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Peter Taylor Papers (Addition)
1945-2000

In 1995, Special Collections at the Jean and Alexander Heard Library purchased a collection of important papers of the late author Peter Matthew Hillsman Taylor (1917-1994), a Southern writer who was considered by many a Master of the short story form. The purchase was made possible through a grant from the Lester Glenn Fant Southern Literature Fund. The papers and correspondence (1988-1992) are an addition to a significant collection of Taylor's pre-1988 letters and manuscripts. Taylor, who died in 1994 in Charlottesville, Virginia, received a Pulitzer Prize for his novel, A Summons to Memphis, which was published in 1986. He attended Vanderbilt as an undergraduate in the late 1930s. Taylor's influences included John Crowe Ransom, Allen Tate, and Robert Penn Warren, members of the Fugitive and Agrarian literary movements.

This collection contains 7 linear feet of personal materials of Peter Matthew Hillsman Taylor. The materials are mostly textual and are comprised of correspondence, manuscripts, holographs, clippings, and other related printed matter. Photographs are also included in the collection; however, there are few.

Of the twenty-one boxes that are comprised of this collection, ten contain correspondence and another six are filled with manuscripts of Taylor's writings. The other five boxes contain items of a biographical or personal nature, concern his career as author, or involve writings of others. The collection has thus been arranged in the following series: Correspondence (Series I), Writings (Series II), Literary Career (Series III), Biographical (Series IV), and Writings By Others (Series V). Also included within this collection (in Series III) is one over-sized folder containing a promotional poster for the Governor's Awards In The Arts for Tennessee.



Overview | Biographical/Historical Note | Complete Finding Aid (pdf)
Series I Listing | Series II Listing | Series III Listing | Series IV Listing | Series V Listing

Special Collections | Heard Library | Vanderbilt University

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Last modified: April 10, 2008
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