Stuart Wright Collection: Alyson Carol Hagy Papers

1985-1988
Manuscript Collection #1169-049
Creator(s)
Hagy, Alyson Carol
Physical description
1.86 Cubic Feet, 3 archival boxes, 2 oversized archival folders, 76 items, 951 p.
Preferred Citation
Stuart Wright Collection: Alyson Carol Hagy Papers (#1169-049), East Carolina Manuscript Collection, J. Y. Joyner Library, East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina, USA.
Repository
ECU Manuscript Collection
Access
Access to audiovisual and digital media is restricted. Please contact Special Collections for more information.

Papers of Alyson Carol Hagy (1985-1988) documenting the life and literary career of the noted Virginia-born American short story writer, novelist and creative writing educator at the University of Wyoming, Laramie; consisting of her correspondence with Stuart Wright, typescripts, galleys, page proofs, uncorrected, and corrected proofs, camera copies, and original cover art for her collection of short stories entitled, Madonna on Her Back Stories, published by Stuart Wright (1986); also loose items transferred from the Stuart Wright Book Collection.


Biographical/historical information

Alyson Carol Hagy was born on 1 August 1960, in Springfield, OH but grew up on a farm in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. Her father, Joh Albert Hagy was a physician; her mother, Carol Elaine Lindsay was a homemaker. Interested in writing and fiction since childhood, Hagy attended Williams College, graduating in 1982 with honors and a B.A. in English. She then attended the University of Michigan, where she received an M.F.A. in 1985. In 1984, while still at Michigan, she won the Avery and Jule Hopwood Award for short fiction. In 1986, Stuart Wright published her first book, a collection of short stories entitled Madonna On Her Back. In that same year, she married Robert Wroe Southard, a lawyer. Together, they have a son named Connor. Between 1986 and 1996, Ms. Hagy taught creative writing at the University of Michigan and contnued to publish literary works. In 1996, she relocated to the University of Wyoming, in Laramie where she has since worked as a professor of English.

Hagy is best known for her short stories and short story collections. Her best known and first published work, Madonna On Her Back (1986), was published by Stuart Wright. Over the years she has won several awards and fellowships, including the National Endowment for the Arts fellowship.

Sources:

Davidson, Cynthia A. "Alyson Hagy (1 August 1960-) [Biographical Sketch]." American Short-Story Writers Since World War II: Fourth Series, edited by Patrick Meanor and Joseph McNicholas, vol. 244, Gale, 2001, pp. 164-169. Dictionary of Literary Biography, Vol. 244. Dictionary of Literary Biography Complete Online, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/MXRXHI235678182/DLBC?u=ncliveecu&sid=DLBC. Accessed 21 May 2018. Gale Document Number:GALE|MXRXHI235678182.

Author: Jonathan Dembo, with the assistance of John Leche, 10/24/2016, rev. 5/21/2018

Stuart Wright collected and compiled the Alyson Carol Hagy. He was born, Stuart Thurman Wright, 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, illustrators, composers, 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: Alyson Carol Hagy Papers are arranged in original order in a single series.

Series 1: Cary Addition #1 to the Stuart Wright Collection, consist of papers (1985-1988) documenting the life and literary career of Alyson Carol Hagy (b. 1960), the noted Virginia-born American short story writer, novelist and creative writing educator at the University of Wyoming; consisting of her correspondence with Stuart Wright, typescripts, proofs, camera copies, and original cover art for her collection of short stories, Madonna on Her Back, (published by Stuart Wright); also loose items transferred from the Stuart Wright Book Collection, also oversized materials. Series 1 is held in Box 1.a-3.d, os1-os2


Administrative information
Custodial History

27 October 2011, (Cary Addition #1), 1.86 cubic feet; 3 archival boxes & 2 oversized folders; 76 items; 951 p. Papers (1985-1988) documenting the life and literary career of Alyson Carol Hagy (b. 1960), the noted Virginia-born American short story writer, novelist and creative writing educator at the University of Wyoming; consisting of her correspondence with Stuart Wright, typescripts, proofs, camera copies, and original cover art for her collection of short stories, Madonna on Her Back, (published by Stuart Wright); also loose items transferred from the Stuart Wright Book Collection. Source: Cary Addition Boxes #117 & 118. Vendor: Stuart Wright

Source of acquisition

Purchased from Stuart Wright, 10/27/2011

Processing information

Processing, Preliminary inventory & Container List, by Jonathan Dembo, with the assistance of Nathaniel King & Dale Wetterhahn, 12/8/2015, 2/10/2016, 3/28/2016; Final inventory by Jonathan Dembo, 9/20/2016; Finding aid by Jonathan Dembo, 9/20/2016; Biographical Sketch, by Jonathan Dembo with the assistance of John Leche, 10/24/2016, rev. 1/31/2017; Encoding revised by Jonathan Dembo, 01/31/2017.

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
Hagy, Alyson Carol
Wright, Stuart, 1948---Correspondence
Topical
Authors, American--20th century

Container list
Box 1 Folder a Hagy, Alyson Carol, Charlottesville, VA. Letter to Stuart Wright enclosing signed agreement to publish her short story collection "Madonna On Her Back : Stories" (19 Sept. 1985) TLS & Photocopy printed form signed & Envelope. 3 items. 10 p. ; Note : Agreement signed 12 Sept. 1985 ; Source : Cary Addition Box #117.000
Box 1 Folder b Hagy, Alyson Carol, Charlottesville, VA. Letters to Stuart Wright relating to publication of her short story collection "Madonna On Her Back : Stories" (1985 - 1986) TLS, ALS, Typescripts, Photographic prints, Envelopes. 27 items. 74 p. ; Note : Includes texts for cover & publicity photograph of Hagy ; Source : Cary Addition Box #117.000
Box 1 Folder c Hagy, Alyson Carol, Charlottesville, VA. Letters to Stuart Wright relating to publication of her short story collection "Madonna On Her Back : Stories" (1987) TLS. 6 items. 15 p. ; Note : Source : Cary Addition Box #117.000
Box 1 Folder d Hagy, Alyson Carol, Charlottesville, VA. Letters to Stuart Wright relating to royalties for her short story collection "Madonna On Her Back : Stories" (1988) TLS. 2 items. 4 p. ; Note : Source : Cary Addition Box #117.000
Box 1 Folder e Madonna On Her Back : Stories, by Alyson Carol Hagy (1985) Typescripts. 1 item. 154 p. ; Note : Original manuscript of book ; Source : Cary Addition Box #117.002
Box 1 Folder f Madonna On Her Back : Stories, by Alyson Carol Hagy [ca. 1985] Corrected Typescripts. 1 item. 150 p. ; Note : Revised manuscript of book ; Source : Cary Addition Box #118.000
Box 1 Folder g Madonna On Her Back : Stories, by Alyson Carol Hagy (ca. 1986) Note : 1) Draft Cover Proof of Madonna On Her Back (ca. 1986) Photocopy ; 2) Stuart Wright Publisher reviewers slip (22 Sept. 1986) Printed form. 2 items. 2 p. ; pressure sensitive tape on cover proof ; needs conservation ; Source : Cary Addition Box #61.003
Box 1 Folder h Madonna On Her Back : Stories, by Alyson Carol Hagy (ca. 1986) Note : 1) Cover Proof of Madonna On Her Back (ca. 1986) ; 2) Stuart Wright Publisher reviewers slip (22 Sept. 1986) ; pressure sensitive tape on cover proof ; needs conservation. 2 items. 3 p. ; Source : Cary Addition Box #62.026
Box 1 Folder i Madonna On Her Back : Stories [Book] by Alyson Carol Hagy (Winston-Salem, NC : Stuart Wright, Publisher, [1986]) Original art. Hard covers. Unbound. 1 item. 6 p. ; Note : Source : Pen & Ink artwork for book ; Cary Addition Box #117-2.001
Box 1 Folder j Madonna On Her Back : Stories [Book] by Alyson Carol Hagy (Winston-Salem, NC : Stuart Wright, Publisher, © 1986) Page Proofs. Unbound. 2 items. 60 p. ; Note : Source : Cary Addition Box #117-2.000
Box 1 Folder k Madonna On Her Back : Stories [Book] by Alyson Carol Hagy (Winston-Salem, NC : Stuart Wright, Publisher, © 1986) Page Proofs. Unbound. 3 items. 68 p. ; Note : Source : Cary Addition Box #118.000
Box 2 Folder a Madonna On Her Back : Stories [Book] by Alyson Carol Hagy (Winston-Salem, NC : Stuart Wright, Publisher, © 1986) Page Proofs & Camera Copy. Unbound. 1 item. 58 p. ; Note : Source : Cary Addition Box #118.000
Box 2 Folder b Madonna On Her Back : Stories [Book] by Alyson Carol Hagy (Winston-Salem, NC : Stuart Wright, Publisher, © 1986) Page Proofs & Discards. Unbound. 6 items. 93 p. ; Note : Discards have glue on both sides ; needs conservation ; Source : Cary Addition Box #118.000
Box 3 Folder a Madonna On Her Back : Stories [Book] by Alyson Carol Hagy (Winston-Salem, NC : Stuart Wright, Publisher, © May 1986) Corrected Page Proofs Author's Set & ALS. Unbound. 2 items. 62 p. ; Note : Source : Cary Addition Box #117.002
Box 3 Folder b Madonna On Her Back : Stories : Front Matter & No Kind of Name [Book] by Alyson Carol Hagy (Winston-Salem, NC : Stuart Wright, Publisher, © May 1986) Page Proofs & Envelope. Unbound. 2 items. 5 p. ; Note : Source : Cary Addition Box #117.002
Box 3 Folder c Madonna On Her Back : Stories [Book] by Alyson Carol Hagy (Winston-Salem, NC : Stuart Wright, Publisher, © May 1986) Corrected Page Proofs & Corrected Cover Proofs. Unbound. 2 items. 69 p. ; Note : Source : Cary Addition Box #117.002
Box 3 Folder d Madonna On Her Back : Stories [Book] by Alyson Carol Hagy ; Drawings by Lisa Wilkinson (Winston-Salem, NC : Stuart Wright, Publisher, © 1986) Uncorrected Proofs & Photocopied loose mss. Soft cover. Spiral bound. 3 items. 71 p. ; Note : Source : Cary Addition Box #062.026
Folder os1 Madonna On Her Back : Stories [Book] by Alyson Carol Hagy ; Drawings by Lisa Wilkinson (Winston-Salem, NC : Stuart Wright, Publisher, Dec. 1986) Holograph notes. Typescripts. Masters. Galley Proofs. Unbound. 6 items. 31 p. ; Note : Source : Cary Addition Box #118.000
Folder os2 Madonna On Her Back : Stories [Book] by Alyson Carol Hagy ; Drawings by Lisa Wilkinson (Winston-Salem, NC : Stuart Wright, Publisher, June 1986) Corrected Galley Proofs. Unbound. 4 items. 16 p. ; Note : Partial ; Short stories #3, 6 - 8 only ; Source : Cary Addition Box #118.000