Overview
Papers of the African-American poet, literary critic, and editor, William Stanley Braithwaite.
Dates
- 1897-1930
Language of Materials
Collection materials are in English.
Conditions Governing Access
There are no restrictions on physical access to this material. Collection is open for research.
Extent
10.5 linear feet (31 boxes)Letters to Braithwaite from poets discussing their work and careers or giving permission to have their poems reprinted in one of Braithwaite's anthologies. Also included are many manuscripts of poems. Because of the comprehensive scope of Braithwaite's anthologies, these papers include letters from several hundred poets, great and small, and offer a rich resource for examining American poets from various sections of the country and at various levels of achievement. Also included are biographical sketches of poets, submitted for a directory of poets in the 1926 Anthology; permission slips; four boxes of proofs of poems appearing in the Anthology, as well as proofs of books of verse by various poets; clippings of Braithwaite's articles and reviews from the Boston Evening Transcript; and one box of pamphlets, programs, and other ephemera. Supplemental material includes manuscripts and proofs of works by Lucius Beebe, Robert Hillyer, and others and letters from Braithwaite and B. J. Brimmer Company to Edwin F. Edgett, literary editor of the Boston Evening Transcript.
Biographical / Historical
Braithwaite was an African-American poet, literary critic, and editor. He wrote reviews and criticism for the Boston Evening Transcript. From 1913 to 1929 he edited an annual Anthology of Magazine Verse. In the 1920s he was president of B.J. Brimmer Company, a Boston publishing firm.
Arrangement
Organized into the following series:
- I. Letters to WSB and other papers
- II. Manuscripts from W.S.B.'s collection
- III. Letters to Edwin Francis Edgett
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Manuscripts (MS Am 1444) gift of Charles H. Taylor and the Friends of the Library; received: ca. 1931.
69M-152. Manuscripts (MS Am 1444.1) purchased from William Stanley Braithwaite; received: date unknown.
78M-65. Manuscripts (MS Am 1444.2) purchased with the Thomas E. Hanley Fund; received: 1978 June.
Processing Information
Boxes 21-28 in series MS Am 1444 are minimally processed and loosely sorted in groupings of types of materials.
- Title
- Braithwaite, William Stanley, 1878-1962. William Stanley Braithwaite papers, 1897-1930: Guide.
- Author
- Houghton Library, Harvard College Library
- Language of description
- und
- EAD ID
- hou01469
Repository Details
Part of the Houghton Library Repository
Houghton Library is Harvard College's principal repository for rare books and manuscripts, archives, and more. Houghton Library's collections represent the scope of human experience from ancient Egypt to twenty-first century Cambridge. With strengths primarily in North American and European history, literature, and culture, collections range in media from printed books and handwritten manuscripts to maps, drawings and paintings, prints, posters, photographs, film and audio recordings, and digital media, as well as costumes, theater props, and a wide range of other objects. Houghton Library has historically focused on collecting the written record of European and Eurocentric North American culture, yet it holds a large and diverse number of primary sources valuable for research on the languages, culture and history of indigenous peoples of the Americas, Africa, Asia and Oceania.
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