Stuart Wright Collection: D. R. Fosso Papers

1977-1978
Manuscript Collection #1169-105
Creator(s)
Fosso, D. R.; Abrams, Douglas B.
Physical description
0.25 Cubic Feet, 1 archival box, 2 items, 8 p.
Preferred Citation
Stuart Wright Collection: D. R. Fosso Papers (#1169-105), East Carolina Manuscript Collection, J. Y. Joyner Library, East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina, USA.
Repository
ECU Manuscript Collection
Access
No restrictions

Papers of D. R. Fosso (1977-1978) documenting the life and career of the Minnesota-born American poet and educator at Wake Forest University, 1964-; consisting of an octavo brochure including a poem entitled Arranging, by D. R. Fosso, published by Press For Privacy, Winston-Salem, NC (1978); also a small portfolio of poetry broadsides entitled Two Poems Two, including Storm, a poem by D. R. Fosso & For I Have Spoken Too Often, a poem by Doug Abrams, published by Press For Privacy, Winston-Salem, NC (1977). Note: On verso of Arranging printed: "Twenty copies have been printed. This is No. 13"; On verso of Two Poems Two: Autographed "D. R. Fosso 8-25-77"; & printed: "Copy No. 8 of 50 copies printed."


Biographical/historical information

D. R. Fosso was born Doyle Richard Fosso, in 1934. The 1940 census reports that he was six years old and lived with his parents, Olaf J. (b. 1905) and Ida Fosso (b. 1904), in Detroit, Michigan, where he later attended Cooley High School. After graduation, Fosso was then admitted to Harvard University where he received an A. B. (1955). His honors thesis, showing his literary and academic interests at an early age, was entitled The Spider Web; an Analysis of Artistic Vision in Virginia Woolf's Between the Acts and To the Lighthouse (1955). He then attend the University of Michigan, where he received an M.A. (1957). Returning to Harvard, he earned a 'The Faerie Queene' (1965). It was later published in 1985.

Fosso then served as an instructor in English at the University of Vermont, 1960-1965, when he was appointed an assistant professor of English at Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, North Carolina. At Wake Forest, Fosso became an acknowledged expert on Shakespeare and Spenser and taught classes in 16th – 17th century English literature. In 1969, he was promoted to associate professor of English and to full professor in 1981.

During his career, Fosso concentrated on teaching, but he did continue to publish occasionally. He published several volumes of poetry and literary criticism, including for example, Two Poems Two, which appeared in 1977 & 1983, and Arranging, in 1978. Fosso and Stuart Wright were acquainted during their time on campus together and Fosso published in Palaemon Press. Fosso retired, in 1995, and was named professor emeritus. He received the Jon Reinhardt Award for Excellence in Teaching, in 2000, from nominations submitted by alumni from the class of 1990.

Fosso married Evelyn Fields (b. 1932) of Walstonburg, NC, on 14 June 1958. He continues to reside in the Wake Forest University area.

Sources:

"Wake Forest Professors Receive Schoonmaker, Reinhardt Awards at Convocation Ceremony", by Vanessa U. Willis, Wake Forest News (28 September 2000). http://wfu.edu/wfunews/2000/092800a.htm

"Doyle Fosso in the 1940 Census". (9/6/2016) [Website] Ancestry.com website. http://www.ancestry.com/1940-census/usa/Michigan/Doyle-Fosso_2s5vy4

"Epic Simile in Edmund Spenser's 'The Faerie Queene'", by Doyle Richard Fosso. PhD Dissertation, Harvard University, 1965. http://phdtree.org/pdf/23784553-epic-simile-in-edmund-spensers-the-faerie-queene/

Author: Jonathan Dembo, 3/9/2017, 3/28/2017.

Stuart Wright collected and compiled the D. R. Fosso Papers. 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

Stuart Wright Collection: D. R. Fosso Papers (#1169-105) are arranged in original order in a single series.

Series 1: Cary Addition #1 to the Stuart Wright Collection consist of papers (1977-1978) documenting the life and career of D. R. [Doyle Richard] Fosso (b. 1934), the Minnesota-born American poet and educator at Wake Forest University, 1964-, consisting of an octavo brochure including a poem entitled Arranging, by D. R. Fosso, published by Press For Privacy, Winston-Salem, NC (1978); also a small portfolio of poetry broadsides entitled Two Poems Two, including Storm, a poem by D. R. Fosso & For I Have Spoken Too Often, a poem by Doug Abrams, published by Press For Privacy, Winston-Salem, NC (1977). Note: On verso of Arranging printed: "Twenty copies have been printed. This is No. 13"; On verso of Two Poems Two: Autographed "D. R. Fosso 8-25-77; & printed: Copy No. 8 of 50 copies printed."


Administrative information
Custodial History

10/27/2011, (Cary Addition #1), 0.25 cubic feet; 1 archival box; 2 items; 8 p. Papers (1977-1978) documenting the life and career of D. R. [Doyle Richard] Fosso (1934-), the Minnesota-born American poet and educator at Wake Forest University, 1964-, consisting of an octavo brochure including a poem entitled Arranging, by D. R. Fosso, published by Press For Privacy, Winston-Salem, NC (1978); also a small portfolio of poetry broadsides entitled Two Poems Two, including Storm, a poem by D. R. Fosso & For I Have Spoken Too Often, a poem by Doug Abrams, published by Press For Privacy, Winston-Salem, NC (1977). Note: On verso of Arranging printed: "Twenty copies have been printed. This is No. 13"; On verso of Two Poems Two: Autographed "D. R. Fosso 8-25-77"; & printed: "Copy No. 8 of 50 copies printed"; Source: Cary Addition Box #132. Vendor: Stuart Wright

Source of acquisition

Purchased from Stuart Wright, 10/27/2011

Processing information

Processing, Preliminary inventory & Container List, by Jonathan Dembo, 2/26/2016; Final inventory by Jonathan Dembo, 10/3/2016; Finding aid by Jonathan Dembo, 10/3/2016; Biographical Sketch, by Jonathan Dembo, with the assistance of John Leche, 9/6/2016, 3/9/2017; Encoding revised by Jonathan Dembo, 3/9/2017, 3/28/2017.

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
Fosso, D. R.
Topical
Poets, American--North Carolina--Winston-Salem

Container list
Box 1 Folder a Arranging [Poem] by D. R. Fosso (Winston-Salem, NC : Press for Privacy, 1978) Brochure. 1 item. 3 p. ; Note : Copy #13 of 20 printed ; Source : Cary Addition Box #132.000
Box 1 Folder b Two Poems Two [Poems] by D. R. Fosso & Doug Abrams (Winston-Salem, NC : Press for Privacy, [1977]) Portfolio of Broadsides. 1 item. 5 p. ; Note : Copy #8 of 50 printed ; Autographed on back cover "D. R. Fosso 8-25-77" ; Source : Cary Addition Box #132.000