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Richard Hugo papers and other materials, 1940-1997

Overview of the Collection

Creator
Hugo, Richard, 1923-1982
Title
Richard Hugo papers and other materials
Dates
1940-1997 (inclusive)
Quantity
15.8 cubic feet (25 boxes)
3 vertical files
11 microfilm reels
1 film reel
1 audio cassette tape
1 oversize tube
Collection Number
3655
Summary
Poet, teacher, critic in Seattle, Washington, and Missoula, Montana
Repository
University of Washington Libraries, Special Collections
Special Collections
University of Washington Libraries
Box 352900
Seattle, WA
98195-2900
Telephone: 2065431929
Fax: 2065431931
speccoll@uw.edu
Access Restrictions

Access to portions of the papers restricted. Contact Special Collections for more information.

Request at UW

Languages
English
Sponsor
Funding for encoding this finding aid was partially provided through a grant awarded by the National Endowment for the Humanities
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Biographical Note

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.

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Content Description

Correspondence, literary manuscripts, publications, annotated books, photographs, personal documents, film and videotape.

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Use of the Collection

Restrictions on Use

The University of Washington does not currently own any rights under copyright in the materials contained in collection 3655. Some of the rights are owned by Melissa Hansen of Waldport, Oregon, who is the literary executor of Richard Hugo’s estate. Rights in works in Accession No. 3655-001 that were unpublished as of December 18, 2012 are assigned to Lois Welch of Missoula, Montana.

Alternative Forms Available

Part of this collection is also available on microfilm in Accession No. 3655-006. Microfilm may be borrowed through interlibrary loan. Items from this accession not filmed include galleys, page proofs, printer's copies and unedited typescripts of Hugo's books; journals and other publications, correspondence regarding permission to publish or reproduce Hugo's work, three dimensional objects and unannotated books.

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Administrative Information

Arrangement

Arranged in 10 accessions:

  • Accession No. 3655-001, Richard Hugo papers, 1942-1983
  • Accession No. 3655-005, Richard Hugo papers, 1971-1985
  • Accession No. 3655-006, Microfilm of Richard Hugo papers, 1942-1985
  • Accession No. 3655-007, Richard Hugo papers, 1959-1979
  • Accession No. 3655-008, Richard Hugo videotape, 1982
  • Accession No. 3655-009, Richard Hugo high school yearbook, 1940
  • Accession No. 3655-010, Richard Hugo fishing gear, circa 1950-1980
  • Accession No. 3655-012, Richard Hugo letters, 1963-1964
  • Accession No. 3655-013, Richard Hugo writings, 1949,1978
  • Accession No. 3655-014, Richard Hugo annotated Wallace Stevens book, 1945

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Detailed Description of the Collection

 

Names and SubjectsReturn to Top

Subject Terms

  • American poetry--Northwest, Pacific
  • American poetry--Northwestern States
  • Authors and publishers--United States--20th century
  • Authors, American--20th century
  • College teachers--Montana--Missoula
  • Creative writing (Higher education)--Montana--Missoula
  • Personal Papers/Corporate Records (University of Washington)
  • Poetry--Study and teaching
  • Poets, American--Montana--Archives
  • Poets, American--Washington (State)--Archives

Personal Names

  • Harkness, Edward--Correspondence
  • Hellström, Lars Gustav, 1915---Correspondence
  • Hugo, Richard, 1923-1982--Archives
  • Hugo, Ripley S.--Correspondence
  • Levine, Philip, 1928---Correspondence
  • Mazzaro, Jerome
  • Stafford, William, 1914-1993--Correspondence
  • Wagoner, David--Correspondence (600)
  • Wright, James Arlington, 1927-1980--Correspondence (600)

Corporate Names

  • University of Montana (Missoula, Mont.). Department of English
  • W.W. Norton & Company

Geographical Names

  • Northwest, Pacific--In literature

Occupations

  • Authors
  • College teachers
  • Poets

Titles within the Collection

  • Yale series of younger poets

Other Creators

  • Personal Names

    • Roethke, Theodore, 1908-1963 (creator)
    • Stevens, Wallace, 1879-1955 (creator)


2007 (Last modified: 1/31/2020)

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