A Guide to the Additional Papers of Charles Wright 1951-2003> Wright, Charles, Additional Papers 11437-b, -c

A Guide to the Additional Papers of Charles Wright 1951-2003>

A Collection in
Special Collections
The University of Virginia Library
Accession Number 11437-b, -c


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Repository
Special Collections, University of Virginia Library
Accession number
11437-b, -c
Title
Additional Papers of Charles Wright 1957-2003
Physical Characteristics
This addition to the papers of University of Virginia English professor and poet Charles Wright, Charlottesville, Virginia, consists of ca. 2,000 items (9 Hollinger boxes, 4 linear feet).
Language
English

Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Use Restrictions

See the University of Virginia Library’s use policy.

Preferred Citation

Additional Papers of Charles Wright, Accession #11437-b, -c, Special Collections, University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville, Va.

Acquisition Information

These additions to the papers of Charles Wright were purchased from the poet by the University of Virginia Library in May 2002 and May 2003.

Biographical/Historical Information

Charles Wright was born in Pickwick Dam, Hardin County, Tennessee on August 25, 1935, to Charles Penzel and Mary Castleman (Winter) Wright, and was educated at Davidson College (B.A., 1957), the University of Iowa Writer's Workshop (M.F.A., 1963) and the University of Rome (1963-1964). He served in the United States Army Intelligence Corps, 1957-1961, where he studied at the Army Language School, Monterey, California, the first year. He spent the remaining three years of service in and around Verona, Italy, returning there to study on a Fulbright grant in 1963-1964.

Since 1966, Wright has been an English professor, first at the University of California, Irvine (1966-1983), and then at the University of Virginia (1983 until the present). He married Holly McIntire in 1969, and published his first book of poems, The Grave of the Right Hand , in 1970. Other titles of poetry include: Hard Freight (1973); Bloodlines (1975); China Trace (1977); The Southern Cross (1981); Country Music: Selected Early Poems (1982); The Other Side of the River (1984); Zone Journals (1988); The World of Ten Thousand Things: Poems 1980- 1990 (1990); Chickamauga (1995); Black Zodiac (1997) and Appalachia (1998).

During his entire career, Wright has won national recognition for his poetry. Several of these awards include the Edgar Allan Poe Award from the Academy of American Poets for Bloodlines (1976), the National Book Award in poetry for Country Music: Selected Early Poems (1983), the Ruth Lilly Poetry prize (1993), the Academy of American Poets Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize for Chickamauga (1996), and the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for Black Zodiac (1998). He has also received awards for his work in translation, notably the PEN Translation Prize for his translation of the Italian poet Eugenio Montale's The Storm and Other Things . Wright has also published translations of the Italian poet Dino Campana ( Orphic Songs , 1984).

For more complete biographical and professional information consult the Gale Literary Database on Contemporary Authors and the web site for the Pulitzer Prizes on the Internet, Wright's essay in The Contemporary Authors Autobiography Series , the essay about Wright by George F. Buttrick in The Dictionary of Literary Biography , the volume The Point Where All Things Meet: Essays on Charles Wright collected and edited by Tom Andrews, and the biographical folder in Box 36. Also helpful are the two collections of critical essays and interviews about Wright published in Halflife: Improvisations and Interviews, 1977-1987 , University of Michigan Press (1988) and Quarter Notes: Improvisations and Interviews , University of Michigan Press (1995).

Scope and Content

This addition to the papers of University of Virginia English professor and poet Charles Wright, Charlottesville, Virginia, consist of ca. 2,000 items (9 Hollinger boxes, 4 linear feet), ca. 1951-2003, chiefly correspondence and manuscripts, but also includes an honorary degree from Tusculum College, Greenville, Tennessee; a Who's Who certificate; poster; and a few photographs.

The correspondence series has three sub-groups, the first is the letters from Charles Wright to his family, chiefly his mother, 1958-1965, arranged chronologically. The second group consists of an alphabetical arrangement of correspondence to Wright from colleagues, friends, editors, and publishers. Some of the more frequent correspondents have been placed in their own separate folder. A third group contains correspondence concerning invitations to attend conferences, poetry readings, workshops, and other events, invitations to contribute to poetry magazines and anthologies, and requests for recommendations for students or colleagues, permissions to use his poems, and requests for Wright to judge poetry competitions.

The second series consisting of manuscripts and miscellaneous papers contains the manuscripts for Wright's books, Crepuscolo Americano , a selection of poems by Charles Wright and their translation, Negative Blue (2000), and A Short History of the Shadow . Other materials include photographs of Charles Wright with other individuals, two bound poetry notebooks belonging to Wright containing his original hand- written poetry, a folder of individual poems by Wright, the typescript for Uncollected Prose: Six Guys and a Supplement The Jordan Lectures 1999-2000 by Charles Wright, a Who's Who certificate for Wright, an honorary degree from Tusculum College, Greeneville, Tennessee awarded in 1986, and a typescript by Bonnie Costello, "Charles Wright, Giorgio Morandi and the Metaphysics of the Line."

Arrangement

This collection is organized in two basic series, Series I: Correspondence (Boxes 1-7), and Series II: Manuscripts and Miscellaneous Papers (Boxes 7-9). The correspondence series is arranged in three sub- groups. These consist of letters from Charles Wright to his family in chronological order (Boxes 1-2), an alphabetical arrangement of correspondence from colleagues, other poets, etc. (Boxes 2-6), and professional correspondence concerning speaking appearances, permissions, poetry readings, and other events arranged chronologically (Boxes 6-7).

Contents List

Series I: Correspondence
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Series II: Manuscripts and Miscellaneous Papers
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