Lee Anderson, 1896-1972. American author

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Collection Description

Papers, ca. 1933-1976 

ca. 5000 items 

Access: Open 

The Lee Anderson Papers, consisting of nearly 5000 items, are the professional papers of this American poet. Anderson was born in Saxton, Pennsylvania and attended the University of Pittsburgh. After serving in the U.S. Navy during World War I, Anderson spent many years as a self-employed printer and farmer in western Pennsylvania. During the 1940's, however, Anderson began to consider his true vocation to be that of a poet. In 1942, his collection Prevailing Winds was published in a limited edition. Around this same time, Anderson developed a strong interest in the oral aspects of poetry and began to audiotape contemporary poets reading their work. At first, Anderson made recordings for his personal collection; later, he taped various poets on behalf of the Library of Congress with whom he deposited over 100 tapes. 

In 1955 Yale University acquired Anderson's complete collection of more than 500 tapes of contemporary British and American poets reading from their work. In addition, Yale hired Anderson as a Research Associate. In this capacity he helped produce the Yale Series of Recorded Poets, a collection of LP records of poets reading their work which was derived largely from Anderson's tape collection. Anderson made additional recordings of poets reading while he was at Yale. Although he produced a number of books during his lifetime, Anderson's primary contribution to the world of literature was his pioneering work in audiotaping contemporary poets reading from their work. 

After leaving Yale, Anderson held a variety of teaching positions and continued to write and lecture. His audiotaping was confined largely to making recordings of his own work, as he revised and refined his own writing. In the late 1960's Anderson developed a serious illness from which he never fully recovered. He died in Florida in 1972. 

Several years prior to Anderson's death, Washington University acquired his extensive personal library and his professional papers. These consist of manuscripts of his own work as well as his professional correspondence, including letters from numerous British and American authors, many of whom sent him manuscripts of their own work. Notable in this latter category are a ts. (carbon) of Galway Kinnell's Maps and Rituals which is a substantially different version of his first book of poems, Flower Herding on Mt. Monadnock, and a small group of typescript poems from Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes. The Anderson Papers also include a small collection of audiotapes, primarily of himself reading, a large group of notebooks, and the unique autograph book he maintained which includes holograph poems by over 100 poets. 
 

Selected Names

Anderson, Lee, 1896-1972.  American author  



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Aiken, Conrad, 1889-1973. American author 

Amis, Kingsley, 1922-1995. British author 

Anania, Michael, 1939- . American author 

Auden, W.H., 1907-1973. British author 

Belitt, Ben, 1911- . American author 

Beloof, Robert, 1923- . American author 

Berryman, John, 1914-1972. American author

Betjeman, John, 1906-1984. British author 

Blackmur, Richard P., 1904-1965. American author

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Bogan, Louise, 1897-1970. American author 

Booth, Philip, 1925- . American author 

Brinnin, John Malcolm, 1916- . American author 

Brooks, Cleanth, 1906-1994. American author 

Burford, William, 1927- . American author

Burnshaw, Stanley, 1906- . American author & editor

Carrier, Constance, 1908-1991. American author 

Carruth, Hayden, 1921- . American author 

Causley, Charles, 1917- . British author 

Ciardi, John, 1916-1986. American author 

Coleman, Elliott, 1906-1980. American author 

Commins, Saxe, 1892-1958. American editor 

Creekmore, Hubert, 1907-1966. American author 

Cummings, E.E., 1894-1962. American author 

Cunningham, J.V., 1911-1985. American author 

Dahlberg, Edward, 1900-1977. American author 

Day Lewis, Cecil, 1904-1972. British author 

Denney, Reuel, 1913-1995. American author 

Deutsch, Babette, 1895-1982. American author 

Dickinson, Patric, 1914- . British author 

Duncan, Robert, 1919-1988. American author

Durrell, Lawrence, 1912-1990. British author 

Eaton, Charles Edward, 1916- . American author 

Eberhart, Richard, 1904- . American author 

Eliot, T.S., 1888-1965. American author 

Elliott, George P., 1918-1980. American author 

Elman, Richard, 1934- . American author 

Empson, William, 1906-1984. British author 

Enslin, Theodore, 1925- .American author

Feibleman, James K., 1904- .American author

Fitts, Dudley, 1903-1968. American author       

Fitzgerald, Robert, 1910-1985. American author 

Fletcher, John Gould, 1886-1950. American author

Fraser, G.S., 1915-1980. Scottish author 

Friar, Kimon, 1911- .American author      

Frost, Robert, 1874-1963. American author

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Gregory, Horace, 1898-1982. American author       

Hall, Donald, 1928- . American author        

Hamburger, Michael, 1924- .British author        

Heath-Stubbs, John, 1918- . British author        

Herschberger, Ruth, 1917- . American author        

Hirschman, Jack, 1933- . American author        

Hoffman, Daniel, 1923- . American author        

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Honig, Edwin, 1919- . American author        

Howes, Barbara, 1914- . American author        

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Humphries, Rolfe, 1894-1969. American author        

Ingalls, Jeremy, 1911-2000. American author        

Jacobsen, Josephine, 1908- . American author        

Jarrell, Randall, 1914-1965. American author        

Jennings, Elizabeth, 1926-2001. British author        

Jones, David, 1895-1974. British author        

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Kizer, Carolyn, 1925- . American author       

Kumin, Maxine, 1925- . American author        

Kunitz, Stanley, 1905- . American author        

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Lattimore, Richard, 1906-1984. American author        

Lee, Laurie, 1914-1997. British author       

Lehmann, John, 1907-1987. British author       

Levertov, Denise, 1923-1997. American author        

Logan, John, 1923- . American author        

Logue, Christopher, 1926- . British author        

Lowell, Robert, 1917-1977. American author        

Maas, Willard, 1911-1971. American author        

Macauley, Robie, 1919- . American author        

MacCaig, Norman, 1910-1996. British author        

MacDiarmid, Hugh, 1892-1978. British author               

MacLeish, Archibald, 1892-1982. American author       

MacNeice, Louis, 1907-1963. British author        

Merrill, James, 1926-1995. American author        

Miles, Josephine, 1911-1985. American author       

Moore, Marianne, 1887-1972. American author        

Moore, Merrill, 1903-1957. American author        

Morrison, Theodore, 1901- . American author        

Morse, Samuel French, 1916-1985. American author        

Moss, Howard, 1922-1987. American author        

Mowrer, Paul Scott, 1887-1971. American author        

Nathan, Leonard, 1924- . American author        

Nemerov, Howard, 1920-1991. American author       

Nicholson, Norman, 1914-1987. British author        

Nims, John Frederick, 1913-1999. American author        

Ostroff, Anthony, 1923-1978. American author        

Pitter, Ruth, 1897- . British author        

Plath, Sylvia, 1932-1963. American author        

Plomer, William, 1903-1973. British author        

Prince, F.T., 1912- . British author        

Rago, Henry, 1915-1969. American author & editor       

Raine, Kathleen Jessie, 1908- . British author

Ramsey, Paul, 1924- . American author        

Ransom, John Crowe, 1888-1974. American author       

Read, Herbert, 1893-1968. British author        

Redgrove, Peter, 1932- . British author        

Rexroth, Kenneth, 1905-1982. American author        

Ridler, Anne, 1912- . British author        

Rodgers, W.R., 1909-1969. Irish author        

Roethke, Theodore, 1908-1963. American author

Rowse, A.L., 1903-1997. British author        

Rukeyser, Muriel, 1913-1980. American author        

Sarton, May, 1912-1995. American author        

Schevill, James, 1920- . American author        

Schwartz, Delmore, 1913-1966. American author        

Scott, Winfield Townley, 1910-1968. American author        

Sexton, Anne, 1928-1974. American author        

Shapiro, Karl Jay, 1913- . American author        

Silkin, Jon, 1930- . British author        

Simpson, Louis, 1923- . American author        

Sitwell, Edith, 1887-1964. British author        

Smith, William Jay, 1918- . American author        

Spender, Stephen, 1909-1995. British author        

Stafford, William Edgar, 1914- . American author        

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Thomas, R. S., 1913-2000. British author       

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Thwaite, Anthony, 1930- . British author        

Todd, Ruthven, 1914-1978. American author        

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Van Duyn, Mona, 1921- . American author        

Villa, Jose Garcia, 1914- . Filipino author       

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Welsh, Chad, 1914- . American author        

Warren, Robert Penn, 1905-1989. American author       

Watkins, Vernon, 1906-1967. British author        

Weiss, Theodore Russell, 1916- . American author        

Wheelock, John Hall, 1886-1978. American author        

Whittemore, Reed, 1919- . American author        

Wilbur, Richard, 1921- . American author       

Williams, Oscar, 1900-1964. American author        

Williams, William Carlos, 1883-1963. American author        

Wilson, Edmund, 1895-1977. American author        

Winters, Yvor, 1900-1968. American author       

Young, Andrew, 1895-1971. British author

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