Call Number:

C0320

Repository:

Princeton University Library: Manuscripts Division

Extent:

• 2 boxes
• 0.8 linear feet

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

Identification of specific item; Date (if known); R. Ellsworth Larsson Papers, Box and Folder Number; Special Collections, Princeton University Library.

Date:

1929-1964 (inclusive)

Creator:

Larsson, Raymond Ellsworth (1901-1991)

Form:

Drawings. and Poems.

Abstract:

Consists of poetry manuscripts, drawings, and correspondence of the American poet R. Ellsworth Larsson (1901- ).

Raymond Ellsworth Larsson was born in 1901 and grew up in Green Bay, Wisconsin. His writing career began during high school, when he secured a job on the Green Bay Press-Gazette. Later, he went from newspaper to newspaper in cities like Marquette, Michigan, Boston, Massachusetts, and New York City. In 1923, he began writing poetry and felt inspired by abstract art. He went to France in 1926, visited England and Belgium, and then returned to America in 1928, thereafter publishing his first book, O City, Cities! (New York: Payson and Clarke, Ltd., 1929). In 1929, he became an advertising manager for a firm that later dissolved. Under the direction of the Jesuit and Paulist Fathers, he entered the Catholic Church in 1932. His published works include Wherefore: Peace (New York: Modern Editions Press, 1932), Poetry Out of Wisconsin (New York: H. Harrison, 1937), Weep and Prepare (New York: Coward-McCann, Inc., 1940), Saints at Prayer (New York: Coward-McCann, 1942), and Book Like a Bow Curved (University of Detroit Press, 1961).

The collection consists primarily of autograph poetry manuscripts (1949-1958); but there is one autograph prose manuscript, "Hemingway at a Scene's Edge," written for Carlos Baker to use in his biography of Hemingway. There are also over 100 abstract pencil drawings (1950-1953), as well as a small selection of correspondence.

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, and AMsS = autograph manuscript.