Permanent URL: http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/wh246s15k
Vachel Lindsay Collection, 1903-1930: Finding Aid
C0043
Vachel Lindsay, wife Elizabeth, and children (undated photograph)
One Washington Road
Princeton, New Jersey 08544 USA
Phone: (609) 258-3184
Fax: (609) 258-2324
rbsc@princeton.edu
http://www.princeton.edu/~rbsc
Published in 2004
©2007 Princeton University Library
Summary Information
- Creator:
- Lindsay, Vachel, 1879-1931.
- Title and dates:
- Vachel Lindsay Collection, 1903-1930
- Abstract:
- The Vachel Lindsay Collection consists of correspondence, poetry manuscripts, photographs, drawings, and printed material of the American poet Vachel Lindsay (1879-1931).
- Size:
- 0.4 linear feet (1 archival box)
- Call number:
- C0043
- Location:
- Princeton University Library. Department of Rare Books and Special Collections.
Manuscripts Division.
Princeton, New Jersey 08544 USA - Language(s) of material:
- English.
- Storage note:
- This collection is stored onsite at Firestone Library.
Biography of Nicholas Vachel Lindsay
Nicholas Vachel Lindsay was born on 10 November 1879, in Springfield, Illinois. He attended Hiram College (1897-1900), and studied art at Chicago and New York (1900-1905). Afterwards, he tramped across the country, writing and performing his poetry, and became entranced by small-town life. From 1910 to 1922, he lectured and recited poems at universities. Beginning in 1914, he lectured on motion pictures at Columbia University and the University of Chicago. He became the first American poet invited to lecture at Oxford, England, in 1920. Ultimately, he became a poet in residence at Gulfport Junior College (1923-1924) and a journalist in Spokane, Washington (1924-1929). His poetic leaflets included The Tree of Laughing Bells (1905) and Rhymes to Be Traded for Bread (1912). With the publication of The Congo and Other Poems (1914), he was widely recognized as an exponent of “new poetry,” and became in great demand as a public reader of his works. He was the recipient of many awards, including Poetry magazine prizes (1913 and 1928), the Helen H. Levinson Prize (1915) for the “The Chinese Nightingale,” and others.
Lindsay married Elizabeth Conner on 19 May 1925, and together they had two children, Susan and Nicholas. He died of coronary thrombosis (or perhaps suicide by poison) on 5 December 1931; he was 52 years old.
Description
Consists primarily of love letters (1923-1925) by Lindsay to Elizabeth Mann Wills and other letters (1921, 1923-1925) by him to Francis Charles MacDonald. Furthermore, there is at least one letter each to Mrs. Edmund Kemper Broadus (1921), Howard L. Hughes (1916, 1925), Jessie Kalmbah (1903), and Elizabeth Mann Wills' mother (1924), as well as two letters by Elizabeth Connor Lindsay to Howard L. Hughes (1925, 1930). Other materials in the collection include seven poetry manuscripts (1903, 1924), a pen-and-ink drawing (undated), three photographs (undated), and a clipping from The New Republic featuring the poems “These are the Young,” “The Rhinoceros and the Butterfly,” and “Nancy Hanks, Mother of Abraham Lincoln.”
The following standard abbreviations, or their variations, are used to identify materials in this collection: ALS = autograph letter signed, TLS = typed letter signed, ACS = autograph card signed, ANs = autograph notes, AMsS = autograph manuscript signed, and TMsS = typed manuscript signed.
Arrangement
Organized into the following series:
- Series 1: Writings
- Series 2: Drawings
- Series 3: Correspondence
- Series 4: Photographs
- Series 5: Printed Material
Access and Use
Access
Collection is open for research use.
Restrictions on Use and Copyright Information
Single photocopies may be made for research purposes. No further photoduplication of copies of material in the collection can be made when Princeton University Library does not own the original. Permission to publish material from the collection must be requested from the Associate University Librarian for Rare Books and Special Collections. The library has no information on the status of literary rights in the collection and researchers are responsible for determining any questions of copyright.
Processing and Other Information
Processing Information
This collection was processed by Ran Tao, Princeton Class of 2006 in 2004. Finding aid written by Ran Tao, Princeton Class of 2006 in 2004.
Descriptive Rules Used
Finding aid content adheres to that prescribed by Describing Archives: A Content Standard.
Encoding
Machine-readable finding aid encoded in EAD 2002 by Techbooks, Cristela García-Spitz, and Diann Benti on May 4, 2007. Created from MARC record via MarcEdit and XSL stylesheets in 2007.
Finding aid written in English.
Preferred Citation
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Vachel Lindsay Collection, Box and Folder Number; Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, Princeton University Library.
Subject Headings
These materials have been indexed in the Princeton University Library online catalog using the following terms. Those seeking related materials should search under these terms.
- Wills, Elizabeth Mann.
- American poetry -- 20th century.
- Love-letters -- United States -- 20th century.
- Poets, American -- 20th century.
- Correspondence.
- Photographs.
- Poems.
Browse other finding aids related to the following terms:
Contents List
Series 1: Writings
“The Dream of King David in Heaven while His Son Christ was in the Grave,” AMsS, 1 p., 1903
Box 1, Folder 1 “The Flower of Love,” AMsS, 1 p, undated
Box 1, Folder 2 “Poem All About Elizabeth!” AMsS, 2 pp, 1924
Box 1, Folder 3 “Poem-Poem-Poem!” AMs, 1 p., undated
Box 1, Folder 4 “Proudest pearl of the wide world...,” AMs, 1 p., undated
Box 1, Folder 5 “Remembering the Golden Treasury,” AMsS, 1 p., 1924
Box 1, Folder 6 “The Trail of the Dead Cleopatra in Her Beautiful and Wonderful Tomb,” TMs(carbon) with holograph corrections, 30 pp., undated
Box 1, Folder 7 Series 2: Drawings
“Adam in the Forest of Arden,” signed pen-and-ink drawing, undated
Box 1, Folder 8 Charcoal portrait of Lindsay, signed by Edward Stesse, inscribed “Unfinished and unretouched(?) sketch of Vachel Lindsay before his lecture at Princeton Spring of 1924 -- Presented to Princeton Library - June 1944” [See Graphic Arts GC059]
Box 1, Folder 8 Series 3: Correspondence
Series Description
All the correspondence is by Lindsay, unless otherwise indicated.
Broadus, Mrs. Edmund Kemper
ALS, 19 November 1921
Box 1, Folder 9 Hughes, Howard L.
ALS, 30 October 1916
Box 1, Folder 10 ALS by Elizabeth Connor Lindsay, 19 November 1925
Box 1, Folder 11 ACS, 25 December 1925
Box 1, Folder 12 ALS by Elizabeth Connor Lindsay, 18 March 1930
Box 1, Folder 13 Kalmbah, Jessie
ALS, 19 June 1903
Box 1, Folder 14 ALS, 1 September 1903
Box 1, Folder 15 MacDonald, Francis Charles
ALS, 25 February 1921
Box 1, Folder 16 TLS, 9 March 1921
Box 1, Folder 17 ALS, 28 March 1921
Box 1, Folder 18 ALS, 2 May 1921
Box 1, Folder 19 ALS, 15 April 1923
Box 1, Folder 20 ALS, 2 February 1924
Box 1, Folder 21 ALS, 28 March 1924
Box 1, Folder 22 ANs by Lindsay on newspaper clippings, 30 March 1924
Box 1, Folder 23 ALS, 7 April 1924
Box 1, Folder 24 ALS, 12 April 1924
Box 1, Folder 25 ALS, 19 April 1924
Box 1, Folder 26 ALS, 11 May 1924
Box 1, Folder 27 ALS, 5 October 1925
Box 1, Folder 28 Wills, Elizabeth Mann
ALS, 19 June 1923
Box 1, Folder 29 ALS, 18 September 1923
Box 1, Folder 30 ALS, 5 October 1923
Box 1, Folder 31 ALS, 2 June 1924
Box 1, Folder 32 ALS, 18 June 1924
Box 1, Folder 33 ALS, 7 July 1924
Box 1, Folder 34 ALS, 15 August 1924
Box 1, Folder 35 AL, 18 August 1924
Box 1, Folder 36 AL, 26 August 1924
Box 1, Folder 37 ALS, 8 September 1924
Box 1, Folder 38 ALS, 23 September 1924
Box 1, Folder 39 ALS, 28 September 1924
Box 1, Folder 40 AL, 19 October 1924
Box 1, Folder 41 ALS, 9 January 1925
Box 1, Folder 42 ALS, 22 February 1925
Box 1, Folder 43 ALS, 28 February 1925
Box 1, Folder 44 ALS, 13 March 1925
Box 1, Folder 45 AL, 4 April 1925
Box 1, Folder 46 ALS, 10 April 1925
Box 1, Folder 47 ALS, 15 April 1925
Box 1, Folder 48 ALS, 19 April 1925
Box 1, Folder 49 ALS, undated
Box 1, Folder 50 ALS, undated
Box 1, Folder 51 Wills, Mrs. [Elizabeth Mann Wills' mother]
ALS, 5 October 1924
Box 1, Folder 52 Series 4: Photographs
Portrait of Lindsay, Elizabeth, Nicky, and Susan seated on a couch, undated
Box 1, Folder 53 3 profile portraits of Lindsay, undated
Box 1, Folder 53 Series 5: Printed Material
3 poems by Lindsay printed in The New Republic, 25 March 1925
“These are the Young”
Box 1, Folder 54 “The Rhinoceros and the Butterfly”
Box 1, Folder 54 “Nancy Hanks, Mother of Abraham Lincoln”
Box 1, Folder 54
Permanent URL: http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/wh246s15k