Biographical Statement
Collection Overview
Series I: Manuscripts / Writings, 1970-2000
Series II: Periodical Publications, 1960-1962 
Series III:Ý Professional Correspondence, 1963-1999

 

 

 

Biographical Statement

 Born June 21, 1942 in Loudoun County, Virginia, Henry Taylorís father, Thomas Edward, was farmer and teacher and his mother, Mary Splawn (maiden name), was an economist and a teacher.Ý He received his B. A. from the University of Virginia in 1965 and went to Hollins College earning an M. A. in Creative WritingÝ in 1966.

Poet, translator, and professor, Taylor has held teaching positions at Roanoke College (Salem, Va.), the University of Utah, and American University in Washington, D.C.ÝÝ He also returned to Hollins as Writer-in-residence in 1978.

Henry Taylor has won numerous awards, including American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, 1984, and the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry, 1986, for The Flying Change: Poems.Ý Taylor has been described asÝ a ìskilled and demanding craftsmanî and his poems have ìall the ring and authority of an American Hardy, intensely aware of the darkness that move around us and in usÖ.Henry Taylor has for all his poetic career been drawn inexorably to questions of time and mutability, of inevitable and painful change in even the fixed of circumstances.î¹

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Collection Overview:

SeriesÝ ÝI:Ý Manuscripts / Writings,Ý 1970-2000.

Includes the following: An Afternoon of Pocket Billards,Ý Brief Candles, The Flying Change, Compulsory Figures, Writing on Computers.

Also includes correspondence about:

…       Brief Candles (5 letters)

…       Compulsory Figures (84 letters)

…       The Water of Light : a Miscellany in Honor of Brewster Ghiselin, ed. by Taylor

ÿ     General (207 letters)

ÿ     Permissions (26 letters).Ý While many of these letters are ìform letters,î a number of them were personalized by Taylor.Ý Some replies were also of a personal nature.

Arranged alphabetically by title.Ý Within each title, drafts chronologically, followed by materials about, also chronologically.

 

SeriesÝ II:Ý Periodical Publications, 1960-1962.

…       Plume & Sword, 1960-1962. (28 issues).ÝÝ A literary magazine edited by Henry Taylor at UVA, 1960-1961 

Arranged chronologically.

 

Series III:Ý Professional Correspondence, 1963-1999.

(618 letters).Ý This group of correspondence was kept separate from ìmaterials aboutî by Taylor with one file per individual correspondent.Ý Most correspondence is incoming (i.e. written to Henry Taylor ; some files contain clippings, manuscripts, and other miscellaneous materia1s.

 Arranged alphabetically by author and chronologically within each folder.

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Series I:Ý Manuscripts/Writings

An Afternoon of Pocket Billards (published 1975)

…       ìMechanicalsî

 

Brief Candles (published 2000)

…       Draft, n.d. (1998?)

…       Material AboutóCorrespondence (1999)

 

Compulsory Figures (published 1992)

…       Draft, n.d. (after 1 August 1991)

…       Draft, 10 April 1992

…       Draft, copy edited, n.d.

…       Draft, n.d. on 3 floppy disks

…       Material AboutóCorrespondenceóGeneral (1991-1992)

 

The Flying Change (published 1985)

…       Preliminary draft, n.d.

…       Preliminary draft, n.d.

…       Final Copy Edited, n.d.

…       Incomplete Proof, n.d.

 

The Water of Light: A Miscellany in Honor of Brewster GhiselinÝ /ed. by Henry Taylor (published 1976)

…       Materials aboutóCorrespondenceóGeneral

…       Materials aboutóCorrespondenceóPermissions

  

Writing on Computers

…       Draft, 1984

…       Draft, 1986

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Series II:Ý Publications

Plume & Sword (literary magazine edited by Henry Taylor at UVA, 1960-1961)

…       September 1960

…       10 October 1960

…       17 October 1960

…       24 October 1960

…       28 October 1960

…       4 November 1960

…       11 November 1960

…       18 November 1960

…       2 December 1960

…       9 December 1960

…       24 March 1961

…       4 April 1961 (?)

…       14 April 1961

…       28 April 1961

…       19 May 1961

…       19 October 1961

…       26 October 1961

…       2 November 1961

…       9 November 1961

…       20 November 1961

…       30 November 1961

…       14 December 1961

…       8 February 1962

…       9 March 1962

…       9 March 1962 (different issue, same date as above)

…       3 issues, n.d.

 

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Series III:Ý Professional Correspondence, 1963-1999.

Correspondent	Dates	No. of Letters
Becker, Stephen	1986-1994	18
Beyer, Thomas Lynn	1977	1
Brooks, Robert A.	1980	1
Butler, Francelia	1976	1
Carver, Raymond	1984	3
Contempora [periodical]	1970-1973	13
Cowley, Malcolm	1967-1976	12
Cunningham, J. V.Ý (Brandeis Univ.)	1964-1983	14
Davis, A. K. (Arthur Kyle)	1969-1970 ; 1974	3
Deutsch, Babette	1967-1976	4
Dickey, James	1963-1983	7
Encounter [periodical]	1962	1
Gillespie, Louis	1966	1
Laramour, Julius B.	1963-1973	7
Lewis, Cecil Day	n.d. (Feb 19?)	1
Loucheim, Katie	1973-1980	5
Lousiana State University Press (8 files)	1964-1999	256
McGlynn, Bob	1979-1980	4
Matthews, William	1971-1992	9
Merrill, James	1967-1988	3
Meacham, Harry M.	1969-1973	9
Moss, Howard	1968	2
Meredith Press	1965-1966	7
Nemerov, Howard	1972-1978	2
Nims, John R.	1977-1979	4
Niven, Ivan	1964-1974	2
Noll, Bink	1966-1980	14
Norton, Josh	1969-1975	2
Peden, Bill	1974	5
Ramsey, Paul	1971-1972	3
Roseliep, Raymond	1967-1977	3
Sereni, Vittorio	1969-1972	4
Sexton, Anne	1972	1
Short, Clarice	1971-1977 ; 1978	10
Smith, Margoret J	1972	2
Solo PressÝ (Glenna Luschei)	1970-1977	47
Squires, Radcliffe	1971-1973	2
Stafford, William	1965-1989	20
Starbuck, George	1970-1981	2
University of Utah Press (2 files)	1973-1990	77
Warren, Robert Penn	1980-1987	5
White, E. B.	1978	1
Winthrop Publishers, Inc	1973-1982	28
Wright, James	1973-1979	2