Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Use Restrictions

See the University of Virginia Library’s use policy.

Preferred Citation

Papers of George P. Garrett, Accession # 7654-c, Special Collections Dept., University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville, Va.

Acquisition Information

This collection was made a gift to the Library on December 3, 1986 by Mrs. A.C. Epps of Richmond, Virginia.

Biographical/Historical Information

George Palmer Garrett was born on June 11, 1929 in Orlando, Florida. After receiving his B.A. from Princeton University in 1952, he served in the Army. He then returned to his alma mater where he wrote his first book, The Reverend Ghost: Poems, and completed his graduate education in 1956. From 1956-1970 he taught at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut; Rice University in Houston, Texas; the University of Virginia; and Hollins College in Roanoke, Virginia. During 1970-1974 he was writer-in-residence at the University of South Carolina, prior to moving to York Harbor, Maine, where he married Susan Parrish Jackson. In January 1982, he became professor of English at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, where he remained until his return to the faculty of the University of Virginia in September 1985 as Henry Hoyns Professor of Creative Writing. He has written over twenty books, including In the Briar Patch (1961), Do, Lord, Remember Me (1965), The Girl in the Black Raincoat (1966), Death of the Fox (1971), and The Succession (1983).

Scope and Content Information

This collection consists of ca. 108 items, 1949-1986, which relate to the career of George Palmer Garrett as a novelist, poet, short story writer, critic, and lecturer. Included are announcements and programs of his public appearances, newspaper clippings and other printed material about his life and his works, and a scrapbook of similar material compiled by his sister, Rozanne Epps. In addition to material documenting Garrett's career, there are two of his manuscripts, "Enchanted Ground" and "The Hunter's View," notes for a lecture, and letters to A.C. and Rozanne Epps. Many of the letters mention his scheduling for lectures, but he also writes an interesting piece on what he looks for in a novel or story (September 30, 1949); says that he is up for consideration for a job in Charlottesville and that he wants them--along with "Harry the Meach" [Harry Meacham]--to set up a reading in Richmond (October 10, 1961); and sends along some tapes he made for them of a wedding. Also included is a note, November 16, 1967, from Harry Meacham to Rozanne and A.C. Epps about a review of Garrett's poetry by a Dr. Locke.