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 Unpublished poems, poems published in journals, and reading copies of published poems were also gathered, in a virtually complete record from 1937 to 1993, totaling about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
Includes subject files assembled by the William Stafford archivist including correspondence, copies, and documents.
Grouped by subject.
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.
Copy of comment on Yamada case from August 1942 Mono Log (Coleville camp), and copy of letter by Charlie Davis about the case, July 5, 1942. Correspondence between Schrock and Paul Merchant (2005).
Correspondence between Paul Merchant and Jeff Kovac about Cascade Locks camp and Charlie Davis. Also incudes articles by Kovac.
Correspondence and text of Schrock’s play “Taps.”
Photocopy of “Without Heroes, without Villains: Identity and Community in Down in My Heart,” from Tom Andrews, On William Stafford: The Worth of Local Things; Three copies of “Peaceable Poet: William Stafford’s Witness,” (review of Kim Stafford’s Early Morning and Every War Has Two Losers published in Christian Century, April 6, 2004); Advance copy of “Almost One of the Boys: Marginality, Community and Nonviolence in William Stafford,” chapter 4 of the forthcoming Walkers in the Fog: Mennonite Writing.
Primer for Non-Native Speakers (poem chapbook), Kent & London: Kent State University Press, 2004; Copy of “William Stafford’s Down in My Heart: The Poetics of Pacifism and the Limits of Lyric”; Correspondence with Stafford archives.
Explanatory materials relating to Miller & Eshelman’s The Waldport Project; Photocopies for WS items from Illiterati; Essay by Abigail on CPS poems by WS (“CO’s Work on Mountain Road”), William Everson (“War Elegy IV”), and Kermit Shets (“You and I” from The Mikado in CPS).
General correspondence, 1998 onwards, including material for the exhibit at Oregon Historical Society to accompany the 1998 launch of the Down in My Heart reprint.
Documents and manuscript notes from a visit to the Bancroft Library, Berkeley.
Correspondence and catalog from The Waldport/San Francisco Exhibit, University of San Francisco, Feb/Mar 2005.
Copy of cover of Magnolia camp newsletter, “Peace Pathways,” with WS signature; WS journal entry on “The Beats,” with Glen Coffield commentary; copy of poem by Jim Harmon (Waldport); recent news reports of pacifist activity by Los Prietos camper Chuck Worley (“George” in DIMH); copies of printed Waldport reminiscences by William Eshelman and Adrian Wilson; copies of Portland State University PSU Magazine, containing excerpts from Katie Barber’s Waldport transcriptions; copies of web materials on San Francisco Renaissance and Conscientious Objection.
Drafts and a copy of the book published by Oregon State University Press, 2009. Also includes notes about the research conducted by Kovac in the Special Collections at Lewis & Clark College.
Notes about the research conducted by Steve McQuiddy in the Special Collections at Lewis & Clark College.
An article about the Waldport, Oregon CPS camp from
Photocopy of article from the
Photocopy of an unpublished collection of Stafford poems (original housed in Stafford Archives A4.1) with correspondence of the gift of the collection of the family of Tom Polk Miller.
An article from the
Program created by the American Friends Service Committee, Portland, Oregon. Folder also includes a photocopy of a flyer titled "That Men Live: Statement of Purpose of the Fellowship of Reconciliation."
photocopies of typed drafts
photocopy of pamphlet (original shelved with rare books "PACIFISM" collection)
Photocopy (original housed in the Kermit Sheets Collection). Folder also includes a photo of Kermit Sheets and Paul Merchant taken in 2005.
From the publication
From the publication
File includes correspondence between John Ellison and the Stafford archives and materials sent to the archives by Ellison including:
Photocopied letter about forestry work at the Santa Barbara/Los Prietos CPS Camp no. 36.
A copy of Lew Ayres statement to his draft board.