Frank McConnell Towne was born on January 8, 1913, at Fullerton, California. He received his B.A. from the University of California at Berkeley in 1935, his M.A. from the University of California at Los Angeles in 1941, and his Ph.D. from the same institution in 1949, Aside from a stint in the U.S. Army from 1943 to 1945, Dr. Towne has principally taught English and Humanities at various colleges and universities at home and abroad. From 1936 to 1940 he was an instructor at Athens College, Alabama, and from 1940 to 1941 he was a Teaching Assistant at the University of California at Los Angeles, returning here as an instructor in the extension division from 1946 to 1947. Dr. Towne was a Professor in the Department of English at Washington State University from 1947 to 1978, serving as chairman from 1968 to 1970; during that time he was also a Visiting Associate Professor at Columbia University, New York, 1953-1954, and a Fulbright lecturer at the University of Salonika, Greece, 1957-1958, and at the University of Athens, Greece, 1958-1959. His major teaching interests have been the History of Literary Criticism and the Humanities, He retired as Professor Emeritus from the Department of English in June 1978.
The papers of Frank McConnell Towne consist of four series: Teaching Materials, Subject File, Departmental Material, and Dissertation Notes.
The Teaching Materials are arranged alphabetically by discipline (e.g., English, French, etc.) and numerically by class number; they date from 1946 to 1978 and consist of class notes, syllabi, copies of exams, assignments, clippings, some correspondence, and a few term papers.
The alphabetically arranged Subject File dates from 1938 to 1978, although most of the material is subsequent to 1952; it consists of reprints of articles, rough drafts of articles and speeches, manuscripts, addresses, bibliographies, reviews, dittoes, lectures, memos, letters, copies of exams, typewritten quotations, and some clippings.
The Departmental Material dates from 1950 to 1978 and contains his records as a member of the English faculty at Washington State University; alphabetically arranged, it consists of minutes, meeting agendas, memos, program proposals, program reviews, correspondence, conference material, flyers, addresses, reports, typescripts, manuscripts, and copies of exams, as well as some clippings-, dittoes, and reprints.
The undated Dissertation Notes consist of a bundle of papers (notes, references, bibliographies, rough drafts, lists, typewritten copies of poems, some correspondence, quotes, summaries of books and articles, and some manuscript pages) concerning Dr. Towne's dissertation which was entitled
This collection is open for research use.
[Item Description]. Cage 399, Frank McConnell Towne Papers. Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections, Washington State University Libraries, Pullman, WA.
The Frank McConnell Towne Papers were donated to the Washington State University Libraries in June 1978 by Dr. Towne (78-26).
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.