Call Number:

SC MS 0052

Repository:

Lehigh University Special Collections

Extent:

28 linear feet (55 boxes)

Language Note:

English

Preferred Citation:

Papers of Carl F. Strauch Professor of English, Lehigh University, SC MS 0052, Special Collections, Linderman Library, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA

Date:

1930-1980 (inclusive)

Creator:

Strauch, Carl F. (Carl Ferdinand), 1908-1989

Form:

Instructional materials, Manuscripts (documents), Clippings (information artifacts), Personal correspondence, Card files, and Photographs

Abstract:

This collection includes articles, manuscripts, and correspondence relating to his publications as well as syllabi, lecture notes and student papers from his teaching at Lehigh. Extensive material from his work on the following authors: Carlyle, Arnold, Hawthorne, Poe, James, Melville, Whitman, and Emerson. Material on other 19th century authors and on the Romantic period is also included.

Carl Ferdinand Strauch was born in 1908 in Lehighton, Pa. He graduated from Muhlenberg College in 1930; received a M.A. from Lehigh in 1934 and a Ph.D. from Yale in 1946. He received a Lindbach teaching award from Lehigh in 1962. He taught English at Lehigh from 1934 to 1974, retiring as Professor Emeritus. He died in 1989.

Series I, boxes 1-15, contains material for his English classes, including numerous files on Arnold, Carlyle, Hawthorne, Poe, James, Melville, Whitman, as well as other 19th century authors, and topics related to the Romantic Period. Also included is some material on 20th century writers. Material includes syllabi, schedules, reading lists, outlines of his lectures, examination questions, and copies of students' term papers, as well as clippings, and notes that Strauch kept.

Series II, boxes 16-25, and boxes 37-39, contains files that Strauch made for his personal use. Many include clippings from newspapers and magazines that he found interesting. Others include notes on a variety of topics. (As far as the cataloger can tell, files were made, then put away, and other files begun on the same person or topic later.)

Series III, boxes 26-36, boxes 40-45, and boxes 51-55, contain material pertaining to Ralph Waldo Emerson and his writing. Emerson was Strauch's specialty, and he spent a lot of time researching Emerson's manuscripts. There are several copies of chapters prepared for a book on Ralph Waldo Emerson that was never published. His "definitive work" on Emerson that he researched for years was never written.

There is only one box of personal material (Box 46), which includes Strauch's publishing vita, some correspondence, and a file on the Helen Woodson family (his daughter). There is some correspondence regarding publication of his essays and speaking engagements intermixed with the subject matter.

There are 4 boxes of filing cards (Boxes 47-50) which contain bibliographies of authors and topics of interest to Strauch. They include Romanticiam, Carlyle, Arnold, Twain, Camus, Forester, Buddhism, James, Lawrence, Waygh, Frost, Robinson, Poe, Emerson, Whitman, and Melville. (They have been preserved as found).

One letter, from Orson Welles to Strauch, dated Feb.10, 1943 has been housed separately.

A few photographs were included, and are housed in the Lehigh Collection photograph file. They are Numbers BS2352, BS2353, F5766, F5767,and F5768, all portraits of Dr.Strauch. (See also SC LVF S912 for an interview with him and his obituary.)

Collection is arranged by series, author, and format.