Skip to main content
COLLECTION Identifier: MS Am 3307

Mary Freeman letters from Julia Budenz

Overview

Contains letters from poet Julia Budenz to peer and friend Mary (Prentice) Freeman, along with some related ephemera.

Dates

  • Creation: 2000-2014

Language of Materials

English

Conditions Governing Access

There are no restrictions on physical access to this material. Collection is open for research.

This collection is shelved offsite at the Harvard Depository. Retrieval requires advance notice. Readers should check with Houghton Public Services staff to determine what material is offsite and retrieval policies and times.

Extent

.25 linear feet ((1 box) )

Contains letters from Julia Budenz to fellow poet Mary Freeman from 2002 to 2010, as well as related ephemera and notes from 2014. The content of the letters ranges from topics relating to the writing of poetry, presentation of related topics at conferences, and more personal matters. There are also a few poems written for Mary Freeman, including those celebrating holidays, from Budenz.

Biographical / Historical

Mary Freeman (1943-) was born and raised in Maine. She completed degrees in English and Literacy education from the University of Maine, and raised nine children, while also pursuing a career as a teacher as well as a poet. She is a formalist metaphysical poet, and has written pastiches of multiple poems, including Julia Budenz’s epic poem “The Gardens of Flora Baum.” Budenz and Freeman were friends and spoke at length about poetry and other topics. Budenz and Freeman had a lengthy correspondence between 2000 and 2010. Budenz was a nun, classics scholar, and poet whose work consists of this single epic poem: “The Gardens of Flora Baum,” which is divided into five volumes.

Arrangement

The letters are arranged in chronological order, followed by a folder of ephemera.

Physical Location

Harvard Depository

Immediate Source of Acquisition

2013M-122. Gift of Mary Freeman, 2014 June.

Processing Information

Processed by Betts Coup, 2019.

Title
Freeman, Mary, 1943-. Mary Freeman letters from Julia Budenz, 2000-2014 (MS Am 3307): Guide.
Status
completed
Author
Houghton Library, Harvard University.
Date
2019 May 29
Description rules
dacs
Language of description
und
EAD ID
hou03195

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.

Houghton Library’s Reading Room is free and open to all who wish to use the library’s collections.

Contact:
Harvard Yard
Harvard University
Cambridge MA 02138 USA
(617) 495-2440