Edith Pope, 1905-1961
Correspondence, 1919-1961
10 Boxes

The Edith Pope correspondence, dated from 1919 to 1961, includes almost 1400 letters by and to family, friends, editors and publishers, and others. The correspondence is arranged in two sequences,

Letters by Pope    and     Letters to Pope.

Since Edith Pope's letters have never been collected, most of the Correspondence is to Pope. Nevertheless the collection includes about 450  letters by her. Approximately three hundred of these are to her parents, Florence and A.M. Taylor, mostly written while Edith was away from home as a student at the Baldwin School, the Florida State College for Women and Columbia University. A number of letters to her father were written by Edith from St. Augustine while he was in Tallahassee attending legislative sessions.

The bulk of the remaining correspondence consists of about 105 letters to Pope's close friend Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings from 1934, before the women actually met, until 1953, the year of Rawlings death. Many of these letters were written during World War II and reflect both women's concern for their husbands overseas. There are also a few war time letters to Verle Pope. The remaining Pope correspondence consists of drafts, copies, and letters that probably were not mailed. They include copies of letters to editor Maxwell Perkins and a number of notes left over from her youth as a student at Baldwin.

The collection contains approximately 900 letters to Edith Pope, received throughout  her life, except for her younger childhood years. The correspondence is heavily personal with many letters from her parents (about 70) and her daughter (about 60), mostly written from Duke University. Many other letters are from friends and  relatives, dating back to her preparatory school years and continuing to her death. Literary letters are primarily from her editor, Maxwell Perkins (40 letters), publisher Charles Scribner (8 letter) and other personnel at Scribner's and E. P. Dutton. Letters from individuals such as Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings (about 40) and Julia Scribner Bigham (22) bridge friendship and literature. Her friend Dana Atchley (27 letters) was also one of her physicians. Letters from book reviewer Orville Prescott and his wife, from William G. Dodd, an English professor at the Florida State College for Women, and letters associated with the MacDowell Colony, where Edith was resident in 1944, and with the National League of American Pen Women are of literary interest. Numerous letters and reports were sent to her parents from the Baldwin School.

The most extensive correspondence is from Hardwick Moseley (82 letters; 1924-1958), a youthful suitor who became a lifelong friend; Kitty, or Kitten Poole (82 letters; 1944-1961); and Helen C. "Teen" MacDougal, (75 letters; 1919-1946), apparently a childhood friend from St. Augustine, who moved to Michigan. The girls were reunited at the Baldwin School. Pope corresponded with a number of  friends from Baldwin. Many of the letters are so informal that last names never appear. These writers have been identified only by their first names.

One third party letter of interest is from Sir Shane Leslie, expressing interest in visiting St. Augustine, written to Betty Z[immerman?] and forwarded by her to Pope.

The letters are both filed and described in the online inventory as follows: Letters by Pope (Boxes1-3) and to Pope (4-10). The letters by Pope are arranged as letters to her father, letters to her mother, and letters to others (alphabetically/chronologically). Some letters bear salutations to "Parents," or "Family," and  may be filed in either section, depending upon the name on the envelope or other criteria. Letter to Rawlings and others are arranged alphabetically, then chronologically in Box 3.

Letters to her (Box 4 -10) are filed alphabetically by the name of the writer, then chronologically.
A few third party letters are among the letters to Pope.

In all lists, letters identifiable only by first name are so-filed. Letters that can not be identified at all are at the end of the lists.

A chronological inventory is available in the Smathers Library.

Correspondence from Verle Pope to Edith is held by the library, but is restricted from all use for an indefinite period of time.