Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library
Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections LibrarySharon Defibaugh
The collection is open for research use.
MSS 11390, Louise Collier Willcox Papers, 1877-1933, in the Clifton Waller Barrett Library, Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia.
The Louise Collier Willcox papers, Clifton Waller Barrett Library, were purchased by the University of Virginia Library in two different accessions. The first accession of about forty letters and associated material (about 88 items) was purchased on March 10, 1998. The second accession (about one cubic foot) was purchased by the University of Virginia Library on October 19, 2011. Both have been interfiled together.
Louise Collier Willcox (1865-1929), an American author, editor, anthologist, critic and translator, was born in Chicago to the Reverend Robert Laird Collier and Mary Price Collier. She had private tutors in France, Germany, and England, and attended the Conservatory Leipzig, 1882-1883. She married James Westmore Willcox, a Norfolk, Virginia, attorney, on June 25, 1890 and lived most of her life in Norfolk, Virginia. They had two children, Christine Price Willcox Capelli (1893-1967) and James Westmore Willcox, Jr. (1894-1971). She remained a close friend of Ellen Glasgow.
Louise Collier Willcox worked as an editorial writer for "Harper's Weekly" and was on the editorial staff of "North American Review" from 1906-1913, was a reader and advisor to Macmillan Company 1905-1909, and a reader and advisor to E.P. Dutton Company. Willcox authored "The Human Way," "A Manual of Spiritual Fortification" (1910), "The Road to Joy" (1911), "The House in Order" (1916), and "A Manual of Mystic Verse."
The papers of author, editor, and anthologist, Louise Price Collier Willcox (1865-1929), 1877-1933, chiefly consist of literary correspondence, personal correspondence, and family correspondence, mostly with her immediate family.
The first series consists of correspondence from literary figures and publishers, including Henry M. Alden, James Lane Allen, Henry Charles Beeching, Hilaire Belloc, Arnold Bennett, A. C. Benson, Abbie Farwell Brown, Alice Brown, Trigant Burrow, H. Price Collier, William Crary Brownell, Edward Carpenter, John Vance Cheney, H. Price Collier, John Dewey, Edward Dowden, Edna Ferber, Kuno Francke, Richard Watson Gilder, Lawrence Gilman, Ferris Greenslet, Philip Hale, Lizzie Allen Harker, George Harvey, Robert Underwood Johnson, Gerald Stanley Lee, Hamilton Wright Mabie, Edward S. Martin, Alice Meynell, Eveleen Myers, Bliss Perry, E. C. Pickering, Margaret Prescott Montague, Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch, Lizette Woodworth Reese, Boris Sidis, Horace Traubel, and Amélie Rives Troubetzkoy.
This group consists chiefly of letters to her from other American authors regarding inclusion in her anthologies. With the letters are magazine photos and clippings. The literary figures correspondence also contains a letter from Willcox to Fannie Brewer, October 9, 1916, the manuscript of a poem "On the Pleached Orchard Path at World's End Farm" by Willcox (1922), biographical material, and photographs of her.
Several authors and publishers have individual folders, including Sara Wiley Drummond, Ellen Glasgow, Georgiana Goddard King, Harper and Brothers, "Life," the Macmillan Company, the "North American Review", and "Outlook."
The second series contains personal correspondence, arranged alphabetically with correspondents listed by folder and with more frequent correspondents having individual folders, such as Margaret Macmillan Baxter (1852-1925), Fannie Reed Brewer, S.R. Carter, Annie Clephane (1836-?), Claudia Stuart Coles, Mary Ellis, Joseph A. Graham, [Sara B. Mackintosh], Louisa and Clara Paget, and Anna Cogswell Wood.
The third series consists of family correspondence with immediate family members, including her husband, James Westmore Willcox, Sr. her daughter Christine Willcox Capelli, her son, James Westmore Willcox, Jr., her parents, the Reverend Robert Laird Collier and Mary Price Collier, her brother, Hiram Price Collier, and her sister Mary Collier.
Also present in this series are miscellaneous papers, including financial papers; miscellany; manuscripts, including a few presumably by Willcox, news clippings and printed musical programs, and photographs of Louise Collier Willcox and family.
The collection is arranged in three series: Series I: Literary and Publishing Correspondence; the literary figures portion is chiefly composed of the material from the original accession (Box 1-2); Series II: Personal Correspondence (Box 2-3); and Series III: Family Correspondence and Miscellany (Boxes 3-6)
Correspondents include: Ella King Adams (1876-1939) gives advice on writing motion picture scenarios and bemoans the censorship laws; Henry Mills Alden (1836-1919); James Lane Allen (1849-1925), Reverend Henry Charles Beeching (1859-1919) refers to his own anthology; "Lyra Sacra," Hilaire Belloc (1870-1953); Arnold Bennett (1867-1931); Arthur Christopher Benson (1862-1925) discusses modern mysticism and Walt Whitman, provides detailed personal and family information, and thanks her for her book; Abbie Farwell Brown (1871-1927), does not know the source of the story about Saint Bridget that Willcox has written to her about; Alice Brown (1857-1948); William Crary Brownell, Charles Scribner's & Son (1851-1928) declining to publish Willcox's anthology; and Trigant Burrow (1875-1950) who mentions C.K. Ogden, his own book, and the idea and benefits of going uncomforted
Correspondents include: Edward Carpenter (1844-1929) concerning the possibility of publishing one of his books in the United States, John Vance Cheney (1848-1922) concerning permission to include "The Happiest Heart" in her anthology; Hiram Price Collier (for family correspondence see Box 3), both social notes to John R. Brewer and Fannie Brewer; John Dewey (1859-1944), thanks Willcox for the expression of sympathy at his wife's death; Edward Dowden (1843-1913) gives permission to include "Seeking God" in her anthology; George D. Dutton; Edna Ferber (1887-1968) writing on behalf of the Author's Guild; Julia Ellsworth Ford (1859-1950), discusses her appreciation for Irish poet, AE, pseudonym of Irish poet, George William Russell (1867-1935), W.B. Yeats, and Whitman; and Kuno Francke (1855-1930)
Correspondents include: Richard Watson Gilder (1844-1909); Lawrence Gilman (1878-1939) apologizes for any unfair aspersions cast upon the Jamestown Exposition in an article by Edward Hungerford; Ferris Greenslet (1875-1959) concerning her article about Arthur Christopher Benson; Philip Hale (1854-1934) assures her that the more recent program books for the Boston Symphony orchestra is not out of print; Lizzie Allen Harker (1863-1933) has asked Evelyn Underhill (Mrs. Stuart Moore) to meet Willcox; George Harvey (1864-1928) invites Willcox to visit them at Deal Beach, New Jersey; Robert Underwood Johnson (1853-1937) admires her article on Maeterlinck but cannot use it in the "Century Magazine"; and Gerald Stanley Lee (1862-1944), praises her recent book
Correspondents include: Hamilton Wright Mabie (1846-1916) seeking a meeting and praising Miss King's verse; Edward Sandford Martin (1856-1939) writes that he has taken his book to Scribner's; Prestonia Mann Martin (1861-1945) thanks Willcox for her help in placing her manuscript which is now at the office of Brentano's; Alice Meynell (1847-1922) gives permission for the inclusion of her poem in the anthology but suggests another one of hers as superior; Margaret Prescott Montague (1878-1955) encloses a copy of her lion poem on the verso of her card; Eveleen Tennant Myers (1856-1937) gives permission for the use of her husband's poem "Sunrise"; Frederick Maurice Newton (? -1948) praises her work in "Harper's Weekly" and recommends the work of G. Louis Dickinson; Bliss Perry (1860-1954) feels that he cannot reverse the decision of Greenslet concerning her Maeterlinck paper; E. C. Pickering (1846-1919) answers her question about planets; Emily Preston (1867-195?) discusses "The Human Way" by Willcox; Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch (1863-1944)writes about permission to quote from Traherne's works; Lizette Woodworth Reese (1856-1935); Boris Sidis (1867-1923); and Emily Morse Symonds, pen name "George Paston" (1860-1936) appreciates Willcox's understanding of her work and discusses her book "The Career of Candida," its purpose, and her new novel "A Study in Prejudices"
Correspondents include: W. Charles Tanner (concerning greetings from America to Tolstoy); Horace Traubel (1858-1919) discusses his "Chants Communal" (see also his oversize folder); Amélie Rives Troubetzkoy (1863-1945) mentions Edward Carptenter's book on Walt Whitman, discusses Oriental writings, and Zend-Avesta, as well as expressing her thoughts on people helping each other and on her feelings of loneliness the past ten years; Annie Wakeman [Lathrop] (1866-1911); and Louise Collier Willcox concerning her health treatment in Massachusetts and Christine's church and concert singing; with the Willcox letter is the manuscript poem "3 Triolets On the Pleached Orchard Path at World's End Farm"
Topics of discussion include the publication of her book, "Alcestis: And Other Poems," a summer trip to Italy, her lecture on Edmund Spenser, a new contract with Macmillan for her book, which benefited from the criticism of Georgiana [Goddard King ?], her books "The Coming of Philibert and Cromwell: an Historical Play," her writing style, and Georgiana Goddard King's "Columbine's Marriage"; one undated detailed letter discusses Bliss Carman's work, an ode or hymn to music that Drummond is working on, criticisms of "Alcestis: And Other Poems" by Georgiana Goddard King and Willcox, and her first political dinner.
Topics include her interest in J.A. Symonds, who she finds much like herself in temperament and nature, "I have made of my dreams avenging furies, whereby I am scourged," and her opinion of "A Mummer's Wife" by George Moore, which she prefers to his "Evelyn Innes" (October 12, 1904); comments on cosmic consciousness and "The Life of St. Francis" (August 22, 1905); spirituality and the soul (October 22, 1905); works of inspiration from The Upanishads, Spinoza, Plotinus, Kant, and Fichte (December 14, 1905); and her opinion of the book "The Sovereign Remedy" [1907?]
Glasgow discusses the following topics, "The Garden of Allah" novel; payment for a serial and plans to visit Castle Hill; several letters full of expressions of affection for her friend, Louise Willcox; a possible visit by Colonel [George Brinton McClellan] Harvey; and a proposal for a visit with Willcox to Glen Springs, Watkins, New York.
Glasgow writes about her illness in Karlsbad and Vienna, though currently in Brennerbad, Austria, visiting the [thermal baths]; discusses the books that she is reading and plans to read, including her preference for the gospel of Matthew over John, and writes especially concerning Emerson, the concept of the Over Soul, Brahmanism, and other eastern philosophy ideas; writes at length about why she does not care for George Bernard Shaw; and with many letters urging Willcox to join her on trips to recover her health and encouraging Willcox.
Includes a full letter of biographical information about Hammond's personal and writing life (March 1, 1905); requests Willcox's impression of verses that she sent her (February 13, 1908); discusses her serious health issues of the past few years (February 17, 1908); and her reaction to the poetry of George Meredith (March 1, 1908).
King writes about her teaching duties and work for Macmillan (March [3], 1905); describes her upcoming trip to Europe (May 5, 1905); Sara King Wiley Drummond's health issues (June 20, 1907); why she dislikes "Pragmatism" by [William James] (November 17, 1907); and publication of "The Human Way" by Willcox (January 9, 1908). Most letters discuss books and literature that she is reading and events at her school, and mentions a manuscript that she is working on and trying to publish, perhaps "The Way of Perfect Love."
Traubel sends a copy of his "Chants Communal" to Willcox, discusses Walt Whitman and free verse, and agrees to publish a poem by [Thomas? ] Traherne with comments by Willcox.
Correspondents include: Charles Baker; Helen [Belkney?]; [William Hemphill] Bell; Emily F. Bleecker (1860- ?); William S. Brady; [L.] B. Carter; Loudon Charlton; Susan M. [Coelis?]; Regina Katherine Crandall; Lelia Daingerfield; Alice C. Dewey; G. Dornin; George T. Elliot, M.D.; Flora Field; C.H.B. Floyd; Ellen Giles; Glen Springs [Mineral Waters]; Frances ("Fannie") Graham Gunby (1853-1916); Bertha Hanlinger; Amalie Hanning; Birge Harrison; George Harvey; C. Hanford Henderson; Lily F. Hofheimer; Louise Homer; and Grace Hubbard
Correspondents include: Charles E.M. Ince (1863-1932); Mary Jenkins; Harriet L. Jones; Virginia Lee Morris King (1898- ); C.G. Laird; Eleanor Selden Tucker Lee (1875-1962); the Reverend Arthur S. Lloyd; M.S. Mackintosh; A.G. McCulloh; Prestonia Mann Martin; [Hamilton?] W. Maxie; Mary Mears (concerning an article about her mother, Helen Farnsworth Mears); Marion C. Miles; F.S. Montgomery; and Fillmore Moore
Correspondents include: Katharine Park-Lewis; Endicott Peabody (concerning an examination for Westmore Willcox, Jr.; Archibald Maclay Pentz (1865-1924); [L.]H. Porter; William Rapp (about the opera singer Schumann Heinz); Elizabeth C.H. Reid; Oscar Saenger; Edna Sprague; F.C. Steel; W.R. Sully; A.D. Thomas; John R. Walker; Stuart Walker; Gerard Warriner (cousin); and [?] Wood
Graham discusses journalism in the United States and his experiences with hunting dogs; in particular two letters from Hillsboro, Alabama (no year, January 11 and January 21), and one letter from New Albany, Mississippi (no year March 8) discuss life in the rural South; his desire to write about the real lives of ordinary African-Americans in the South and their accomplishments, offset by his hesitancy about offending his white hosts; and the low standards of contemporary literature
The correspondent often critiques articles by Willcox that appear in "Harper's Weekly" and other publications in her letters; she also comments on Theodore Roosevelt and his career (February 8, 1905)
These letters discuss literature and authors in general, and the books and articles by Willcox specifically, also mentions a trip by Willcox and her family to England in 1905, mention friends in common, particularly the Clephanes; and discuss the writings of Edith Wharton and Robert Louis Stevenson's "Essays of Travel and Fables" (December 1905)
Letters written while she is staying at Dr. Ribble's in Wytheville, Virginia, for rest and recovery, from August through September, are full of local news and details about her health and treatment. Willcox returned to Norfolk in October and her letters discuss the music concerts to be held there during the winter and Ellen Glasgow's new book ["The Builders" ?] (October 15, 1919); accompanying the [John?] Powells to a concert by Claudia Muzio and Josѐ Mardones (October 30, 1919); and a concert by John Powell and Sophie Braslau (December 5, 1919)
These letters generally encourage her daughter in her singing career by telling her about opportunities to sing, providing money for her support and voice lessons, and giving her advice. She also describes local concerts and social events in Norfolk, Virginia. Willcox also mentions hearing [Arthur?] Fiedler play the violin (June 12, 1920)
Willcox writes about their plans for the winter and her teaching duties in her home. She also mentions her notification of belonging to the Pen and Brush Club, New York (November 14 and 26, 1920); the singing of Amelita Galli-Curci (November 21 and 26, 1920); mention of Louis Jaffѐ, Ellen Glasgow in Spain with Josephine, Edith Wharton's book "Age of Innocence," John Galsworthy's "In Chancery," and her teaching of three girls from 10-2 every day (December 8, 1920); the marriage of Margaret Davis and Louis Jaffѐ and stereotypical comments about her black servant and Jews (December 14, 1920)
Willcox writes about hearing Alma Gluck and Efrem Zimbalist sing (January 27, 1921); discusses what she thinks her daughter must do in order to succeed (May 26, 1921); and the request by Ella King Adams, head of Cecil de Mille's reading office, for Willcox to do scenarios for them (June 10, 1921)
She describes a concert by Sophie Braslau at Norfolk and mentions her own work on movie scripts, "I am going to write three movie pictures and see if I can make any money" (January 10, 1922). Willcox also mentions Ellen Glasgow and being "color blind as to paint" as an example to her daughter as how to conduct herself as a single woman (February 15, 1922); the quality of a record made by Christina Willcox Capelli (February 26, 1922); She also generally discusses concerts given by her daughter in many of these letters.
Willcox writes about a Mr. Dupont, Wilmington, Delaware, requesting her help in preparing his three volumes of poetry for publication (July 1, 1922); and Louise's visit to her old friend, Fannie Brewer, at World's End Farm, Hingham, Massachusetts (August 22 and 25, 1922)
Willcox mentions that Canby wants her to do an occasional review of new French books for the "Literary Review" (March 2, 1923); she has been correcting the proof for her translation of "My friend from Limousin" by Jean Giraudoux and is in a dilemma about whether to stay with Harper's or go with the new "Harper's Weekly" (March 18, 1923); discusses the concert and voice of Leone Kruse (April 26, 1923); asks questions about her daughter's suitor (May 18, 27, 28, 1923); describes a visit by Ellen Glasgow (June 1, 1923); discusses the reviews of her recent French translation and her anthology work (June 29 and July 14, 1923)
The manuscripts include "Afterward"; "Among the Constellations"; "Bare Beaches"; "In Mary's Time"; "The Lost Path"; "Ode to Music"; "Song"; and "To a Man's God." Only "Song" is attributed directly to Louise Collier Willcox and several have the name "Ethan Allan" written at the bottom. Also present are notes about the Riviera and two typescripts of work by Abdul Beha Abbas translated by Mirza Ahmed Esphahani in 1906-1907