Call Number:

C0043

Repository:

Princeton University Library: Manuscripts Division

Extent:

1 box

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Vachel Lindsay Collection, Box and Folder Number; Special Collections, Princeton University Library.

Date:

1903-1930 (inclusive)

Creator:

Princeton University. Library. Special Collections and Lindsay, Vachel, 1879-1931

Form:

Correspondence., Photographs., and Poems.

Abstract:

The Vachel Lindsay Collection consists of correspondence, poetry manuscripts, photographs, drawings, and printed material of the American poet Vachel Lindsay (1879-1931).

Nicholas Vachel Lindsay was born on 10 November 1879, in Springfield, Illinois. He attended Hiram College (1897-1900), and studied art at Chicago and New York (1900-1905). Afterwards, he tramped across the country, writing and performing his poetry, and became entranced by small-town life. From 1910 to 1922, he lectured and recited poems at universities. Beginning in 1914, he lectured on motion pictures at Columbia University and the University of Chicago. He became the first American poet invited to lecture at Oxford, England, in 1920. Ultimately, he became a poet in residence at Gulfport Junior College (1923-1924) and a journalist in Spokane, Washington (1924-1929). His poetic leaflets included The Tree of Laughing Bells (1905) and Rhymes to Be Traded for Bread (1912). With the publication of The Congo and Other Poems (1914), he was widely recognized as an exponent of "new poetry," and became in great demand as a public reader of his works. He was the recipient of many awards, including Poetry magazine prizes (1913 and 1928), the Helen H. Levinson Prize (1915) for the "The Chinese Nightingale," and others.

Lindsay married Elizabeth Conner on 19 May 1925, and together they had two children, Susan and Nicholas. He died of coronary thrombosis (or perhaps suicide by poison) on 5 December 1931; he was 52 years old.

Consists primarily of love letters (1923-1925) by Lindsay to Elizabeth Mann Wills and other letters (1921, 1923-1925) by him to Francis Charles MacDonald. Furthermore, there is at least one letter each to Mrs. Edmund Kemper Broadus (1921), Howard L. Hughes (1916, 1925), Jessie Kalmbah (1903), and Elizabeth Mann Wills' mother (1924), as well as two letters by Elizabeth Connor Lindsay to Howard L. Hughes (1925, 1930). Other materials in the collection include seven poetry manuscripts (1903, 1924), a pen-and-ink drawing (undated), three photographs (undated), and a clipping from The New Republic featuring the poems "These are the Young," "The Rhinoceros and the Butterfly," and "Nancy Hanks, Mother of Abraham Lincoln."

The following standard abbreviations, or their variations, are used to identify materials in this collection: ALS = autograph letter signed, TLS = typed letter signed, ACS = autograph card signed, ANs = autograph notes, AMsS = autograph manuscript signed, and TMsS = typed manuscript signed.