William Stafford (1914-1993) was one of the most prolific and important American poets of the last half of the twentieth century. Among his many credentials, Stafford served as consultant in poetry at the Library of Congress, and received the National Book Award for his poetry collection
The William Stafford Archives, donated to Lewis & Clark College by the Stafford family in 2008, contain the private papers, publications, photographs, recordings, and teaching materials of the poet William Stafford. The Lewis & Clark College Special Collections actively add to this collection by acquiring unique Stafford related materials.
Stafford wrote every day of his life from 1950 to 1993. These 20,000 pages of daily writings form a complete record of the poet’s mostly early morning meditations, including poem drafts, dream records, aphorisms, and other visits to the unconscious, recorded on separate sheets of yellow or white paper or when traveling, often in spiral-bound reporters’ steno pads. The archive also includes typescripts of poems submitted for publication and for use in readings. Stafford listed where he submitted each poem, and whether it was accepted for publication on the typescript. Each of his published collections, large and small, is represented by its gathering of documentary copies (typescripts), called by Stafford a “put-together.” Unpublished poems, poems published in journals, and reading copies of published poems were also gathered, in a virtually complete record from 1937 to 1993, totaling about 7,000 items. The collection also includes copies of all known Stafford books and translations. Stafford saved correspondence received, with an indication of the date of reply, and sometimes a copy of the reply, from the early 1960s to August 1993. Estimated at 100,000 sheets, the collected correspondence contains some full exchanges of correspondence initiated by WS. One such exchange is the correspondence with Marvin Bell on their sequence
Books, pamphlets, and serial publications.
Arranged in chronological order.
This collection has no restrictions and is open for research.
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.
The William Stafford Archives, Lewis & Clark College Aubrey Watzek Library Archives & Special Collections, Portland, Oregon.
This collection is indexed under the following headings in the online catalog. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons, or places should search the catalog using these headings.
The following section contains a detailed listing of the materials in the collection.
Edited by Dwight MacDonald. Includes article “The Iliad or the Poem of Force” by Simone Weil.
Newsletters produced at the Los Prietos CPS camp including a mix of photocopies and origninals for: September 1942, October 1942, December 1942, January 1943, March/April 1943, August 1943, and April 1944.
Newsletters produced at the Belden CPS camp including a mix of photocopies and origninals for: November 1944, February 1945 [Stafford is listed as member of the newspaper staff], March 1945.
NY: Plowshare Press. No. 51.
Edited by Evans Clark. NY: Twentieth Century Fund.
Includes: 10:11, 14:3, 14:5, 14:8-14:10.
Published by the Illiterati at Waldport Oregon.
Second Printing 1966. Distributed by Students for a Democratic Society.
v.1, n.1 issue of a newsletter for a Merchant Marine cadet school at Coyote Point, San Mateo, California.
v1, n.5 of a newsletter published by the Fellowship of Reconciliation.
A pamphlet by Diderich Lund published by the War Resisters League, April 1945.
v.4, no.10 issue of a newspaper published in New York.
v.3, n.12 issue of a newsletter published by the National Service Board for Religious Objectors.
v.8, no.23 issue of a newspaper published in Madison, Wisconsin. Stamped as propers of the Los Prietos CPS camp.
photocopy of pages from the introdutory chapter.
[New York]: The Foreign policy association, 1939. 96 p. ill. 20 cm. Headline Books no. 17.
New York: Plowshare Press, 1940-1945? 10 p.; 22 cm. Anvil Booklets no. 1.
31, [1] p. ill., map, 22 cm. Public Affairs pamphlet no. 42. "First edition, April, 1940."
[New York]: Foreign Policy Association, 1941. 96 p. illus. (incl. maps) diagrs. 20 cm. Headline Books no. 29.
New York, N.Y., War Resisters League, 1942. 27 p. 21 cm.
The Christian Century Press, 1942. Has stamp from Los Prietos Camp on front cover and signed by William Stafford.
New York: Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America. Rev. ed. 1942. 39 p., 20 cm.
Philadelphia, Pa.: The Pacifist Research Bureau 1943 4 p. l., 68 p. 22 cm.: Pacifist Research Bureau. Coercion: a Study in the Use of Force. Series II,; no. 3, January, 1943. Signed by Bill Stafford on the cover.
Posol'stvo. United States. Soviet war documents: addresses, notes, orders of the day, statements. Washington, D.C., Embassy of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, 1943. 199 p., 22 cm. Information bulletin. Special supplement.
[Cambridge, Mass.: Printed by the Powell Printing Company], 1944. 130 p., diagrs. 19 cm.
New York: Plowshare Press, 1944. 32 p. ; 22 cm.: Anvil Booklets no. 2.
Philadelphia, Pa.: Education Office, Civilian public service, American Friends Service Committee, 1945. 96 p. illus., diagrs. 23 cm.
[Philadelphia?]: The Committee, 1945. 51 p.; 23 cm.
Washington: American Country Life Association, Youth Section, American Institute of Cooperation, 1945: 30 p. illus. 23 cm. "Fifth in a series of community bulletins. References used in preparation of bulletin. Additional sources of information [by] Walter Boek [and others] assisted by E.L. Kirkpatrick. Published cooperatively by American Institute of Cooperation, American Vocational Association, Inc., Extension Service, United States Department of Agriculture and Department of Rural Education, National Education Association.”
On cover: “Possibilities in Small Community Occupations and Industries. Sept. 1945.”
London, National Peace Council, 1947, 12 p. 22 cm. Peace Aims pamphlet 42.
Oakland, CA. Vol. 1, no. 1; summer 1949.
New Haven: Yale University Press, 1949. 39 p., 24 cm.
[Brooklyn?]: The Committee, 1950. 63 p., 24 cm.
[Philadelphia]: American Friends Service Committee. Rev. ed. 1953. 39 p., 23 cm.
[Philadelphia]: American Friends Service Committee, 1955. 71 p. 23 cm.
[Philadelphia]: American Friends Service Committee, 1959. [7] p., 22 cm.
Santa Barbara, CA, Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions, 1961. 71 p., 22 cm.
[New York]: America Press, 1963. 88 p., 19 cm. Oregon Peace Action Groups Coordinating Committee, Bulletin Board of Oregon Peace Groups. Portland, OR: Oregon Peace Action Groups Coordinating Committee, 1964. Monthly Periodical. Vol. 1, no. 3 (Oct. 1964). 22 cm.
Libertarian Press, Newark, NJ; Libertarian Press [Peace-Makers, NY]. [n.d.].
San Francisco: Embassy of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, Washington D.C., May 24, 1945.
Elgin, IL: Brethren Service Committee, September, 1946.
Philadelphia: Friends Peace Committee (Quakers), 1967 [10] p., ill. 22 x 10 cm. Tools of Peace series; revised March 1961.
Westminster Press [1963?].
The Fellowship of Reconciliation: What It Is; What It Does. [Nyack, NY: The Fellowship of Reconciliation, 1960s. [8] p., 23 x 9 cm.
American Friends Service Committee, 1964.