Paul E. Tracy Papers, 1875-1976

Paul Tracy's typewritten autobiographical reminiscences (Folders 2 to 14) are among the notable items in Series 1. Written for his children after his retirement, they contain detailed recollections of his childhood in Silver City and Homedale, Idaho, construction work on Arrowrock Dam, and his World War I experiences, especially service as a squadron bandleader. His childhood reminiscences contain vivid recollections of miners, teamsters, and Chinese of Silver City, family life and boyhood adventures in Silver City and surrounding mountains, and life along the Snake River around the turn of the century. Additional recollections of Owyhee County life are found in Series 3 (Essays).

Series 1 also contains obituaries and other clippings about Paul Tracy (Folder 1), miscellaneous memorabilia, typewritten excerpts from his mother's girlhood diary (Folder 27) and clippings about various members of the Tracy family (Folder 28). Folder 25 contains loose items from a scrapbook relating to his book, Owyhee Horizons. The scrapbook itself is in Box 13.

The Correspondence files are divided into four subseries: Letters Written by Paul Tracy; Letters Sent to Paul Tracy; Special Correspondence files; and Family Correspondence files. The first two subseries are arranged chronologically; the special and family files are arranged by correspondent.

The first letter in the collection written by Paul Tracy dates from 1898, when he was nine years old, Most of his letters up until 1950 are originals he wrote to his parents, sisters, brother, or to his fiancée, Dorothy Luck. There are few letters to non-family members dated before the 1950s, except in the Special Correspondence files. After the mid-1950s Paul Tracy began making copies of outgoing letters, and there are carbons of letters to literary editors, friends, and others, as well as to family members after that date.

Included in the Letters Written by Paul Tracy are more than 100 he wrote during his World War I service. Dated December 1917 through July 1919, they were posted home to his family and fiancée from training camps in the U.S. (chiefly Hempstead, Long Island, and Kelly Field, San Antonio, Texas) and from France and Germany (notably from Coblenz). These letters contain detailed descriptions of Army life, wartime experiences, service during the Occupation, and the French and German people, as well as his thoughts on war. Many of the letters were written on highly acidic government issued stationary; researchers are asked to examine photocopies instead of the originals.

The subseries of Letters Sent to Paul Tracy contains letters from a variety of non-family correspondents, including literary editors. There are rejection slips in these files, sometimes with critical commentary on his poems. Occasionally Paul Tracy wrote to prominent individuals and saved their responses. There are, for example, brief notes from John Ciardi and Eddie Rickenbacker among the incoming letters of 1968. Idaho author Ruth Gipson Plowhead is also represented by several letters.

Several groups of letters, both incoming and outgoing, were separated from the main body of correspondence and established as Special Correspondence files. One such group is a file of letters Paul Tracy received in response to his letter to the editor in The Christian Century Magazine, June 20, 1945 (Box 4, Folder 4). Other separated correspondents include William Judson Boone, his professor and mentor form the College of Idaho; Ethel Romig Fuller, Portland Oregonian poetry editor; poet Courtland Matthews; literary editors Harold G. Merriam (The Frontier), Harriet Monroe (Poetry), and Marianne Moore (The Dial); Boise State University professor Tom Trusky; and Herbert Walther, of Plumbing and Heating Business Magazine. The letters from Courtland Matthews and Marianne Moore, in particular, contain critical commentary on Tracy's writings. A group of letters about Owyhee Horizons was assembled into a scrapbook by Tracy's daughter Lorna. That scrapbook is located in Series 5, Box 13.

The last subseries is Family Correspondence. These files contain letters written to Paul Tracy and to others by his parents, Frank and Wilhelmina Tracy, brother Walter, sisters Lela, Dorothea, and Marjorie, fiancée Dorothy Luck (one letter), and son William Boone Tracy. They are arranged by letter writer. Many of his brother Walter's letters are those he wrote home during his World War I service in Europe. The file of letters by son William B. Tracy includes many written during his World War II service as an instructor and mechanic with the Army Air Force's glider program. Those letters document, from the point of view of a participant, the Air Force's attempts to utilize that type of craft in the early years of the war. Also part of the series are miscellaneous letters of the Luck family (Box 5, Folder 10), chiefly Charles W. Luck, father of Dorothy Luck Tracy. One letter in the Luck family file (dated 1922) expresses, with some poignancy, a father's feeling of loss on the death of his small son..

Manuscript and typescript versions of Paul E. Tracy's poems, essays, and short stories are arranged alphabetically by title in Series 3, together with photocopies of published versions if available. Also included are newsletters Tracy produced for the Caldwell Rotary Club (Box 5, Folder 16), a column he wrote for the Boone Memorial Presbyterian Church (Box 5, Folders 17-19), book reviews (Box 7, Folder 10), and other writings (Box 9). A typewritten compilation of early works (Box 9, Folder 12) includes several poems that appeared in the College of Idaho's College Coyote during his student days. Papers and examinations written at the University of Oregon are in Box 9, Folder 13.

Included in this series are drafts and proofs of Tracy's book, Owyhee Horizons; mimeographed compilations of poems; typescripts of poems he was considering publishing; copies of his books Owyhee Horizons and Sego and Sage; and copies of periodicals in which poems of his appeared. These periodical issues represent only a fraction of Tracy's published work. Photocopies or tearsheets of works in their published form generally will accompany the drafts and manuscripts in Series 3 (Writings).

Series 5 contains items in book form, as well as other miscellaneous items. Paul Tracy's diaries begin in 1912, when he was working as a linesman on the construction of Arrowrock Dam. The early diaries record his work experiences, life at the College of Idaho, YMCA activities, and World War I service. One diary (November 1918-February 1919), kept on a small writing tablet, records of his daily activities in the last years of his life.

This series also contains yearbooks and magazines from the College of Idaho and University of Oregon, World War I postcards and memorabilia, two photo albums, and a scrapbook of letters Tracy received, chiefly about his book Owyhee Horizons.

The photos that accompany the collection are numbered and divided into subject groupings, indicated below. All the photos in this series are loose photos. A small album of photos of the Tracy ranch near McCall is located in Series 5 (Box 13), as is a larger album of photos of the College of Idaho.