Wallace Stevens papers

This collection contains the papers of American poet Wallace Stevens and is comprised primarily of letters written to Stevens, his carbon copy replies, and autograph manuscripts and poems, as well as family photographs, an extensive collection of genealogical research material on the Stevens and allied families, and some ephemera.

The crux of the collection is the correspondence between Stevens and his family, friends, scholars, poets, editors, and business associates (although there are no letters from the files of Stevens' employer, the Hartford Accident and Indemnity Company). Much of the correspondence deals with Stevens' poetry, or provides biographical or ideological information about Stevens. In addition to the 58 boxes of correspondence, there is an additional series containing xeroxes of Stevens correspondence and manuscripts held by other institutions.

The Stevens family, including Stevens' wife Elsie and their daughter, Holly Bright Stevens, are well represented in the collection, as are Stevens' friends Barbara Church and Henry Hall Church. In addition, there are two boxes of addenda chiefly consisting of documents and photographs related to Stevens' eldest sister Elizabeth (Stevens) McFarland, which were added to the collection in 1977. Other individuals represented in the collection include: E. E. Cummings, Alfred A. Knopf, Robert McAlmon, Thomas MacGreevy, Archibald MacLeish, Marianne Moore, Jose Rodriguez Feo, and John Orley Allen Tate.

In addition to photographs and documents produced by Stevens family members, there are also over 2,000 pieces of genealogical material, in the form of letters, documents and typescripts, that reflect Wallace and Elsie Stevens' interest in tracing their family ancestry beginning in the early 1940s.

Items in the manuscripts and correspondence series have been fully indexed alphabetically and chronologically on cards in the Manuscript Catalogue in the Library.