazine issues here do not represent all of Wright's published work; for a fuller list of his published work consult the Bibliography beginning on page 43 of this finding aid. Photocopies of the published versions of Wright's poems are also filed in Series 3 (Poems) along with the drafts and typescripts. Those photocopies include published versions of some poems not represented by full magazine issues in this series.
The tape cassettes in this series are copies of originals. The titles for them in this list were derived from the labels on the original cassettes, which are retained in Box 20. Cassettes 2 and 3 are recordings of Charles David Wright and Lawrence Ferlinghetti reading their poetry together.
Container(s) | Description | Dates |
---|---|---|
Poetry workbooks, diaries, and tapes |
||
Box | ||
18 | Diary Red book, "Daily Reminder 1947" |
1947 |
18 | Diary Black book, "1951 Year Book" |
1951 |
18 | Diary Black wirebound book, "Standard Assignment Register" |
1951-1952 |
18 | Brown book, "Transit Book" |
|
18 | Workbooks (2) |
|
18 | Brown book, "Journal" |
|
18 | Poetry reading by CDW, Boise Gallery of Art |
1977 |
18 | Poetry reading by CDW and Lawrence Ferlinghetti |
|
18 | Poetry reading by CDW and Lawrence Ferlinghetti |
|
18 | Side A: Recollection of CDW by his children / Side B: Jazz music and sermon by CDW, "What to Do With Sunday Morning" |
|
18 | A Celebration of the Life and Poetry of Charles David Wright, Side 3 only |
|
18 | Memories of Language Play |
undated |
18 | C's Sermon; Halloween |
undated |
18 | Chuck Reads Poems |
1976 |
Journals and magazines with poems and articles by Charles David Wright |
||
Box | ||
19 |
Arts in Society. (Vol. 12, no. 3)
"The Belled Cat", page 395
|
1975 Fall/Winter |
19 |
Blue Moon News. (Vol. 1, no. 2)
"Showing the Catch on Samos", page 13
|
1976 |
19 |
Carolina Quarterly. (Vol. 16, no. 3)
"Admire the Fox", page 38
|
1964 Summer |
19 |
Carolina Quarterly. (Vol. 20, no. 1)
"Properly Mounted", page 47
|
1968 Winter |
19 |
The Chariton Review. (Vol. 3, no. 1)
"Taking Our Time" and "The Mirror", page 9
|
1977 Spring |
19 |
Harper's. (Vol. 230, no. 1376)
"Dimensions", page 73
|
1965 January |
19 |
Hyperion. (Vol. 3, no. 1)
"About the Pig", page 37
|
1972 Fall |
19 |
Idaho Heritage. (Vol. 1, no. 3)
"Naming the Kiln at Sun Valley", page 42
|
1976 Winter |
19 |
James Joyce Quarterly. (Vol. 3, no. 3)
"Melancholy Duffy and Sanguine Sinico: Humors in a 'Painful Case,'" Pages 171-181
|
1966 Spring |
19 |
Kenyon Review. 1966 (Vol. 28, no. 1)
Review of Mark Strand's Sleeping With One Eye Open, pages 132-136
|
1966 January |
19 |
Kenyon Review. (Vol. 28, no. 2)
"The Bearings Game" and "A Cure in Close Times", page 210
|
1966 March |
19 |
Lillabulero. (Vol. 1, no. 4)
"The Goodnight" page 30
|
1967 Fall |
19 |
The Literary Review. (Vol. 11, no. 2)
Translations, pages 162, 174, 207, 216, 230, 231
|
1967 Winter |
19 |
National Forum. (Vol. 69, no. 4)
"Words Between Floors", page 44
|
1969 Fall |
19 |
New American Review. (No. 4)
"Bayonet Training with Loudspeaker, Fort Leonard Wood, Mo." [later "Catechism"], page 65
|
1968 August |
19 |
New Letters. (Vol. 42, no. 4)
"Some Semblance of Order", pages 178-179
|
1976 Summer |
19 |
Northwest Review. (Vol. 14, no. 3)
"Recalling Anchorage", page 109
|
1975 Spring |
19 |
Northwest Review. (Vol. 15, no. 1)
Reviews, pages 105-115
|
1975 Summer |
19 |
Rendezvous. (Vol. 12, no. 1)
"Leaving in the Morning", page 10
|
1977 Spring |
19 |
Saturday Review
"Tongues of Men and Angels," page 30
|
1964 June 20 |
19 |
The Slackwater Review. Spring 1976 (Vol. 1, no. 1)
"The Foolhen" and "I Went for a Hike..." pages 80-81
|
1976 Spring |
19 |
Southern Poetry Review. (Vol. 16, no. 2)
"Chignon," page 26
|
1976 Fall |
19 |
The Spoon River Quarterly. (Vol. 3, no. 1)
"How Hugh Wright Observed..." page 14 and "Shaving", Page 18
|
1978 Winter |
19 |
Studies in Philology. (Vol. 65, no. 4)
"Matthew Arnold on Heine as Continuator of Goethe" pages 693-701
|
1968 July |
19 |
Victorian Poetry. (Vol. 5, no. 1)
"How Matthew Arnold Altered Goethe on Poetry," pages 57-61
|
1967 Spring |
19 |
Writers Forum. (Vol. 5)
"The Good Drinker," pages 229-231
|
1978 |
Oversize itemsReturn to Top
Description |
---|
"The Jack of Hearts for Dylan" (Poetry broadside) |
No. 226 of 250, autographed by Lawrence Ferlinghetti; Boise Reading Consortium (Series 9) posters |
Lawrence Ferlinghetti |
Robert Bly |
Marge Piercy |
Ssandra McPherson |
Alan Dugan |
Judith Guest |
Gary Snyder |
Richard Hugo |
James Welch |
Names and SubjectsReturn to Top
Subject Terms
- American poetry--20th century
- Authors, American
- Literature
- Poetry
- Poets, American
- Universities and Colleges
Personal Names
- Coleman, James R.
- Gracie, David McI., 1932-2001
- Hepworth, James, 1948-
- Hewitt, Geof
- Jackson, Robert S. (Robert Sumner), 1926-
- Kordas, Patricia
- Matthews, William, 1942-1997
Corporate Names
- Boise State University
Form or Genre Terms
- Broadsides
- Diaries