Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Use Restrictions

See the University of Virginia Library’s use policy.

Preferred Citation

Papers of James Southall Wilson, Accession 7436-e , Special Collections Dept., University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville, Va.

Acquisition Information

This collection was given to the Library by Mr. and Mrs. Charles M. Davison of Charlottesville, Virginia, on December 2, 1986.

Scope and Content Information

These fifty-six items, 1921-1976, consist chiefly of letters from Margaret and James Branch Cabell, Willa Cather, Donald Davidson, Ellen Glasgow, DuBose and Dorothy Heyward, and Walter de la Mare to University of Virginia English Professor James Southall Wilson (1880-1963) and his wife Julia. The collection also contains printed material pertaining to these same authors.

Most of these letters originated through Wilson's involvement with the Southern Writers Conferences held at the University of Virginia and at Charleston, South Carolina, and his work as editor of the Virginia Quarterly Review, 1925-1930.

The letters from James Branch Cabell (1879-1958) and his wife Margaret congratulate Wilson for his Edgar Allan Poe article in Virginia Quarterly Review and praises the story "The Holy Bottle" (March 27, 1926); politely refuses to discuss his works at the University of Virginia (December 8, 1928); mentions his obligation to autograph volumes of his unfinished Biography of the Life of Manuel as an excuse for declining to write for Virginia Quarterly Review (December 16, 1929); speaks of the impending arrival of a "little paper" for Wilson (possibly "Sanctuary in Porcelain" which appeared in Virginia Quarterly Review in July of 1930--May 10 & 20, 1930); agrees to hold the second Southern Writers Conference in Charleston, South Carolina (May 12, 1932); discusses the disposition of his papers to Alderman Library and why he feels uncomfortable with them going to the University of Virginia; refers to the very negative review of Let Me Lie by University of Virginia professor Dan S. Norton (attached), with Francis L. Berkeley's letter to Wilson urging him to help the Library acquire Cabell's papers (April 26 & 30, 1948); shares the state of Cabell's health after his stroke (March 25, 1957); and includes greeting cards, thanks, and invitations (December 21, 1956; July 17, 1962; March 24, 1965; and n.d.).

A single letter of Willa Cather (1873-1947) to Mr. [Stringfellow] Barr responds negatively to an invitation to lecture at the University of Virginia due to unsettled family conditions, although she says that "I always feel very deeply that I am a Virginian" (December 5, 1928).

Donald Davidson (1893-1968) thanks the Wilsons for their praise of The Long Street, refers to their association at the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference in Vermont, and discusses the connection of his poem, "Gradual of the Northern Summer," and his home "Endicott" (December 20, 1961).

Ellen Glasgow (1873-1945) refers to the first Southern Writers Conference held at the University with Virginia Quarterly Review editors as hosts (November 28, 1931); thanks Wilson for the essay given her at Christmas (January 7, 1932); agrees that Charleston, next to the University, is the best place for the second Southern Writers Conference (May 10, 1932); issues invitations to lunch (February 6, April 14, & May 3, 1938); and sends postcards (August 22, 1931 & September 4, 1939). Included with her letters is a letter from H. Blair Rouse to Wilson which asks permission to use the correspondence at the University of Virginia between Glasgow and Wilson in his book (February 29, 1952).

DuBose (1885-1940) and Dorothy (1890- ? ) Heyward's correspondence discusses his inability to visit the University of Virginia or to furnish the Virginia Quarterly Review with any material due to the difficulty that writing presents to him (October 20, 1929); discusses his arrangements for Wilson to attend the Charleston Conference (October 8, 1932); describes his new cabin on Folly Island, South Carolina, and promises to review favorably a book of poetry for Wilson (March 18, 1933); rejects Sewanee as the next conference meeting place and cancels plans for that year, and also mentions seeing [John ?] Newcomb at the White Top Folk Festival in southern Virginia (August 18, 1933); regrets a missed rendezvous with the Wilsons during their trip to Charleston (March 29, 1936); and writes about "Porgy" (May 23, 1958). Dorothy Heyward also speaks of going to the Huntington Hartford Foundation for writers in order to finish a book begun in summer (January 14, 1960).

Walter de la Mare (1873-1956) responds to the request of John Calvin Metcalf and Wilson for a contribution to the Edgar Allan Poe Centennial Volume (published as The Enchanted Years ) by sending a poem entitled "Goodbye" (January 30 & March 1, 1921); he describes his enchantment with Virginia and mentions that his literary agent had forwarded a copy of his March lecture before the Royal Society of Literature on women novelists of the seventies to [New York], which would be published in America by Macmillan, and suggests it as a possible piece for the Virginia Quarterly Review (February 6, 1929); he regrets Wilson's decision to cease editing the Virginia Quarterly Review (March 21, 1930); and thanks Wilson for giving Edward O'Brien permission to reprint "Willows," which had appeared in the October 1929 issue of the Virginia Quarterly Review (May 21,1930).

The printed material includes: an issue of Poetry (December 1923), containing poems of DuBose Heyward; newsclippings regarding the second Southern Writers Conference in Charleston (October 22, 1932); a copy of The American Spectator (April 1933) including James Branch Cabell's "Soliloquy Before Printing"; a book review and a promotional pamphlet for Ellen Glasgow's A Certain Measure (1943); The Richmond Times-Dispatch's tribute to Glasgow upon her death (November 22, 1945); Edmund Wilson's discussion of James Branch Cabell in The New Yorker (April 21, 1956); other newsclippings regarding Cabell (1958-1976); and two undated clippings about Walter de la Mare at the University of Virginia and Dorothy Heyward.