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Robert Bechtold Heilman Papers, 1907-2004

Overview of the Collection

Creator
Heilman, Robert Bechtold, 1906-2004
Title
Robert Bechtold Heilman Papers
Dates
1907-2004 (inclusive)
1928-2004 (bulk)
Quantity
19.38 cubic ft. (22 boxes and 1 oversized folder)
Collection Number
1000
Summary
Papers of an author and University of Washington professor of English whose specialty was Shakespearean scholarship and criticism
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

Open to all users, but access to portions of the papers is restricted. Contact the Special Collections division, University of Washington Libraries for details.

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

Robert Bechtold Heilman was born in Philadelphia on July 18, 1906, to Edgar James Heilman, a Lutheran minister, and Mary Alice Bechtold Heilman. He grew up in Elizabethville and Easton, Pennsylvania, and attended Easton High School and Lafayette University. Even at an early age, Heilman was a gifted scholar, writer, and lecturer, giving both the salutatory speech at his high school commencement and the valedictory speech upon reception of his bachelor's degree in English in 1927. From 1922 to 1926 he was a student reporter for the Easton Free Press and also wrote a regular column on student viewpoints titled "Lafayette, We Are Here." He served as a teaching fellow in 1927-1928 at Tufts University, where he met his future wife, Ruth Champlin. Heilman received his Ph.D. in English from Harvard in 1935 with his thesis The English Novel, 1760-1800, and the American Revolution.

Heilman taught at Ohio University from 1928 to 1930, and at the University of Maine from 1931 to 1935, but his first major appointment was at Louisiana State University, where he taught from 1935 to 1947. While at LSU he developed professional and personal relationships with a number of prominent southern writers and critics, many of whom were involved in the "New American Criticism" movement. He maintained these connections throughout his life. In 1948 Heilman joined the University of Washington faculty, as chair of the English department, with five other outside appointments, including the famed poet Theodore Roethke. Roethke initially distrusted Heilman, but in time they became close friends and Heilman became one of Roethke's staunchest defenders, vouching for his character and teaching on several occasions. Heilman's most notable defense of Roethke came in the form of a persuasive letter (found in box 4, folder 26) to UW Vice President Frederick Thieme at a time when state legislators were questioning the decision to give Roethke unpaid leave during his bouts of manic depression.

Under Heilman's leadership, the English department grew in national stature and many of its faculty, including Roethke, Andrew Hilen, Arnold Stein, James W. Hall, and David Wagoner, contributed prominently to the field. Heilman brought in new faculty from over 30 graduate schools and helped UW graduates find employment in at least that many other institutions. Heilman led the English department until 1971, when he turned 65, the mandatory retirement age for department chairs. He retired from teaching and became a professor emeritus at the UW in 1976 at age 70. In 1977 he spent a year as the Arnold Professor at Whitman College.

Heilman engaged in scholarly research and writing throughout his administrative career and after his retirement. He served on the editorial boards of numerous publications, including Poetry Northwest, Critical Quarterly, Shakespeare Studies, The Sewanee Review, College English, Studies in the Novel, and Mississippi Studies in English. Heilman was very involved with the latter, and corresponded frequently with the journal's editor, George Core. He was also a member of the executive councils of the Modern Language Association and the American Association of University Professors. Heilman received five honorary degrees, two Guggenheim fellowships, and one fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities, which he used to fund three years of study and writing in London. He took sabbatical leaves in the years 1957-1958, 1964-1965, and 1971-1972.

Heilman's academic interests included 18th- and 19th-century English and American literature and William Shakespeare. He was also a lifelong sports fan and occasionally wrote about football and baseball. Heilman produced ten volumes of critical works and essays on topics including Shakespeare, dramatic forms, fiction, and the American South. He edited 12 volumes and wrote or co-wrote four textbooks on fiction and drama. Heilman sometimes wrote poetry, most notably two light-verse retirement tributes: "The Charliad," for UW president Charles E. Odegaard, and "Sol-iloquy," for UW history professor and administrator Solomon Katz.

Heilman was an active member of Phi Beta Kappa, writing reviews for The Key Reporter from 1959 to 1990, and serving as a PBK senator (1967 to 1985) and a member of the PBK executive committee (1973 to 1982). In 1979 his book on comedy, The Ways of the World, received the PBK Christian Gauss Award for outstanding work of criticism. Heilman made a tour of several institutions as a Phi Beta Kappa visiting scholar from 1982 to 1983.

Robert Heilman continued to write reviews and essays and to give lectures and speeches after his retirement. He also maintained active correspondence with family and colleagues. A collection of his essays titled The Professor and the Profession was published by the University of Missouri Press in 1999. Robert Heilman died in 2004.

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Content Description

Consists of two accessions containing correspondence, speeches and writings, lecture notes, minutes, committee files, photographs, newsletters, books, posters, programs, reports, and awards, 1907-2004 (bulk 1928-2004). Consists chiefly of personal correspondence as well as letters from his years as chairman of the University of Washington Dept. of English. Also included are records relating to his activities in Phi Beta Kappa. Correspondents include Theodore Roethke, Sewannee Review editor George Core, Eric Voegelin, Cleanth Brooks, Norton Girault, Solomon Katz, Glenn Leggett, Robert Penn Warren, Kenneth Burke, John Sisk, Allen Tate, and William Carlos Williams. There is also a large amount of correspondence between Heilman and his family, especially his son Champlin B. "Pete" Heilman.

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Use of the Collection

Restrictions on Use

Some restrictions exist on copying, quotation, or publication. Contact the Special Collections division, University of Washington Libraries for further details.

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Administrative Information

Processing Note

Processing levels vary. Contact the Special Collections division, University of Washington Libraries for details.

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Detailed Description of the Collection

 

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Subject Terms

  • American literature--History and criticism
  • American literature--Study and teaching (Higher)--Washington (State)--Seattle
  • College teachers--Washington (State)--Seattle--Archives
  • Departmental chairmen (Universities)--Washington (State)--Seattle--Archives
  • English literature--History and criticism
  • English literature--Study and teaching (Higher)--Washington (State)--Seattle
  • University Archives/Faculty Papers (University of Washington)

Personal Names

  • Brooks, Cleanth, 1906-
  • Burke, Kenneth, 1897-
  • Core, George
  • Girault, Norton
  • Heilman, Champlin B
  • Heilman, Robert Bechtold, 1906- --Archives
  • Katz, Solomon, 1909-
  • Leggett, Glenn H., 1918-
  • Roethke, Theodore, 1908-1963
  • Sisk, John P., 1914-
  • Tate, Allen, 1899-
  • Voegelin, Eric, 1901-
  • Warren, Robert Penn, 1905-
  • Williams, William Carlos, 1883-1963

Corporate Names

  • Phi Beta Kappa
  • University of Washington. Dept. of English

Titles within the Collection

  • Sewanee review

Other Creators

  • Corporate Names

    • University of Washington. University Archives


2005 (Last modified: 2/20/2025)

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