Except for a portion of correspondence whose access is
under the control of donor Matthew J. Bruccoli, the balance
of the Fredson Thayer Bowers Papers is without
restrictions.
The Papers of Fredson Thayer Bowers, Accession
#12730-a, Special Collections Dept., University of
Virginia Library, Charlottesville, Va.
Acquisition Information
The collection is a consolidation of gift acquisitions
received in the Manuscript and Special Collections
Departments of the University of Virginia over the period
1950-94 from: Fredson Bowers, the Estate of Fredson T.
Bowers, Matthew J. Bruccoli, John Denniston, George W.
Williams and Jo-Ann Boydston.
Fredson Thayer Bowers was born in New Haven, Connecticut on
April 25, 1905. Although he was the only child of Fredson
Eugene Bowers and Hattie May Quigley, he grew up with two
half-sisters (the children of his mother's previous marriage)
and a stepfather, Charles K. Groesbeck, who his mother married
after his father's death in 1911.
Bowers entered Brown University at age 16 after graduating
from New Haven General High School in 1921. His study
interests were in English literature and music, both of which
he pursued with vigor. He was a member of Phi Beta Kappa and
participated in a variety of literary, music and student
activity clubs. He edited the school newspaper and served on
the boards of student publications. He played the Hawaiian
guitar, the saxophone and led a jazz band. On November 11,
1924, at age 19, while still an undergraduate, he married
Hyacinth Adeline Sutphin, a Smith College graduate and member
of a New York Social Register family.
Bowers graduated from Brown in 1925 and spent the next nine
years at Harvard doing graduate study and raising a family. A
son, Fredson, was born in 1927, a daughter, Joan, in 1931, and
twin sons, Peter and Stephen, in 1934. Bowers taught English,
tutored in modern languages and developed a passion for
breeding, showing, judging and writing about Irish wolfhounds.
He earned his Ph.D in February, 1934 and the next year went to
England on scholarship.
In 1936, following an episode of marital problems that had
led to a divorce, Bowers took an instructorship at Princeton.
He taught freshman English and did editing work on Thomas
Dekker until he accepted an offer from Dean James Southall
Wilson to serve as acting assistant professor at the
University of Virginia, which remained his home for the rest
of his life. At the University of Virginia, Bowers taught
English along with 17th and 18th century novels and a course
in introductory bibliography. In 1942, he married Nancy Hale,
and relocated with her to wartime Washington, D.C. where he
served as a Naval Commander supervising the deciphering of
enemy codes.
Bowers' impressive scholarship during his early years in
Charlottesville resulted in his recognition as a preeminent
authority of bibliographical analysis. His ideas and methods
broke new ground and challenged established principles and
methods in descriptive bibliography and textual criticism. In
this period, he inaugurated the publication of
Studies in Bibliography which he
personally edited for more than 40 years and developed into a
journal of worldwide repute. In 1949, he published
Principles of Bibliographical
Description , which became and remains a major resource
in the history of bibliography. His prestigious lectures and
the voluminous output of his published essays and research
together with his activities on and leadership of professional
associations marked him as a dynamic scholar in his field. As
a teacher of boundless energy and as an active and innovative
chairman and dean, Bowers built the English department at the
University of Virginia into one of the best in the United
States. Bowers still found time to teach summer courses at the
University of Chicago and to pursue his hobbies: writing music
reviews each week for the
Richmond Times- Dispatch and
publishing articles about his beloved wolfhounds and his
philatelic interests.
During his later career years, Bowers turned his
scholarship skills in textual criticism to editing the works
of post-medieval writers. He published dozens of edited
volumes (60 between 1960 and his death) creating distinct
expressions of technique and methodology that became
recognized among many as the "Bowers school of editing." He
continued producing large numbers of essays, lectures and
reviews beyond his retirement in 1975.
Throughout his notable career, Bowers was the recipient of
numerous awards and recognitions. Among the many were honorary
degrees from Clark and Brown Universities and the University
of Chicago. He received the Gold Medal of the Bibliographical
Society in London and his own University of Virginia
recognized his many achievements with its highest honor, the
Thomas Jefferson Award as well as two endowed chairs, the
Alumni Professorship of English (1957-68) and the Linden Kent
Memorial Professorship (1968-75, 1975-91 (Emeritus)). Bowers
also held appointments to the Fulbright, Guggenheim,
Rosenbach, Woodrow Wilson National and the Academy of Arts and
Sciences fellowships. In 1974, Bowers was honored by his
former Virginia and Chicago students at a retirement dinner
and in 1985, on the occasion of his eightieth birthday, his
colleagues organized an international conference on
bibliography and editing in his name at the University of
Virginia.
Nancy Hale, whose health had been failing for several
years, died in 1988 and Bowers, who had also begun suffering
with major health problems, died a few years later on April
11, 1991, at age 86. Following cremation, his ashes were
buried next to the grave of Nancy Hale at Forest Hills
Cemetery in Jamaica Plain, Boston.
The Papers of Fredson Thayer Bowers contain ca. 12,000
items (45 shelf feet) that span the years 1595-1992, with the
bulk concentrated in the period 1922-1992. The items relating
to pre-twentieth century dates consist primarily of photo and
electrostatic copies (EC's) of printed literary texts that
Bowers used in his editing work. Among these, the largest
portion are copies of Stephen Crane stories that appearedin
newspapers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
The original classification numbers (listed below) of
all previous acquisitions in this collection have been
redesignated under a single consolidated classification
number: 12730-a
Group I (Correspondence) contains letters, notes and
letter drafts. The arrangement, in keeping with Bowers'
filing order, lists a portion of the correspondence
chronologically by date and another portion, alphabetically
by the correspondent's name. A "Restricted" category
contains correspondence whose access is controlled by its
donor, Matthew J. Bruccoli.
Group II (Writings), comprising almost 90% of the
collection, includes material consisting of copy texts,
manuscripts, proofs, background research and related
correspondence that Bowers used in the development of his
published works. This large volume of material has also
been arranged in format and chronology similar to that
employed by Bowers in listing his writings. An updated
version of that listing with the totality of Bowers'
publications, titled, "Fredson Thayer Bowers: A Checklist
and Chronology," by Martin C. Battestin may be found in
Studies in Bibliography ,
Vol. 46, (1993) 155- 186.
Group III (Academic and Personal), the remainder of the
collection, contains personal memorabilia and material
relating to Bowers' academic activities. The arrangement of
the Bowers papers mirrors both the breadth of his writing
and the incisiveness of his analytical and descriptive
methodologies. The material is replete with autograph
comments, notations and emendations. Many of the
manuscripts and proofs show autograph editing that served
as new text for revised publication of the originals. The
correspondence with those with whom Bowers worked on his
many projects, particularly his former student and later
assistant and collaborator, Matthew J. Bruccoli, gives a
penetrating insight into the detailed and often laborious
task of critical bibliographical editing.
Items of special interest include: A bound typescript of
Bowers' 1928 Harvard course-thesis; an autograph manuscript
of Walter Wilson Greg's seminal essay, "The Rationale of
Copy-Text;" Warren Chappell illustrated letters; John Ciadi
and Elder Olson poetry; Shakespeare lecture notes of James
Southall Wilson; the manuscript and typescript of Bowers'
unpublished lecture, "The Ideal Record Collector" and an
unpublished checklist (compiled by John Denniston) that
catalogues the almost 1200 classical music reviews that
Bowers wrote for the Richmond Times-Dispatch between
1939-67.
Microfilm and video recordings have been transferred to
the appropriate custodial sections of the University of
Virginia Special Collections Department where they are
identified as part of these papers under the following
location indicators:
microfilm of Stephen Crane's original manuscripts and
story texts and a thesis on his poetry (M-1362-1364);
microfilm of the poem, "TheConceited Pedlar," and the play,
"The Queene of Corsica," by Thomas Randolph (M-1680);
microfilm of articles by Bowers concerning Thomas Dekker's
writings, particularly, "Old Fortunatus," and on "Variant
readings in some early English plays." (M-1682); microfilm
of the dramatized version of Andrea Guarna's "Bellum
Grammaticale" (M-1938); videorecordings in the Eminent
Scholar/Teachers: Shakespeare Video Series of Bowers'
lectures, "Death in Victory: Shakespeare's Tragic
Reconciliations" and "Hamlet as Minister and Scourge"
(VC-33, 34).
Barrett, Clifton Waller, 1955
Barrol, J. Leeds, 1971-75
Blayney, Peter W., 1974
Boydston, Jo-Ann, 1965-90, n.d. (3 folders)
Brodsky, Louis D., 1978-89, n.d.
Bruccoli, Matthew J., 1971-90, n.d.
Chappell, Warren (with illustrations),
1976-87
Box 3
Ciardi, John (with poetry)
1960
Clark, Leonard, 1953
Cook, Don L. 1979-81, n.d.
Flannagan, Roy, 1989
Gainesbarry, J., 1971
Greetham, David C., 1986-90, n.d.
Greg, Walter Wilson, 1953
Grier, Philip M., 1974-77
Hamblin, Robert W., 1978-80
Howard-Hill, Trevor H., 1957-89
King, Robert T., 1971-75
Kolve, V.A., 1980
Kvarnes, Robert G., 1977
Levin, Harry Tuchman, 1982
Miscellaneous correspondence (other
thanbowers), 1967-71
Reiman, Donald H., 1983-85
Rosowski, Susan J., 1983-84
Rowse, A. Leslie, 1973-85
Shillingsburg, Peter, 1987-88
Tanselle, G. Thomas, 1976-90, n.d.
Turner, Robert, 1959-90
Vander Meulen, David L., 1984-88
Williams, George W., 1971-89, n.d.
Box 4
[Restricted] General
1961-78
[Restricted] Named: Bowers, Nancy Hale (with
Bruccoli), 1959-84
Bruccoli, Matthew J. (with Fredson Thayer
Bowers), 1963-87, n.d. (6 folders) (with others),
1967-76
Group II: Writings
Books (Manuscript Material and
Proofs)
Box 5
On Editing Shakespeare
and the Elizabethan Dramatists
1955
Box 5
Manuscript material
n.d.
Box 5
Textual and Literary
Criticism
1959
Box 5
Manuscript material
ca.1957-59
Box 5
Proofs
1957-59
Box 6
Hamlet as Minister and
Scourge and Other Studies in Shakespeare and
Milton
1989
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