Special Collections, General Subject Manuscripts Collection

 
Richard Eberhart (1904-    )
Papers, ca. 1977-1990
24 items (1 box)
Ms Group 85


Biographical  note:

             Richard Eberhart was born in Austin, Minnesota, on April 5,1904. He received a B.A. degree from Dartmouth College, which conferred an Honorary Doctorship in Letters on him in 1954, a B.A. and M.A. from Cambridge University, and attended graduate school at Harvard.

             He was a school teacher, before entering the U.S. Navy in World War II. After the war, he joined a family business, the  Butcher Polish Company of Boston. In 1952 he went back to teaching and since then has served as a poet in residence, professor, and lecturer at various colleges and universities.

             His first book, A Bravery of Earth, 1930, was followed by many others, including Reading the Spirit, 1936, Song and Idea, 1940 Undercliff, Poems, 1946-1953, and Great Praises,1957, and Selected Poems, 1966. His Collected Poems, 1930-1986, was published in 1988.

             He has received many prizes for his work, including the the Harriet Monroe Poetry Award (1955), the Bollingen Prize (1962), the Pulitizer Prize (1966), the National Book Award (1976), and the Poetry Society of America Robert Frost Medal. He was the Library of Congress Consultant in Poetry from 1959-1961.

Summary: Typescripts, autograph, and Xerox copies of poems and addresses, usually with autograph inscriptions. Proofs of the book, Of Poetry and Poets (1979), and Ways of Light (1980). A copy of the manuscript of William Packard First Selected Poems (1977) is also included.

Provenance:  The nucleus of this group of papers was presented to the University of Florida by Mr. Eberhart during the spring term of 1977, while he was in residence. Additional items were added between 1978 and 1990.

Arrangement: The original papers are listed first, divided into Poems and Prose , followed by later additions , arranged by date of accession.



POEMS


Folders
 1.  Address to God   22 lines. Xerox from Times Literary Supplement, 3/12/76. Autograph signature, 5/77

 2.  Address to Time   Typed ms. (copy) 2 pp. Signed autograph inscription "Vanderbilt, R. P. Warren April, 1977."

 3.   Alcaic and Sapphic. A.Ms.S., May, 1977 [class exercise]

 4.  Autumn  45 lines. Typed Ms. (Xerox  copy). Auograph inscription signed: "first number of New York Quarterly, 5/77."
         
 5.  For a Lamb [etc.]  Typescript (mimeographed copy). Signed autograph inscription, "UF Class W 1977". Included in the same typescript are:

                        The Groundhog; 48 lines
                        The Cancer Cells; 22 lines
                        If I could only live at the pitch that is near Madness; 16 lines
                        On a squirrel crossing the road in Autumn, in New England; 17 lines.
                       
6. The Fort and the Gate   37 lines. Xerox from Times Literary Supplement, Sept/76. Signed autograph inscription, 5/77.

7.  The Gods of Washington, D.C. Broadside, published from Collected Poems, 1930-1976, Oxford University Press, N.Y., 1976. A Folger poetry broadside, inaugral series, 1977 .  Holograph inscription, "To the University of Florida, May, 1977. Read at the Folger before Carter's Inauguration, Jan 18, 1977."

8.  Incidence of Flight  24 lines. A.Ms.S., "Gainesville, Spring, 1974. "From Collected Poems, 1930-1976"

 9. Love Life   12 lines. Holograph poem, (3 drafts) typescript (Xerox copy). Gainesville, May 4, 1977, 7:30 a.m.

10. Night Thoughts   Typescript (Xerox copy)  Signed inscription: Gainesville, winter term, 1977.

11.  Poetry is a Search for Perfection  9 lines. Typescript (Xerox copy) Signed inscription: UF library, 5/77."

12. Quarry-Stone 24 lines. Xerox copy from Thistle Magazine . Holograph inscription: "Then I received the President's Medallion from Robert Marston."  Presentation to UF library, 5/77.

13.  A Snowfall  27 lines. Xerox copy. Autograph inscription and presentation copy to UF libraries, 5/77.
 
14. Time's Bludgeon 26 lines. Holograph and typed ms., (copy). Autographed, May 4, 1977.



PROSE


15.  Address: Third World Congress of Poets, Baltimore; June 13-27, 1976. June 22, 1976. Two Xeroxed items. Signed presentation to UF library, 5/77.

16.  Address for the National Book Award, delivered at the American Academy , April 13 , 1977. 2 p. Autograph note and presentation inscription to the University of Florida Library, May 1977.

17.  Wade, Nicholas. Nicholas Wade's Trousers. 2 pp. Photocopy from the Times Literary Supplement. March 4, 1977. With Eberhart 's holograph commentray: "I enjoyed this in TLS."  Presentation inscription to UF Libraries, 5/77.



Additions
18.  Announcement of the poet's public reading at Charleston College, March 31 [1978]  Broadside, 45 1/2 x 30 cm., with author's photo bt William Packard. Signed inscription presentation to the University of Florida Library, April 1978. 2 copies.

19 a& b. Of Poetry and Poets (1979). Page proofs with author's revisions.[13] 312 leaves. Signed presentation inscription to Laura Monti for the University of Florida Library; Gainesville, April 25, 1979.

20.  Ways of Light; Poems 1972-1980.
       Galley proofs with author's revisions. Presentation inscription "To Rare Books, the University of Florida with All Best Wishes, Richard Eberhart. April 21, 1980."

21. Recapitulation of a Poem Taken by the New Yorker (broadsheet 32x23 cm.). [Winston-Salem, NC, Palaemon Press, c.1984] Signed by the author, with presentation inscription to Sidney Ives, Rare Books & Manuscripts, University of Florida, March 17, 1984.

22. Eberhart, Richard. TLS to Sidney Ives; Hanover, NH, June 25, 1985. Enclosing a TLS from Eberhart to Chince N. Allen; Hanover, June 13, 1985, and several publications regarding Darmouth College and himself.

23. Maine Poems (1988). Typed contents page (carbon) with xerox copies of text from the Collected Poems (1988) and other publications. All inserted within a "title page" tablet. Accompanied by an TLS with autograph P.S. from Bill Butts, editor of Horns of Plenty, to Richard Eberhart; Chicago, 7 Oct. 1988, thanking him for contribution to the Malcolm Cowley issue. All enclosed in an envelope with a presentation inscription to "Sidney Ives for your Richard Eberhart Collection," April 29[?] 1989.

24. Packard, William. Collected Poems. Manuscript (copy). With TLS (carbon) from Richard Eberhart to William Packard; Gainesville, March 20, 1990 re the manuscript his and placing it in the University of Florida Library. Published as First Selected Poems (New York: Pylon Press, c1977).


revised and updated January 29, 2002
 
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