Manuscripts
The manuscripts consist both of works by others about or to Wallace Stevens, and manuscripts of Stevens' poems, essays, and speeches.
The manuscripts by others include dedicatory poems to Stevens, essays about Stevens (e.g. by Robert M. Pack and Mary Bernetta Quinn), and adaptations and translations of Stevens' poems (e.g. by Renato Poggioli). This series also includes an academic notebook kept by Stevens' grandfather Benjamin Stevens (born 1808) in 1822 (WAS 3965, loose volume).
Notable pieces include:
Hermann Hesse, Zwölf Gedichte (12 autograph poems in German, presented by Hesse to Stevens, each with a watercolor drawing). (WAS 223, loose volume)
[Hywel David Lewis], On Poetic Truth (an essay first published in Philosophy (July 1946), in Stevens' hand). (WAS 4093, in Box 66)
The manuscripts by Stevens are both autograph and typewritten. When Stevens' secretary/stenographer prepared his typescripts, she made 3 copies: an original and 2 carbons. When a carbon copy exists along with the original typescript, it has been catalogued with the original unless it contains annotations or corrections by Stevens. Most of the manuscripts have been published in one of three places: 1) a published work of Stevens, 2) Opus Posthumous, ed. Samuel French Morse, 1957 or 3) Robert Buttel, Wallace Stevens: The Making of Harmonium, 1967. When assigning dates to manuscripts, evidence given by Morse, Buttel, J.M. Edelstein, Wallace Stevens: A Descriptive Bibliography, 1973, and the correspondence have all been weighed.
Notable pieces include:
Adagia: 2 notebooks of aphorisms. 33p. [1930?-1955]. (WAS 70, in Box 1)
A Book of Verses: notebook of 20 early poems. 21p. June 1908. (WAS 24, in Box 2)
Esthétique du Mal: early draft. 16p. [1944]. (WAS 4140, in Box 2)
The Figure of the Youth as Virile Poet: early draft. 33p. [1943]. (WAS 4143, in Box 66: Oversize)
Gloire du Long Disir, Idies: early draft. 23p. [1955]. (WAS 4151, in Box 3)
Journals
1898-1899. 1 vol. (WAS 7, in Box 4)
1899-1900. 1 vol. (WAS 8, in Box 4)
1902-1904. 1 vol. (WAS 9, in Box 4)
1905-1912. 1 vol. (WAS 10, in Box 4)
The Little June Book: notebook of 20 early poems. 21p. June 5, 1909. (WAS 25, in Box 6)
Poetic Exercises of 1948: 2 commonplace notebooks. 4p. [1948]. (WAS 72, in Box 6)
The typescript for Selected Poems, a book submitted to Alfred A. Knopf Inc. but never published. 200p. [1950]. (WAS 2997, in Box 7)
Sur Plusieurs Beaux Sujects: 2 commonplace notebooks. 44p. 1932-1953. (WAS 73, in Box 8)
