Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

Collection is open to research.

Use Restrictions

See the University of Virginia Library’s use policy.

Preferred Citation

Murrell and Abe Craddock Edmunds Papers, Accession 5989-ax, Special Collections Department, University of Virginia Library

Acquisition Information

This material was donated to the Library on May 6, 1987 by S. Allen Chambers of Washington, D.C.

Funding Note

Funded in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities

Scope and Content

This collection of twenty-one items, 1936-1963, is comprised of materials by and about author Murrell Edmunds and his brother, poet Abe Craddock Edmunds . Included are correspondence, Christmas cards, and clippings sent to their friends, Samuel Allen and Edith Chambers of Lynchburg.

Murrell Edmunds (1898-1981), born in Halifax, received his Bachelor of Law degree from the University of Virginia in 1921 and went on to a brief career of teaching and in law before devoting himself to writing. He wrote novels and short stories, including Sojourn Among Shadows (1936), Passionate Journey to Winter (1962), and Reservoir (1977). In the beginning, his books, which probed "contemporary and philosophical concepts," were not well received, but they eventually gained public acceptance with the help of publisher Thomas Yoseloff .

Abe Craddock Edmunds (1899-1959), also born in Halifax, graduated from Randolph-Macon College in Ashland and received his masters degree from the University of Virginia. One of his major books, The Renaissance (first published in 1932 and revised in 1954), marked him as a poet of significance. Other works included Geese are Swan (1929), Twenty-Nine Poems (1940), and Thirty-Five Poems (1951). He sought perfection in his work and was often referred to as a man of poetic genius.

Murrell Edmunds' correspondence to Sam and Edith Chambers include two Christmas cards and a November 14, 1959, letter concerning his brother's death and the possibility of presenting his books to Alderman Library's Rare Books and Manuscripts Division. There is also a letter, December 13, 1962, addressed to the Lynchburg Chamber of Commerce , in appreciation of the local paper's review of his Passionate Journey to Winter .

Craddock Edmunds' letters to Sam and Edith Chambers were mostly concerned with the couple's complete set of the poet's works. On May 5, 1937, Edmunds sent them a first edition of his The Renaissance bearing his holograph revisions; and, later he borrowed the edition to make additional revisions, returning it on February 15, 1954. Another reference to the collection was in his December 26, 1957, letter concerning Mary Washington College 's interest in buying a complete set of his books. Also included is a 1940 booklet, Twenty-Nine Poems , with contents pasted in and notes made by Edmunds.