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Edmund Wilson Collection

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Held at: Princeton University Library: Manuscripts Division [Contact Us]

This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the Princeton University Library: Manuscripts Division. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in their reading room, and not digitally available through the web.

Overview and metadata sections

Wilson, Edmund, 1895-1972.

A graduate of Princeton (Class of 1916), where he befriended F. Scott Fitzgerald, Edmund Wilson became an important American literary critic, essayist, and journalist. Many consider Wilson the preeminent American literary critic of his day and, perhaps, of the twentieth century.

The collection consists of a collection of various letters and manuscripts by or about Wilson, spanning the years 1917 to 1971, from just after his graduation from Princeton to a letter written in 1971 to Charles Scribner about F. Scott Fitzgerald. Included are letters to Charles Hathaway, Allen Tate, Gilbert and Janet Troxell, Frank Jewett Mather, Willard Thorp, Julian Boyd, Isaac Thomas, his daughter, Rosalind Baker Wilson, and the only extant letter (1936) to his first wife, Mary Blair Wilson. Manuscripts of Wilson include a poem, "A Rose Found in a Greek Dictionary," a typescript and galleys of an article, "Thoughts on Being Bibliographed," a short reminiscence (circa 1934) on "Talcottville," New York, corrected proofs of a review of Andre Malraux's first volume of his The Psychology of Art, entitled "Museum Without Walls," and several pages of autograph additions for Wilson's book The Bit Between My Teeth, A Literary Chronicle of 1950-1965 (1965). Also present are an article about Wilson by Christian Gauss, a checklist of Wilson's works by Arthur Mizener, a photograph, and tearsheets from the New Yorker magazine.

Organized in order of acquisition.

Gift of Charles Hathaway. 2 Letters to Miss Hudson, "Thoughts on Being Bibliographed", etc. were transferred from Coleman Archives. Letters from Wilson were purchased and partially gifted from Rosalind Baker Wilson in 1997. Letters from Wilson to the Morrises were purchased from Barbara Morris in 2000. 4 Notes and 1 signature from Wilson and Letter from Margaret Nicholson purchased from David Holmes in 2005.

This collection was processed in 2001. Finding aid written in 2001.

No appraisal information is available.

Publisher
Manuscripts Division
Finding Aid Date
2001
Access Restrictions

Collection is open for research use.

Use Restrictions

Single photocopies may be made for research purposes. No further photoduplication of copies of material in the collection can be made when Princeton University Library does not own the original. Inquiries regarding publishing material from the collection should be directed to RBSC Public Services staff through the Ask Us! form. The library has no information on the status of literary rights in the collection and researchers are responsible for determining any questions of copyright.

Collection Inventory

1 ALS to Charles Hathaway, 1967. 1 folder.
Physical Description

1 folder

1 TLS (Xerox) to Charles Scribner, 1971. 1 folder.
Physical Description

1 folder

1 photograph with ANS on verso, 1917. 1 folder.
Physical Description

1 folder

1 ALS to Mr. Harper, 1917. 1 folder.
Physical Description

1 folder

1 TLS to Allen Tate, 1944. 1 folder.
Physical Description

1 folder

1 ALS to Allen Tate with copies of 2 poems by John Peale Bishop, 1944. 1 folder.
Physical Description

1 folder

4 ALsS, 1 TLS, 2 postcards to Gilbert Troxell, 1918-1921. 1 folder.
Physical Description

1 folder

bookplates designed in Japan, undated. 1 folder.
Physical Description

1 folder

1 TNS by Carlyle S. Baer, undated. 1 folder.
Physical Description

1 folder

clipping of poem by EW "The Olympians", undated. 1 folder.
Physical Description

1 folder

12 letters to Gilbert & Janet Troxell, 1918-1956. 1 folder.
Physical Description

1 folder

5 ALsS to Gilbert Troxell, 1917. 1 folder.
Physical Description

1 folder

1 ACS to Goodwin G. Weinberg, 1943. 1 folder.
Physical Description

1 folder

2 ALsS to Miss Hudson, 1944. 1 folder.
Physical Description

1 folder

1 TMs & galley proofs of "Thoughts on Being Bibliographed," 23 pp. by EW for the PUL Chronicle, Vol. 5, no. 2, 1944 February. 1 folder.
Physical Description

1 folder

1 TMs by Christian Gauss, "Edmund Wilson, The Campus and the Nassau Lit," 15 pp., 1944. 1 folder.
Physical Description

1 folder

1 TMs by Arthur Mizener, "Edmund Wilson: A Checklist", undated. 1 folder.
Physical Description

1 folder

1 AMsS "A Rose Found in a Greek Dictionary" verse, 1 p., undated. 1 folder.
Physical Description

1 folder

3 TLsS to Frank Jewett Mather, 1939-1943. 1 folder.
Physical Description

1 folder

1 TLS to Willard Thorp, 1944. 1 folder.
Physical Description

1 folder

1 TL (carbon) by Willard Thorp, 1944. 1 folder.
Physical Description

1 folder

1 TLS, 2 ALsS to Julian Boyd, 1945-1946. 1 folder.
Physical Description

1 folder

1 TLS, 1 ACS to J. C. Furnas, 1954. 1 folder.
Physical Description

1 folder

1 TL (carbon) by J. C. Furnas, 1954. 1 folder.
Physical Description

1 folder

1 ALS to L. R. Lind, 1949. 1 folder.
Physical Description

1 folder

1 TLS (Xerox) by L. R. Lind to Robert Graves, 1948. 1 folder.
Physical Description

1 folder

New Yorker articles, tearsheets, 1967. 1 folder.
Physical Description

1 folder

2 TLsS to Isaac Thomas, 1942. 1 folder.
Physical Description

1 folder

1 TLS to Mary Blair Wilson (wife), 1936. 1 folder.
Physical Description

1 folder

1 TMs, "Talcottville" by EW, 4 pp., circa 1934. 1 folder.
Physical Description

1 folder

1 Ms, corrected proofs, "Museum Without Walls" by EW, review of 1st vol. of André Malraux's The Psychology of Art 7 pp., 1951. 1 folder.
Physical Description

1 folder

1 AMs, "The Bit in My Teeth" by EW, misc. additions to his book The Bit Between My Teeth, A Literary Chronicle of 1950-1965 7 pp., 1965. 1 folder.
Physical Description

1 folder

1 ACS (photocopy), 1 ALS (photocopy) by Helen Miranda Wilson to Eileen B. Simpson, copied from originals in C0834, 1981-1982. 1 folder.
Physical Description

1 folder

2 ALsS to Rosalind Baker Wilson (daughter), 1968-1970. 1 folder.
Physical Description

1 folder

39 ALsS & TLsS to Glyn, Gladys & Barbara Morris, 1964-1972. 1 folder.
Physical Description

1 folder

Photocopies of Morris letters in Folder 19, dates not examined. 1 folder.
Physical Description

1 folder

4 ANsS (and 1 autograph) by Wilson on letters to or about him, as well as 1 TLS by Margaret Nicolson regarding Wilson's publishing rights, 1949-1969. 1 folder.
Physical Description

1 folder

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