John Gould Fletcher Papers
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Scope and Content Note
Series I. Literary manuscripts. 32 boxes. Arranged by form in 9 groups --poems; prose books published and unpublished; translations; essays; lectures and lecture notes; short stories; plays; and miscellaneous items. In another Fletcher collection, the Supplementary Papers, Series 2 includes 25 additional itemized manuscripts.
Series II. Notebooks. 129 items. Notes on experiences, drafts or ideas for writings.
Series III. Correspondence (sent and received). 29 boxes of correspondence with more than 1,100 correspondents. A significant portion of the correspondence is microfilm copy. A separate collection, Supplementary Papers, contains 44 items of correspondence acquired in the 1970s.
Series IV. The John Gould Fletcher Library. This series is not part of the manuscript collection; items have been cataloged as part of Special Collections' John Gould Fletcher Library. This is a working writer's library of about 1,700 volumes. In addition to many standard works of American literature it contains important works of twentieth-century British and Continental authors, an impressive collection of "little magazines" of contemporary writing, both American and English, and pamphlets, brochures, and other ephemera Fletcher accumulated on both sides of the Atlantic.
Series V. Papers. 7 boxes. Official documents, personal and professional records, letters of Charlie May Simon Fletcher, some literary manuscripts by other writers.
Dates
- 1881-1960
Creator
- Fletcher, John Gould, 1886-1950 (Person)
Language of Materials
Collection materials are primarily in English.
Access Information
No access restrictions apply.
Please call (479) 575-8444 or email specoll@uark.edu at least two weeks in advance of your arrival to ensure availability of the materials.
Use Information
Use Restrictions Apply: Copying or direct quotation of materials in Series 2 requires the permission of Charlie May Fletcher's literary executors.
No Interlibrary Loan.
Standard Federal Copyright Laws Apply (U.S. Title 17)
Biographical Information
John Gould Fletcher (1886-1950), writer and critic, Pulitzer Prize winner, was born in Little Rock, Arkansas. After leaving Harvard, he traveled widely in the United States, Europe, and England, where he lived for some twenty years. He was acquainted with many writers in England, Europe, and the United States. He actively supported the arts and was deeply concerned with the cultural heritage and development of the South, particularly Arkansas.
Extent
41.75 Linear Feet (82 boxes, 1 oversize item, and 5 reels of microfilm)
Arrangement of the Papers
The collection is arranged in four series as follows:
- Series 1. Manuscripts. 1903-1950.
- Series 1, Subseries 1. Poems.
- Series 1, Subseries 1, Sub-subseries a. Individual Poems A-Z. Box 1-6
- Series 1, Subseries 1, Sub-subseries b. Collections and notebooks. Box 7-8
- Series 1, Subseries 1, Sub-subseries c. Long narrative poems. Box 9-10
- Series 1, Subseries 1, Sub-subseries d. Miscellany (Title pages, contents, unidentified pages, notes on individual poems) Box 11
- Series 1, Subseries 2. Published prose books. Box 12-15
- Series 1, Subseries 3. Translations. Box 16
- Series 1, Subseries 4. Unpublished prose books. Box 17-19
- Series 1, Subseries 5. Essays. Вox 20-25
- Series 1, Subseries 6. Lectures and lecture notes. Box 26-27
- Series 1, Subseries 7. Short stories. Box 28
- Series 1, Subseries 8. Plays. Box 29-31
- Series 1, Subseries 9. Miscellaneous items. (Class notes, senior thesis, prose notes on various topics) Box 32
- Series 2. Notebooks. 1903-1950
- Series 3. Correspondence, 1898-1955
- Series 4. John Gould Fletcher Library [entire series has been separated from the collection]
- Series 5. Papers. 1881-1960
Acquisition Information
John Gould Fletcher Papers were acquired by the University of Arkansas Libraries from Fletcher's widow, Charlie May Simon Fletcher, over a period of approximately fourteen years, beginning shortly after Fletcher’s death in 1950. Series 2 materials were donated by Charlie May Fletcher in July 1954.
As part of his work to arrange and describe the collection correspondence for his doctoral thesis, Thomas Ernest Douglas reached out to numerous correspondents whose incoming correspondence to Fletcher had been part of Charlie May Simon Fletcher's donation, requesting that the correspondents donate Fletcher's outgoing correspondence to them. Correspondence received directly from correspondents as part of Douglas' efforts, circa 1960-1965, is also included in Series 3.
David Lloyd Goodrich, son of Lloyd Goodrich, sold a set of 6 letters (Box 50, Folder 453, Items 8-13) to the University of Arkansas Libraries in June 2004. David L. Goodrich sold an additional set of 15 letters (Box 50, Folder 453a) to the University of Arkansas Libraries in August 2007.
Separated Materials
Series IV, The John Gould Fletcher Library, was cataloged separately in Special Collections as the John Gould Fletcher Library, and is no longer part of the manuscript collection.
Processing Information
Processed by University of Arkansas Libraries staff and students. Series 2 was arranged and described between February-October 1974; in some early descriptions, it is referred to with the collection identifier MS F63N, despite being a part of MS F63.
The John Gould Fletcher correspondence (Series 3) was arranged and described by Thomas Ernest Douglas as part of his doctoral dissertation for the University of Arkansas in 1965. His catalogue has been adapted into the current Series 3 description; his complete dissertation is also available in Special Collections' Arkansas Collection.
A chronological listing of correspondence in Series 3 was compiled by Cynthia Geels from the Douglas Catalogue in the spring of 1984.
An additional purchase of six letters from Fletcher to Lloyd Goodrich were processed by Ethel C. Simpson in December 2004 and integrated into the existing file of Goodrich correspondence as Box 50, Folder 453, Items 8-13. An additional purchase of fifteen letters from Fletcher to Lloyd Goodrich were processed by Katrina Windon in May 2021 and incorporated into the collection as Box 50, Folder 453a.
- Aiken, Conrad, 1889-1973 (Correspondent)
- Aldington, Richard, 1892-1962 (Correspondent)
- Authors -- Arkansas
- Chavez, Angelico, 1910-1996 (Correspondent)
- Cournos, John, 1881-1966 (Correspondent)
- Davidson, Donald, 1893-1968 (Correspondent)
- Eliot, T. S. (Thomas Stearns), 1888-1965 (Correspondent)
- Finger, Charles Joseph, 1869-1941 (Correspondent)
- Freund, Louis, 1905-1999 (Correspondent)
- Gill, Eric, 1882-1940 (Correspondent)
- Goodrich, Lloyd, 1897-1987 (Correspondent)
- Greer, Scott A. (Correspondent)
- H. D. (Hilda Doolittle), 1886-1961 (Correspondent)
- Holmes, John Clellon, 1926-1988 (Correspondent)
- Long, Haniel, 1888-1956 (Correspondent)
- Lottinville, Savoie, 1906-1997 (Correspondent)
- Lowell, Amy, 1874-1925 (Correspondent)
- Monroe, Harriet, 1860-1936 (Correspondent)
- Poetry
- Poets, American -- Arkansas
- Pound, Ezra, 1885-1972 (Correspondent)
- Powell, Laurence (Correspondent)
- Randolph, Vance, 1892-1980 (Correspondent)
- Robinson, Edwin Arlington, 1869-1935 (Correspondent)
- Sandburg, Carl, 1878-1967 (Correspondent)
- Simon, Charlie May Hogue, 1897-1977
- Terry, Adolphine Fletcher, 1882-1976 (Correspondent)
- Untermeyer, Louis, 1885-1977 (Correspondent)
- Van Doren, Mark, 1894-1972 (Correspondent)
- Warren, Robert Penn, 1905-1989 (Correspondent)
Creator
- Fletcher, John Gould, 1886-1950 (Person)
Source
- Simon, Charlie May Hogue, 1897-1977 (Person)
- Goodrich, David L. (Seller, Person)
- Title
- John Gould Fletcher Papers
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- Thomas Ernest Douglas, Cynthia Geels, and other Special Collections staff
- Date
- 1965-1984
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
- Language of description note
- Finding aid is written in English.
Revision Statements
- December 2004: Updated by Ethel Simpson to include Box 50, Folder 453, Items 8-13
Repository Details
Part of the Special Collections Department Repository
University of Arkansas Libraries
365 N. McIlroy Avenue
Fayetteville AR 72701 United States
(479) 575-8444
specoll@uark.edu