This series contains biographical sketches, resumes, obituaries, photos, and miscellaneous personal papers of Charles David Wright, including letters of condolence sent to his wife, Ruth Petty Wright, at his death. Notable items include the poems, essays, and plays written by Wright during his teenage years (Folders 5 to 8) which reflect his early religious beliefs and the changes in his religious convictions during his late high school and early college career.

Box 1: Biographical material and personal papers

Folder   1         Biographical sketches and resumes
             2                  Obituaries (1978)
             3                  Photos
             4                  Ruth Petty Wright
             5                  Juvenilia:   Poems (1941-52)
             6                                 :   One-act play
             7                                 :   Church-related writings
             8                                 :   Stories and essays (1946-52)
             9                  Baby Book (1931)
            10              Diaries:   Inventory (1947-52) (see Box 18)
            11              Miscellaneous notes and quotations
            12              Civil rights clippings (1964)
            13              Home loans (1964-77)
            14              Medical records (1977-78)
            15              Final notes (1978)
            16              Calendars (1978)
            17              Memorial Poetry Reading (1978)
            18              Memorial Poems (1978)
            19              Condolences:    A-E
            20                                   :   F-L
            21                                   :   M-R
            22                                   :   S-Z
            23                                   :   Unidentified
            24                                   :   Log

Series II: Correspondence

The correspondence files include letters both to and from Charles David Wright. Most of the correspondents listed below are poets, professors, or colleagues from graduate school. Topics of the letters include academic life, writing, publishing, literary affairs, each other’s poetry, and personal affairs. Many files contain poems by the correspondents. The largest file of letters is from the Rev. David M. Gracie, a childhood friend and prominent social activist of Philadelphia. In their letters, Wright and Gracie discuss religious, social, and theological issues (particularly as they relate to the crises of the 1960s) as well as literary topics. The Ray Bradbury file contains the typescript of a poem “yet unpublished” which he calls “my White Whale Noah Ahab Far Space poem.” The letter accompanying the poem is addressed to a Mrs. Meschuk and is dated “April 26, Apollo Year One.”

Patricia Kordas is an artist who, with Russell Kordas, operated the Kordas Painting Workshop on Samos, Greece. Wright was twice poet-in-residence at the associated Pythagoreion Institute. The file of family correspondence (Box 3, Folder 30) includes one letter (undated) from Wright’s brother Douglas describing experiences as a soldier in Vietnam.

Correspondence with poets visiting Boise as part of the Boise Poetry Series coordinated by Wright is found in the Boise Poetry Series, Box 16.

Box 2: Correspondence

Folder   1        Armitage, Christopher M.: 1974-82
             2                Armstrong, Kathleen McCullen: 1975
             3                 Beckett, Carolyn: 1972-78
             4                 Bradbury, Ray: 1970
             5                Coleman, James R.: 1962-70
             6                Cornwell, John: 1956
             7                 DeLaura, David J.: 1965-70
             8                 Dieter, Alice: 1970s
             9                Gillette, David: 1976-78
            10              Gracie, David M.: 1953-60
            11                                          : 1961-68
            12                                          : Undated
            13              Grossbardt, Andrew: Undated
            14              Guest, Judith: 1978
            15              Hansen, David A.: Undated
            16              Hardison, O.B.: 1978
            17              Hecht, Merna: 1976-78
            18              Hepworth, James R.: 1973-78 & Undated
            19              Hewitt, Geof: 1968-78
            20              Heynen, Jim: 1974-78
            21              Hollis, Carroll and Alice: 1974-78
            22              Howe, Irving: 1981
            23              Hugo, Richard: 1972-76
            24              Jackson, Robert S.: 1971-75
            25              Kaish, Luise: 1960-78
            26              Kizer, Carolyn: 1968-78
            27              Kordas, Patricia: 1972-78

Box 3: Correspondence

Folder   1         Lehrman, Lew: 1956
             2                  Lyon, Richard C. and Denny: 1971-78
             3                  Matthews, William: 1967-75
             4                  Matthews, William: Manuscript, Rising and Falling
             5                  Matthews, William: Ms., Prose Poems of Jean Follain
             6                  McCormick, James Patton: 1957-78
             7                  McCullough, Ken: 1974-75
             8                  McFadden, Charles William: 1970-71
             9                  McFarland, Ronald E.: 1976
            10              Mueller, Lisel: 1978
            11              Paris, Cindy: 1972-74
            12              Rawick, George P.: 1956-78
            13              Reedy, Penelope: 1977
            14              Riddle, James Douglas and Marilyn: 1976-78
            15              Root, William Pitt: 1978
            16              Rutsala, Vern: 1977
            17              Simic, Charles D.: 1976-78
            18              Smith, Goldwin: 1959-78
            19              Smith, Harry: 1971-78
            20              Soucek, Judith: 1971-77
            21              Spencer, Helen (Folger Library): 1975-80
            22              Stafford, William: 1976-78
            23              Stegner, Wallace: 1977-78
            24              Studebaker, William: 1975-77
            25              Townsend, Dean: 1977-78
            26              Viereck, Peter: 1976-77
            27              Wagner, Durrett (Swallow Press): 1970-78
            28              Ward, A. MacArthur (“Maggie”): 1975-76
            29              Welzel, Hartmut and Sabina: 1959-78
            30              Wright family: 1955-78
            31              Miscellaneous:   1950s
            32                                     : 1960s
            33                                     : 1970s
            34              Poems by friends and acquaintances
            35              Requests to judge and review

Series III: Poems

The Poetry series documents Charles David Wright’s writing, publishing, and reading. Most of the files contain notes and early versions, as well as the poems in published form. Particularly well documented in these files are the poems Desperate Measures, Dimensions, Diving in the Veritas Ditch, Early Rising, The Good Drinker, More Rejoicing in Heaven, and One Hephasteus, One Aphrodite. The poetry workbooks and journals (Box 18) also contain early versions of poems as well as notes, jottings, and experimentations that led to their writing. The small file of translations (Box 5, Folder 73) contains typescripts of poems translated by Wright.

Wright’s files on the Publication of his poetry contain letters to poetry editors and a log chronicling his poetry submissions (Box 6, Folder 1). The files on Readings document the promotional, organizational, and logistical details of arranging poetry readings.

Box 4: Notes

Folder   1         Notebooks and workbooks: Inventory
             2                  Notebook, loose items
             3                  Journal, loose items
             4                  Notes and fragments (1)
             5                  Notes and fragments (2)

Box 4: Manuscripts and Drafts

Folder   6        About the Pig
             7            Admire the Fox
             8            Almost Panta Rhea
             9            Apage, Maria!
            10         Apology in Order
            11         August Becomes an Old and Easy Lover
            12         The Bale
            13         Banality of Evil and others
            14         The Bearings Game
            15         A Beast of Might and Will
            16         The Belled Cat
            17          Bird Burial
            18          Broken Glass
            19          The Burning Glass
            20          By Dent of Joy
            21          Campo di Fiori
            22          Campus Dogs
            23          Catechism/Bayonet Training
            24          Chignon
            25          Clearing Away
            26          Compensation
            27          The Contest
            28          A Cure in Close Times
            29          A Cutting
            30          Dancer Well With Child
            31          Dead Reckoning
            32          Desperate Measures
            33          Dimensions
            34          Direct Early Warning
            35          Diving in the Veritas Ditch
            36          The Divorced Man and His Flute
            37          The Dog in the Moat
            38          Dressing Up
            39          Early Rising
            40          Epistle Upon the Occasion of Townsend’s Exile to England
            41          The Escape Artist/The Modesty Panel
            42          Family Photo, Lebanon, Kansas, 1896
            43          Finding the Line
            44          The Foolhen
            45          For Hartmut, Formerly of Hitler Youth
            46          Free of Choice
            47          From An Old Anthology
            48          A Gesture for Annuals
            49          Going Down
            50          The Good Drinker, for Dean Townsend
            51          The Goodnight
            52          Having Given Up the Dance
            53          He, She, It
            54          Her Note on the Kitchen Table
            55          Hilda
            56          Hinton
            57          His Wonders to Perform
            58          How Hugh Wright Observed the Lord’s Day and His Own

Box 5: Manuscripts and Drafts

Folder   1         I Do Not Like the Poor
             2                  I Went for a Hike Up Murdoch Creek……
             3                  I’m for Feasting
             4                  Ice Fisherman
             5                  Idaho Summer Rain
             6                  Interruption
             7                  The Jogger
             8                  A Killing Frost
             9                  Kordas Going Deep
            10              The Land Inside Two
            11              Late News
            12              Leaving in the Morning
            13              Letting Go of the Dark
            14              Losing the Scent
            15              Love Poem
            16              Love’s Chamelion
            17              The Man of Feeling
            18              Midweek Morning
            19              The Mirror
            20              More Rejoicing in Heaven
            21              The Mushroom Hunter
            22              My Dixie Plaque
            23              Naming Day
            24              Naming the Kiln at Sun Valley
            25              Not Passing
            26              October Ending
            27              Old Baggage
            28              On Getting From Geof Hewitt Pictures of the Demolition of Donnelly’s Bar
            29              On Grading English 21 Examinations
            30              One Hephaestus, One Aphrodite
            31              One Way to Tell
            32              The Outhouse Wagon
            33              The Palsied Girl Walks in the Park
            34              The Party
            35              Passing Time Outside Surgery
            36              Pieces of Early April
            37              Prepping 203A
            38              Properly Mounted
            39              Recalling Anchorage
            40              Red Rover
            41              Rosewood
            42              St. John of English 1
            43              Self Study Report
            44              Shaving
            45              Showing the Catch on Samos
            46              Sick and Poor
            47              Sleeping Dog
            48              Some Semblance of Order
            49              The Spider Vendor
            50              Sudden Flaring
            51              Symposium
            52              Syn Oor Guid Dean’s Awa
            53              Taking Our Time
            54              There Comes a Wind
            55              To John Tagliabue
            56              Tongues of Men and Angels
            57              Tumult
            58              The View From Boise Valley
            59              Waiting For Guests
            60              Wearing Well
            61              The Woman on the Roof
            62              Words For Between Floors
            63              Workshops
            64              Untitled (“Again our class holidays”) / (MLaise)
            65              Untitled (“Behind the Preacher Christ…..”)
            66              Untitled (“Blowing a blade drawn tight….”)
            67              Untitled (“My Sorrow for those……”)
            68              Untitled (“Negroes Still Cannot Get In”) / (When)
            69              Untitled (“Oh the Night was Mighty Chill…”)
            70              Untitled (“One reading of ‘maturo’…”)
            71              Untitled (“Waking and coming in …”) / (Peppercorns)
            72              Untitled (“You Don’t Have to Say….”)
            73              Translated Poems

Box 6: Publication Correspondence

Folder   1        Submission logs
             2                Journals, A-M
             3                Journals, N-P
             4                Journals, R-Z
             5                Anthologies (1969-81)
             6                Arts in Society (1974-76)
             7                Harpers (1964-75)
             8                New American Review (1968-70)
             9                Rendezvous
            10              Saturday Review (John Ciardi) (1963-64)
            11              Slackwater Review (1975-76)
            12              Southern Poetry Review (Guy Orr) (1969-76)

Box 6: Publication in Book Form

Early Rising

Folder 13       Correspondence and contract (1967-76)
            14         Contents
            15         Typescript (Photocopy)
            16         Typescript, with printer’s marks
            17          Corrected galleys
            18          Reviews and advertisements

Clearing Away

Folder 19       Correspondence, Confluence Press (1976-82)
            20         Correspondence, LSU Press (1976-78)
            21         Correspondence, University of Illinois Press (1977-78)
            22          Correspondence, Miscellaneous
            23          Biographical statement
            24          Contents
            25          Typescript (Photocopy)
            26          Typing instructions
            27          Reviews (1981-82)

Box 6: Poetry Readings

Folder 28       Correspondence, General (1972-78)
            29       1969: Clemson University
            30              1969: University of North Carolina Educational Television
            31              1969 and 1972: Pythagoreion Institute (Samos, Greece)
            32              1970: Struga Poetry Festival (Yugoslavia)
            33              1974: Master Poets Program (Colorado)
            34              1974: Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association
            35              1975: Benson County Fair (Wash.)
            36                      : Boise State University
            37                      : Folger Library (Washington, D.C.)
            38                      : Idaho Writers League
            39                      : Lewis-Clark State College

Box 7: Poetry Readings

Folder   1         1976: Colorado State University
             2                               : Idaho State University
             3                               : University of Idaho
             4         1977: American Associationn of University Women (Boise)
             5                 : Boise Gallery of Art (March)
             6                          : Boise Gallery of Art (Oct.)
             7                          : Folger Library (Washington, D.C.)
             8                          : Idaho Council of Teachers of English
             9                          : Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association

Series IV: Published Articles And Reviews

This series consists chiefly of photocopies and offprints of articles and reviews by Charles David Wright. Only in the case of “Melancholy Duffy and Sanguine Sinico” is there a manuscript in the file. The magazines from which these photocopies and offprints were taken are located in Box 19 of the collection.

Box 7: Published Articles and Reviews

Folder 10       How Matthew Arnold Altered ‘Goethe on Poetry’ (Victorian Poetry, 1967)
            11         Matthew Arnold on Heine as ‘Continuator of Goethe’ (Studies in Philology, 1968)
            12        Melancholy Duffy and Sanguine Sinico: Humors in ‘A Painful Case’ (James Joyce Quarterly, 1966)
            13        Review of Sleeping With One Eye Open, by Mark Strand (Kenyon Review, 1966)
            14        Reviews, Copper Canyon Press books (1975)

Series V: Translations

Charles David Wright worked for many years with the German scholarWalter Schirmer translating Schirmer’s study of German and English literature of the 19^th century. The bulk of this series (Folders 16-24) documents that never-completed project. Translations by Wright of poems by German and Yugoslav poets are filed in Series III (Poems), Box 5, Folder 73.

Translation, Lubeck als geistige Lebensform, by Thomas Mann

Box 7, Folder 15 Fragments

Translation, Der Einfluss der deutschen Literatur auf die englische im 19 Jahrhundert, by Walter Schirmer

            Box 7, Folder   16       Correspondence with Walter Schirmer (1963-73)
                                    17              Notes
                                    18              Typescript, pp. 73-88
                                    19              Typescript, footnotes, pp. 1-32
                                    20              Ms., pp. 1-12
                                    21                      pp. 12-50
                                    22                      pp. 50-88
                                    23                      pp. 88-129
                                    24                      pp. 129-148

Series VI: Educational Records

The graduate essays, papers, and course notes in this series are from Wright's Ph.D. studies at the University of Iowa.

General records

Box 8

Folder   1         Transcripts and certificates (1946-1961)
             2                  Ph.D. diploma (1963)
             3                  Correspondence, Study in Europe (1955-1957)
             4                  Universitat Tubingen (1957)
             5                  German Year of Study (1970-71) : Official correspondence
             6                  German Year of Study (1970-71) : Study grant, Society for Religion in Higher Education
             7                  German Year of Study (1970-71) : Notebooks

Graduate essays and papers

Box 8

Folder   8        Der Messias, Klopstock’s Lyrical Departure (1959)
             9        Der Messias: Revision (1966-68)
            10              Der Messias: Notes
            11              Cosmological References in Herbert’s Imagery (1958)
            12              The Role of the Poet, According to Bacon
            13              Hawthorne’s and Whitman’s Concepts of Evil (1959)
            14              Hawthorne’s Ambiguous Use of the Fantastic (1959)
            15              Shadwell’s Concept of “Plays of Humour” (1958)
            16              Matthew Arnold and Germany (1960)
            17              Two Transcendentalists as Prose Stylists: Emerson and Parker (1959)
            18              The Conflict of Theme and Effect in Frank Norris’ Epic of the Wheat (1959)
            19              ‘Imagination’ in Johnson’s Lives of the English Poets (1959)
            20              The Monthly Review on the Novel of Sentiment, 1749-1784 (1959)
            21              William Hazlitt’s Levels of the Laughable (1960)

Graduate class notes and examinations

Box 9

Folder   1       18^th Century Drama (1960)
             2                18^th Century Drama (1960)
             3                Age of Johnson (1959)
             4                Age of Johnson (1959)
             5                Age of Tennyson (1959)
             6                Age of Tennyson (1959)
             7                American Realistic Literature, 19^th Century (1959)
             8                American Realistic Literature, 19^th Century (1959)
             9                Chaucer
            10              Hawthorne and Whitman (1959)
            11              Restoration Drama (1958)
            12              Restoration Drama (1958)
            13              Selected American Authors (1958)
            14              Selected American Authors (1958)
            15              Transcendentalists (1958)
            16              Transcendentalists (1958)
            17              Miscellaneous notes

Ph.D. Dissertation Material

Box 10

Folder   1         Draft, pp. 95-171 and scattered
             2                  Draft, pp. 195-303
             3                  Commentary by David DeLaura (1965)
             4                  Correspondence about publication (1962-70)
             5                  Miscellaneous
             6                  Ph.D. comprehensive examinations (1956-61)

Series VII: Academic Career Records

Correspondence (in Application for Appointment)

Box 10

Folder   7        Boise State University (1970-72)
             8        Evergreen State College (1970-72)
             9        Johnson State College (VT) (1971-72)
            10              Montana State University (1971-72)
            11              Portland State University (1970-76)
            12              Sangamon State University (IL) (1971-74)
            13              Thomas Jefferson College (MI) (1971)
            14              University of Alaska (1971-73)
            15              University of Idaho (1970-71)
            16              University of Massachusetts (1974)
            17              University of New Mexico (1971)
            18              University of the Pacific (1969)
            19              University of Utah (1971-72)
            20              University of Wisconsin-Green Bay (1971)
            21              Western Washington State College (1969-75)
            22              Miscellaneous (1969-74)
            23              Placement file (1969)

University of North Carolina

Box 11

Folder   1         Miscellaneous material (1967-72)
             2                  North Carolina Poetry Circuit: Correspondence (1964-72)
             3                  North Carolina Poetry Circuit: Correspondence, Alan Dugan (1968-69)
             4                  Pitcher Pamphlets (1970)
             5                  Southeastern Little Magazines Conference (1968)

Boise State University: General

Box 11

Folder   6        Miscellaneous material (1972-78)
             7        Contracts, schedules (1973-78)
             8        Evaluations (1973-78)
             9        Evaluations (by students) (1974-78)
            10              Professional activity reports (1974-77)
            11              Tenure consideration (1973-75)
            12              Tenure and promotion policies
            13              Students’ poems and papers

Boise State University: Projects and Committee Work

Box 11

Folder  14       Cold Drill (1974-78)
            15       Creative Writing Program (1978)
            16       General education requirements (1977)
            17       Humanities program proposal (1973-74)
            18              Humanities program proposal (1973-74)
            19              Humanities program (1978)
            20              Liberal Arts on the Job Market workshop: Organizational (1978)
            21              Liberal Arts on the Job Market workshop: Background (1972-78)
            22              Poetry in the Schools (1972-78)
            23              Poetry readings by others (1974-75)
            24              Promotion Committee (Divisional) (1976-77)
            25              Promotion and Tenure Criteria Committee (Departmental) (1976-77)
            26              Self-Evaluation (English Dept.): Planning papers
            27              Summer School Poetry Workshop (1977)

Series VIII: Course Material

This series contains lecture notes, source material, class syllabi, and tests for classes Charles David Wright taught at the University of North Carolina and Boise State University.

By Topic

Box 12

Folder   1       Arnold, Matthew
             2              Arnold, Matthew
             3              Carlyle, Thomas
             4             Conrad, Joseph
             5              Ford, Ford Madox
             6              Gissing, George
             7               Hardy, Thomas
             8               Hopkins, Gerard Manley
             9               Housman, A. E.
            10              Huxley, Thomas Henry
            11              Kipling, Rudyard
            12              Meredith, George
            13              Mill, John Stuart
            14              Milton, John
            15              Milton, John
            16              Morris, William
            17              Newman, John Henry
            18              Pater, Walter
            19              Rossetti, Dante Gabriel
            20              Ruskin, John
            21              Shaw, George Bernard
            22              Swinburne, Algernon
            23              Tennyson, Alfred, Lord
            24              Wells, H.G.
            25              Wilde, Oscar
            26              Yeats, William Butler
            27              Miscellaneous authors

Box 13

Folder   1            American Jewish Writers
             2                  Creative Writing
             3                  English literature, 19^th Century
             4                  Literature of the American Indian
             5                  Miscellaneous topics

By course, University of North Carolina

Box 13

Folder   6             Miscellaneous
             7             English 21: English Literature
            8             English 21:  English Literature (Chaucer)
             9             English 21:  English Literature (Shakespeare)
            10            English 25:  Introduction to Poetry
            11            English 25:  Introduction to Poetry
            12            English 73:  Victorian Literature
            13            English 78:  English Literature, 1890-1920
            14            English 93:  British Novel, 1870-World War II
            15            English 174: Major Figures, Victorian Literature

By Course, Boise State University

Box 13

Folder   16            English 101 and 102: Composition
             17            English 101: Composition
             18            English 102: Composition
             19            English 111: Honors Composition
             20            English 112: Honors Composition
             21            English 205: Creative Writing—Poetry
             22            English 205: Creative Writing—Poetry
             23