Stuart Wright Collection: Charles Wright Papers

1970-1986
Manuscript Collection #1169-035
Creator(s)
Wright, Charles
Physical description
0.25 Cubic Feet, 1 archival box, 12 items, 54 p.
Preferred Citation
Stuart Wright Collection: Charles Wright Papers (#1169-035), East Carolina Manuscript Collection, J. Y. Joyner Library, East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina, USA.
Repository
ECU Manuscript Collection
Access
No restrictions

Papers of Charles Wright (1970-1986) the noted Pickwick Dam, Tennessee-born American poet and educator at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville; including broadsides, correspondence & typescripts related to a bibliography of Wright's work by Stuart Wright & loose manuscript items transferred from the Stuart Wright Book Collection related to publications by Charles Wright.


Biographical/historical information

Charles Wright was born in Pickwick Dam, Tennessee in 1935. He received his BA in history from Davidson College in 1957. After graduation, Wright went directly into the U.S. Army Intelligence Corps. It was while he was stationed in Italy that he found his passion for poetry.

Wright focused on writing poetry and teaching. Eventually he became the Souder Family Professor of English at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. Wright would go on to win many awards, including the Pulitzer Prize, and in 2014 was named the Poet Laureate of the United States.

Sources: "Charles Wright". Poetry Foundation. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poets/detail/charles-wright

"Charles Wright". Academy of American Poets. https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poet/charles-wright

Author: Jonathan Dembo, with the assistance of John Leche, 10/3/2016.

Stuart Wright collected and compiled the William Meredith Papers. Wright was born on 30 March 1948 in Roxboro, North Carolina. He was the son of Frances Critcher Wright (1919-2010) and Wallace Lyndon Wright (1921-1965). An avid reader as a boy, Wright developed a strong interest in the American Civil War and with his father toured many of the war's battlefields searching for artifacts and studying the history of the era. At the age of 12, he won a statewide "Johnny Reb" essay contest and by the age of 15 had visited every major battlefield of the Civil War. Wright attended Roxboro High School, from which he graduated in 1966. It was during these years that he developed an interest in collecting historical books and manuscripts and began relationships with a number of local collectors and dealers.

In the fall of 1966, Wright enrolled at Wake Forest University as a pre-med, history, German and music student. Wright earned a B.A. in German and music in 1970. As a graduate student at Wake Forest University, Wright focused his studies on Southern history and literature, his ambition being to build an authoritative Southern Studies collection for the university. He received a master's degree in Southern Studies in 1973 and a second master's degree in U.S. History in 1980. Additionally Wright holds a professional degree from England in a medically related field. It was while studying there that he became interested in Thomas Wolfe, the noted North Carolina native and novelist.

Following his graduation from Wake Forest, Wright began to develop his collections more systematically, acquiring many first editions of Southern writers. In 1976 he began teaching at Reynolda House, a Wake Forest University affiliate dedicated to the arts and arts education. Wright taught classes in American music as well as human anatomy for art students. In 1978 Wright became Lecturer in Education at Wake Forest University. During his 10 years teaching at Wake Forest University, Wright authored numerous works of Civil War and North Carolina history, and dozens of articles, bibliographies, essays and reviews on Southern literature and the writers whose papers he collected. In addition, he developed a strong interest in the writings of the English poet Donald Davie and the Minnesota-born poet Richard Eberhart, whose works he also collected.

At the same time, Wright also began a career as a publisher by starting Palaemon Press in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. By 1984, Palaemon Press had produced 316 titles, consisting mainly of broadsides and limited editions, of the poetry and essays of such Southern writers as A. R. Ammons, Fred Chappell, James Dickey, William Goyen, George Garrett, and Eudora Welty. He also built comprehensive collections and compiled book-length descriptive bibliographies of A.R. Ammons, Andrew Lytle, Reynolds Price, James Dickey, William Goyen, Walker Percy, Randall Jarrell, Peter Taylor, George Garrett, Richard Eberhart, and Donald Davie. As well as serving as editor of the contemporary literature section of the Bulletin of Bibliography throughout the 1980s, Wright also contributed pioneering checklists of the writings of Southern poets Henry Taylor, Charles Wright, and Robert Morgan. For Meckler Publishing he served as series editor for a number of book-length bibliographies and checklists. In recognition of these accomplishments, when he was just 32, Wright was elected to membership in New York's prestigious Grolier Club.

All of these works are represented in the Stuart Wright Collection. In his dealings with these various authors Wright made consistent efforts to acquire personal papers, letters and documents, photographs, manuscripts, drafts, proofs, and published materials to supplement his continuing activities as a purchaser of their works. In this way, Wright acquired perhaps a majority of his overall collection. Over the years a number of biographers used Wright's collection to aid their research. For example, James A. Grimshaw, Jr. used the collection extensively for his Robert Penn Warren: A Descriptive Bibliography, 1922-1979 published by the University Press of Virginia, in 1981 and Craig S. Abbott did so as well for John Crowe Ransom: A Descriptive Bibliography, published by Whitston Publishing Company, Inc. in 1999. Joseph Blotner also used the Wright collection in researching Robert Penn Warren: A Biography, published by Random House in 1997.

Nevertheless, from the mid- to late 1980s, Wright began to look for a permanent home for his collection, which he felt had grown too large and yet had been too little used. Unable to find a repository willing to accept the entire collection under suitable conditions, he sold a number of individual author collections to Vanderbilt University, Duke University, the University of Texas at Austin, and Emory University. It was not until 2010 that he reached agreement to house the remaining, and largest part of his collection at East Carolina University. The Stuart Wright Collection in the East Carolina Manuscript Collection of J.Y. Joyner Library includes 106 sub-collections of the papers of Southern American writers, composers, illustrators, and publishers. The related Stuart Wright Book Collection holds several thousand volumes by or about many of the same writers. Many of these volumes contain annotations, inscriptions, and insertions that reveal much about the authors in the collection and their relationships with one another. In 1998 Wright moved to England, and since 2001 he has resided in the medieval market town of Ludlow, in Shropshire.

Author: Jonathan Dembo, 11/2/2016


Scope and arrangement

The Stuart Wright Collection: Charles Wright Papers document the life and literary career of Charles Wright (1935- ). Born in Pickwick Dam, Tennessee in 1935, he graduated from Davidson College, in North Carolina, in 1957. He then served in the military where he discovered his passion for poetry. After heaving the service, Wright focused on writing and as a professor of English at the University of Virginia. In 2014, he was named Poet Laureate of the United States. The materials are arranged, in original order, in 2 series.

Series 1: Cary Addition #1 to the Stuart Wright Collection Papers (1981) documenting the life and literary career of Charles Wright (1935-) consists of a print broadside of Wright's poem Gate City Breakdown. Series 1 consists of 0.01 cubic feet; 1 item; 1 p. Series 1 is held in Box 1.a.

Series 2: Ludlow Addition #2 to the Stuart Wright Collection Papers (1970-1986) documenting the life and literary career of Charles Wright (1935-) consists of manuscript typescripts and correspondence relating to the Charles Wright Bibliography, by Stuart Wright; and items written by Wright, including The Grave of the Right Hand, Country Music, Six Poems, The Southern Cross, and The Venice Notebook, among other items, including typescripts and correspondence and loose manuscript items transferred from the Stuart Wright Book Collection. Series 2 consists of 0.24 cubic feet; 11 items; 53 p. Series 2 is held in Box 1.b-1.h.


Administrative information
Custodial History

27 October 2011, (Cary Addition #1), 0.01 cubic feet; 0.01 archival box; 1 item; 1 p. Papers (1981) documenting the life and literary career of Charles Wright (1935-), the noted Pickwick Dam, Tennessee-born, American poet and educator at the University of Virginia, consisting of a printed broadside of his poem Charles Wright : Gate City Breakdown . Vendor: Stuart Wright

20 July 2012, (Ludlow Addition #2), 0.24 cubic feet; 0.99 archival box; 11 items; 53 p. Papers (1970-1986) documenting the life and literary career of Charles Wright (1935-), the noted Pickwick Dam, Tennessee-born, American poet and educator at the University of Virginia, consisting of corrected typescripts, loose manuscript items transferred from the Stuart Wright Book Collection. Vendor: Stuart Wright

Source of acquisition

Purchased from Stuart Wright, 10/27/2011 & 7/20/2012

Processing information

Processing, Preliminary inventory & Container List, by Jonathan Dembo, with the assistance of Nathaniel King, 3/11/2014, 12/9/2015, 2/17/2016; Final inventory by Jonathan Dembo, 2/17/2016; Finding aid by Jonathan Dembo, 12/8/2015; Biographical Sketch, by John Leche, 10/3/2016; Encoded by Jonathan Dembo, 01/12/2017.

Copyright notice

Literary rights to specific documents are retained by the authors or their descendants in accordance with U.S. copyright law.


Language of material

English

Key terms
Personal Names
Wright, Charles, 1935-
Wright, Stuart, 1948-
Topical
Poets, American--20th century

Container list
Box 1 Folder a Charles Wright : Gate City Breakdown [Poem] by Charles Wright (Emory, VA : Iron Moutain Press, © 1981) Broadside. 1 item. 1 p. ; Note : Autographed "Charles Wright" on face ; Copy # 242 of 250 copies printed ; Source : Cary Addition Box #135.020
Box 1 Folder b Charles Wright Bibliography [1965 - 1985] by Stuart Wright with cover letter to Stuart Wright, Winston-Salem, NC (27 Aug. 1985) Corrected typescript, TLS, Envelope. 3 items. 37 p. ; Note : Source : Ludlow Addition Box #177.020
Box 1 Folder c Country Music : Selected Early Poems, by Charles Wright (© 1963) Note : 1) "Ars Poetica" [Poem] by Charles Wright ; Autographed "Charles Wright" on face [ca. 1981] Broadside. 1 item. 1 p. ; Source : Ludlow Addition Box #177.050
Box 1 Folder d Grave of the Right Hand, The, by Charles Wright (© 1970) Note : 1) Wesleyan University Press, Middletown, CT. With the compliments of slip (undated) Printed form. 1 item. 1 p. ; Source : Ludlow Addition Box #177.058
Box 1 Folder e Six Poems, by Charles Wright (undated) Note : 1) Stuart Wright, Winston-Salem, NC. Wachovia Bank Check no. 1277 to David Freed for $125 (24 April 1984) Printed form. 1 item. 1 p. ; 2) David Freed, Richmond, VA. Postcard to Stuart Wright, saying he has "very few" copies of "six poems" left ; price $125 (3 Aug. 1984) ALS. 1 item. 1 p. ; 3) David Freed, Richmond, VA. Postcard to Stuart Wright, saying "six poems" will be in the mail in a day or so - no proof pages (27 Aug. 1984) ALS. 1 item. 1 p. ; 4) Mary Freed, Richmond, VA. Letter to Stuart Wright, offering for sale Laurel Press Artist's Book Yard Journal, including Charles Wright's poem & David Freed's etchings ; attaching 4 color transparencies of the etchings, brief biographical sketches of Wright and Freed ; Photocopy of "Yard Journal" [Poem] by Charles Wright from The New Yorker, 21 Oct. 1985 (14 Oct. 1986) TLS, Transparencies, Clipping & Envelope. 1 item. 9 p. ; Source : Ludlow Addition Box #177.057
Box 1 Folder f Southern Cross, The, by Charles Wright (© 1977) Note : 1) Charles Wright, Department of English, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA. Envelope addressed to Stuart Wright ; no content (10 Jan. 1984) Envelope. 1 item. 1 p. ; Source : Ludlow Addition Box #177.054
Box 1 Folder g Venice Notebook, The, by Charles Wright (© 1971) Note : 1) Barn Dream Press, Boston, MA. With the compliments of the Publisher slip (undated) Printed form. 1 item. 1 p. ; Source : Ludlow Addition Box #177.059