Size: 9 Hollinger Boxes (Letter Size); 3.15 Cubic Feet
Dates: c. 1908-1974
Restrictions: None
Literary Rights: Consult Head of Special Collections
The collection consists primarily of correspondence by and to Ransom, and manuscripts of writing by Ransom, most of which fall into the decades of the 1960s and 1970s when Ransom was retired. There are important exceptions to these bulk dates, however. One of the highlights of the collection is a group of 182 "love letters" by Ransom to his fiance and wife, Robb Reavill Ransom, spanning 1920-1938, though most of the letters are dated 1920-1923. There are also a few scattered older pieces of incoming correspondence, such as a 1917 letter from Macmillan rejecting the manuscript which was eventually published as Poems About God. Transcripts of telegrams from various notable persons honoring Ransom on the occasion of his departure from Vanderbilt in 1937 are also preserved here.
The bulk of the incoming correspondence reflects the period of retirement with letters inviting Ransom to read, teach or lecture, congratulating him on his various awards and achievements, and requesting autographs. There is a very small amount of family correspondence, but a goodly number of fond, warm letters from former students and colleagues, most notably from Allen Tate and Robert Penn Warren. On the business side, there are letters from editors, presses and publishing firms regarding publication of essays and new editions of his works. Also included are letters from researchers working on topics involving Ransom and seeking input on a number of other subjects.
Among the correspondents included are John Peale Bishop, Robert Bly, Cleanth Brooks, Kenneth Burke, Henry S. Canby, Brainard Cheney, Francis Neel Cheney, Charles Coffin, George Core, Malcolm Cowley, Donald Davidson, T.S. Eliot, William Empson, Paul Engle, Irving Feldman, Robert Fitzgerald, William Frierson, Robert Graves, James H. Kirkland, Lyle Lanier, Robert Lowell, Andrew Lytle, Robie Macauley, Archibald MacLeish, Bob Mezey, Arthur Mizener, George Marion O'Donnell, Maxwell Perkins, Katherine Anne Porter, I.A. Richards, Henry Sanborn, Carl Sandburg, Stephen Spender, Newton P. Stallknecht, Wallace Stevens, Alec B. Stevenson, Roberta Teale Swartz, Allen Tate, Peter Taylor, Leonard Unger, Louis Untermeyer, Carl Van Doren, Mark Van Doren, Austin Warren, Robert Penn Warren, Oscar Williams, Jesse Wills, Edmund Wilson, Anne Winslow and Stark Young.
Although most of the manuscript writings also fall into the period from the 1960s and 1970s, there are some surprising exceptions. These include two short stories, one of which was almost certainly written for a contest when Ransom was a senior at Vanderbilt during 1908-1909, and four chapters of the agrarian manuscript "Land!," which had been presumed destroyed as Ransom threatened in a 1932 letter to Allen Tate (Young, 241). The manuscripts of Ransom poems in the collection are mostly revisions of published poems reflecting Ransom's "tinkering" for the various editions of Selected Poems, but there are seven included which are thought to be unpublished Ransom poems. The remainder of Ransom manuscripts in this collection, including both published and unpublished works, are essays, speeches or lectures, a number of which are fragmentary or incomplete.
It should also be noted that a substantial portion of Ransom's library was acquired along with his surviving papers in 1988. Ransom's copies of his own works have been added to this collection as they were liberally annotated and revised in his hand. A separate listing of the more than 600 other works in his library is available upon request.
Formats other than correspondence or Ransom manuscripts, have been variously classed under the categories of Ransom's roles as academic, author or editor, as personal items, or as manuscripts by others. These include catalogs, class rolls, items associated with Kenyon College, lecture notes, programs, publications, recommendations, financial records, family records, clippings, memorabilia and photographs. Ransom received a large number of manuscripts and offprints from aspiring writers, former students, friends and colleagues. Manuscripts by Kenneth Burke, Donald Davidson, Robert Duncan, Irving Feldman, Denise Levertov, Marion Montgomery, George Marion O'Donnell, I.A. Richards, Muriel Rukeyser and Robert Penn Warren are among those included in this portion of the collection.
This collection will obviously be of most interest to researchers working on Ransom and offers insight into Ransom's personal life and relationships, his criticism and poetry, his working method, and his activities, especially in the latter years of his life. Students of the Fugitives and Agrarians, literary criticism, Southern literature, the American literary scene in the mid-twentieth century, and the study and teaching of literature will also benefit from these papers. To a lesser extent, these papers will also be useful to those studying educational institutions, including Vanderbilt University and Kenyon College, as well as special schools such as the Kenyon School of English (and its successor, The School of Letters at Indiana University) and the Bread Loaf School of English. There are also a few items relating to the Kenyon Review itself.
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