Brewster Ghiselin photograph collection

Brewster Ghiselin photograph collection, 1950-1980s

Overview of the Collection

Title: Brewster Ghiselin photograph collection
Dates: 1950-1980s (inclusive)
19501989
Quantity: 1 box
Collection Number: P0296
Summary: The Brewster Ghiselin photograph collection contains photographs of Writer's Conference activities; portrait photographs of conference participants; three views of areas in Utah photographed by Karl F. Kunkel.
Repository: University of Utah Libraries, Special Collections
Special Collections, J. Willard Marriott Library
University of Utah
295 South 1500 East
Salt Lake City, UT
84112-0860

Telephone: 8015818863
special@library.utah.edu
Access Restrictions: Materials must be used on-site; advance notice suggested. Access to parts of this collection may be restricted under provisions of state or federal law.
Languages: English

Biographical NoteReturn to Top

Brewster Ghiselin was born in Webster Groves, Missouri, in 1903, but once said that he felt more at home in California near Mt. Tamalpais, where he moved at age 18. Ghiselin is specifically well-known for his poem "The Rattlesnake" but has many finely developed and diversified abilities. In addition to publishing numerous collections of poetry, Ghiselin was responsible for creating and teaching a course on the creative process, which in turn birthed his over 500,000-copy bestseller, The Creative Process. Not being limited merely to the exposition and sublimation of the written word, Ghiselin held a showing of watercolors and drawings at the Salt Lake Art Council's Art Barn in 1937. The result of Ghiselin's achievements: a garner of awards and immense recognition of achievement in the arts. In 1970, Ghiselin received an award from the National Institute of Arts and Letters and had his "Country of the Minotaur" selected by Masterplots as one of the oustanding books printed in 1970. To further the list, in 1981 and 1982 respectively, Ghiselin received the William Carlos Williams Award from the Poetry Society of America and the Governor's Award for the Arts.

The University of Utah Writer's Conference was established, conducted, and supplied with well-known and gifted teachers and writers through the efforts of Ghiselin, who served as conference director for nineteen years. Ghiselin joined the University of Utah faculty in 1929 after receiving his A.B. degree from UCLA in 1927, his M.A. from UC Berkeley in 1928 and after completing a year of study at Oxford, where he had gone in pursuit of "finding a large-minded faculty and a liberal view" and D. H. Lawrence. A strong vein of naturalism runs through Ghiselin's work, and Wallace Stegner, in Ghiselin's The Water of Light, seems to sum Ghiselin's ability and his interpretation of the natural world the best: "That has been his double mark--the capacity to take in through the senses the whole range of the natural world, and the curiosity and patience and passion to know it in its quintessence, its ultimate quiddity, its absolute right image or word" (pg. 214).

As for Ghiselin's personal excellence in poetry, he has been called "one of the brightest of the young poets"; as for the University of Utah Writer's Conference, the Ghiselin excellence is apparent. "On the whole, though, I am very well satisfied with what seems to me the essential success of the conference in serving the needs of the writers in the community who matter most. It is a comfort, too, to find that the smart and talented young people all feel I have been doing the best thing possible for them in handling the conference as I have" (excerpt from a letter to Caroline Gordon, dated July 3, 1952).

(Sources for the biography include newspaper articles and shorts from his published works.)

Content DescriptionReturn to Top

The Brewster Ghiselin photograph collection contains photographs of Writer's Conference activities, portrait photographs of conference participants, three views of areas in Utah photographed by Karl F. Kunkel.

Administrative InformationReturn to Top

Arrangement

Collection contains two addenda.

Detailed Description of the CollectionReturn to Top

Writer's Conference activities, conference participants, areas in Utah photographed by Karl F. KunkelReturn to Top

Container(s): Box 1

Container(s)	Description
Folder
1	Writer's Conference activities, conference participants Photograph number 1: Robie Macauley, Andrew Lytle, Reed Whittemore Photograph number 2-11: 1961 Picnic Photograph number 12: Brewster Ghiselin at picnic Photograph number 13-18: luncheon Photograph number 19: Dorothy McCleary Photograph number 20-22: Glenway Wescott and Warwick Laumoreaux Photograph number 23-30: Writers' Conference Photograph number 31: Brewster Ghiselin
2	Writer's Conference activities, conference participants Photograph number 32: Albert J. Guerard Photograph number 33: Alec Waugh Photograph number 34: Allen Tate Photograph number 35-36a: Andrew Lytle Photograph number 37: Brewster Ghiselin Photograph number 38-40: Earle Birney Photograph number 41-42: Caroline Gordon Photograph number 43-44: Delmore Schwartz Photograph number 45-47: Dorothy McCleary Photograph number 48: E. Reed Whittemore Photograph number 49-51: George P. Elliott Photograph number 52: George R. Stewart Photograph number 53: Glenway Wescott Photograph number 54: Harry Shaw Photograph number 55-57: Herbert Gold Photograph number 58: Jessamyn West Photograph number 59: John Berryman Photograph number 60: John Ciardi Photograph number 61: John Hawkes Photograph number 62: Joseph Wood Krutch Photograph number 63: Leslie A. Fiedler Photograph number 64: Louise Bogan Photograph number 65: M. K. Fisher Photograph number 66: Malcolm Cowley Photograph number 67-68: Marjorie Flack Benet Photograph number 69: Oliver laFarge Photograph number 70: Peter Taylor
3	Writer's Conference activities, conference participants Photograph number 71-74: Radcliffe Squires Photograph number 75: Ralf Humphries Photograph number 76-79: Ray B. West, Jr. Photograph number 80-82: Richard Eberhart Photograph number 83: Robie Macauley Photograph number 84: Stephen Spender Photograph number 85-87: Vardis Fisher Photograph number 88-89: Virginia Sorensen Photograph number 90: Vladimir Nabokor Photograph number 91-94: Walter Van Tilburg Clark Photograph number 95-96: Whit Burnett Photograph number 97: William Jay Smith Photograph number 98: Wright Morris Photograph number 99-101: Unidentified Photograph number 102-104: Duplicates
4	Addendum Photograph number 1: Portrait of Eileen Davis for her 1950 writing "application". Photograph number 2-6: Snapshots of Oscar Williams with an unknown group of people. Photograph number 7-19: Images of individual writers. Photograph number 20: View of Cathedral Valley photographed by Karl F. Kunkel. Photograph number 21: Kodachrome Flat or Valley of the petrified holes also taken by Kunkel. Photograph number 22: "Outer Guardians" formations of Goblin Valley in Southern Utah.
5	Writers Conference (Addendum) Photograph number 1: Ghislen seated by boxes
6	Scenes of Utah (Addendum) Photograph number 1: Double rainbow over Wild Horse Mesa near the Lost Valley of the Goblins. February 22, 1953 Photograph number 2: Kodachrome Flat taken by Kunkel Photograph number 3: Cathedral Valley. The "Mayan Temple" with two jeeps reduced to toys by the size. Photograph number 4: The Jacob Hamblin Arch, Cyote Gulch. Photograph number 5: Snowy mountain scene. Photograph number 6: Alta
7	"Inspiration of Natural Light" (Addendum) Photograph number 1-2: Miscellaneous photos taken June 4, 1985
8	(Addendum) Photograph number 1: Alan Leonard Burns
9	Postcards Photograph number 1:Takuma Choga From the British Museum Photograph number 2: Postcard of Amida painting by Eshin Sozu From the British Museum Photograph number 3: Postcard of Amida painting by Eshin Sozu From the British Museum Photograph number 4: TPostcard of the painting of the Virgin and St. Bernard From the British Museum Photograph number 5: Postcard of the Indian painting An incident from the Romance of Laila and Majnun From the British Museum Photograph number 6: Postcard Virgin Mary and Saints from Museo del Prado Photograph number 7: The Virgin Mary and St. Bernard from the Medici Society Photograph number 8: PSt Francis and the birds from the Medici Society
10	Family and travel Photograph number 1: DBrewster Ghiselin at age 7 with sisters Mary and Elenor Photograph number 2: Young Brewster reading Photograph number 3: Portrait of Brewster Photograph number 4: Brewster and Olive Ghiselin in Alladena, California Sept 15, 1930 Photograph number 5: Brewster and Jon Ghiselin at Torrey Pines, 1937 Photograph number 6: Jon, Michael, and Olive Ghiselin in Laguna Beach, California. 1940 Photograph number 7: Brewster and Michael Ghiselin, 1940 at Laguna Beach, CA Photograph number 8: Brewster Ghiselin at Cleveland National Forest, 1941 Photograph number 9-10: Diver's Cove at Laguna Beach, 1922 or 1923 Photograph number 11-12: Coast of Marim County, near Pirate Cove Photograph number 13:Glimpse of the foundation of a new cabin in the woods Photograph number 14: Postcard of Mt. Tamalpais in Marin County, CA Photograph number 15-16: Brewster and Olive Ghiselin with an unidentified man on a boat Photograph number 17:Brewster and Olive Ghiselin pose for a picture featurned in an article for the Salt Lake Tribune. 1980
11	Artifacts Photograph number 1: Frank Goddington at 103 years old Photograph number 2: Statue of the Pilgrim Maiden Photograph number 3: Mastadon skeleton.
12	Writer's conference Photograph number 1: Virginia Sorenson Photograph number 2: Theodore "Dr. Suess" Geisel Photograph number 3: John Ciardi
13	Allen Tate Photograph number 1-7: Portraits of Allen Tate Photograph number 8: Allen Tate and Sister Mary Helen Photograph number 9: Allen Tate painting
14	Dylan Thomas Photograph number 1: Dylan Thomas smoking a cigar in front of a building
15	Artwork Photograph number 1-2: Drawings of Cats by John Singer Sargeant and Da vinci Photograph number 3: Turkey sculpture Photograph number 4: Color Transparency of a DH Lawrence Tapestry
16	Hummingbirds Photograph number 1-11: Hummingbirds and nests Photograph number 12-19: hummingbirds, negatives
17	Dance of the Dolpins Transparencies, Mediterranean Fishes for Windrose Book Photograph number 1-6: Images for the book, transparencies

Names and SubjectsReturn to Top

Subject Terms

Authors, American--Congresses--Photographs
Authors, American--Photographs

Corporate Names

University of Utah--Writer's Conference--History--Photographs

Geographical Names

Utah--Photographs

Form or Genre Terms

Photographic prints--1950-1970
Portrait photographs

Archives West Finding Aid

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