CUMMINGTON
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Cummington Press records and Harry
Duncan papers
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Personal papers
Cummington Press records and Harry Duncan papers > Personal papers
Collection Stored Off-Site
All or portions of this collection are housed off-site. Materials can still be requested but researchers should expect a delay of up to two business days for retrieval.
Series 2
Personal papers, 1933-1998
Boxes Boxes 37-41; OP1
Scope and Content Note
The series consists of the personal papers of Harry Duncan, Katherine Frazier, and Paul Wightman Williams from 1933 to 1998. Harry Duncan's personal papers span from circa 1939 to 1998 and include personal and family correspondence, a notebook of manuscript writings, photographs from the Cummington School of Arts and Crafts, teaching materials and lectures, and writings. Of particular interest is a cache of letters to and from Katherine Frazier, the founder of the Cummington School of the Arts. They include discussions about the printing press, relationships with authors, and Katherine's illness. Duncan's writings include biographical essays, scholarly works, graduate essays, lectures, librettos, music scores, translations, and original poems. Many of the lectures focus on fine press printing and technology, while the essays are primarily literary criticism or discussions of politics and philosophy. The librettos are commissioned translations on classical and religious themes, and some of the music scores are written for the poems of W. B. Yeats.
Katherine Frazier's personal papers contain fiction and non-fiction writings. One manuscript is dated 1933, and the others are undated. The writings are experimental, blending prose and poetry and emphasizing the musicality of language, and cover topics such as art, war, mathematics, and philosophy.
The personal papers of Paul Wightman Williams span 1943 to 1954. In addition to a substantial collection of original poetry manuscripts, the papers include long letters from Williams' family, military correspondence, Cummington Press business, and visual materials such as architectural plans for a Cummington Press house and a photograph of original paintings.
Arrangement Note
Arranged by individual, then by record type.
| Harry Duncan papers | ||
| Box | Folder | Content |
|---|---|---|
| 37 | 1 | Address Book |
| 37 | 2 | Award program, University of Nebraska, Award for Outstanding Research and Creative Activity, May 5, 1981 |
| 37 | 3 | Bank records, December 1957-August 1959 |
| 37 | 4 | Bill of sale for motor vehicle, 1957 |
| 37 | 5 | Birth certificate, 1916 |
| 37 | 6 | Cast List, Galileo [Harry Duncan's son, Guy Duncan] |
| 37 | 7 | Certificate, Kappa Tau Alpha membership, 1959 |
| 37 | 8 | Contract, The Scarf, by Harry Duncan and Lee Hoiby, 1958 |
| 37 | 9 | Copyright registration forms |
| 37 | 10 | Correspondence, personal, 1952-1994 |
| 37 | 11 | Correspondence, to and from Katherine Frazier, 1943 |
| 37 | 12 | Correspondence, to and from Katherine Frazier, 1944 |
| 37 | 13 | Correspondence, to Nancy Duncan, 1997-2001 |
| 37 | 14 | Cummington School of Arts and Crafts |
| 37 | 15 | Duncan, Grace, estate, 1967-1969 |
| 37 | 16 | Honorary Doctorate degree, order of exercises, Grinnell College, 1973 |
| 37 | 17 | Insurance policy, 1954 |
| 37 | 18 | Iowa Public Employees Retirement System |
| 37 | 19 | Lawsuit, Harry A. Duncan vs. L.B. McDonald, 1976 [regarding car accident] |
| 37 | 20 | Music manuscript, by Dick Banks, for Harry Duncan, 1951 |
| 37 | 21 | Notebook [notes on poetry, philosophy, and music] |
| 38 | 1 | Notes on printing |
| 38 | 2 | Royalty statements, 1956-1959 |
| 38 | 3 | Social security, 1985 |
| 38 | 4 | Taxes, 1956-1959 |
| 38 | 5 | Teaching materials, 1939-1973, undated |
| 38 | 6 | Television documentary, planning meeting notes, 1989 |
| 38 | 7 | University of Iowa, administrative material, |
| 38 | 8 | University of Iowa, pay stubs, January 1958-October 1959 |
| 38 | 9 | University of Nebraska, contract, 1972 |
| 38 | 10 | University of Nebraska, pay stubs, 1991-1992 |
| 38 | 11 | Writings, "Allen Tate's False Nightmare," essay, undated |
| 38 | 12 | Writings, "Amor, che mori tua vertu da cielo," translation, undated |
| 38 | 13 | Writings, "A Pushy Apprentice," essay [Nebraska Book Arts Center] February 1992 |
| 38 | 14 | Writings, "The Bear and the Fox: Kittredge on Chaucer," graduate essay, untitled |
| 38 | 15 | Writings, "Birth of Christ," translation for Christmas card, 1978 |
| 38 | 16 | Writings, "The Book as Object," undated |
| 38 | 17 | Writings, "Book of the Dead," poem, 1956 |
| 38 | 18 | Writings, "Books and the Intense Inane," article, undated |
| 38 | 19 | Writings, "Collins' Characters," graduate essay, undated |
| 38 | 20 | Writings, "Cross-Purposes," essay on the Cummington Press, undated |
| 38 | 21 | Writings, "The Cummington Press," author's proofs, undated |
| 38 | 22 | Writings, "For R. M.," poem typescript, 1957 |
| 38 | 23 | Writings, "Forward," draft of forward to Printing on the Iron Handpress by Richard-Gabriel Rummonds, 1998 |
| 38 | 24 | Writings, fragments |
| 38 | 25 | Writings, "Fragments of Rhyme in Paradise Lost: A Note on the Study of Versification," graduate essay, undated |
| 38 | 26 | Writings, "A Glossary: To Dryden's Annus Mirabilis," graduate essay, undated |
| 38 | 27 | Writings, "Hindemith-Let's Build a Town," [translation of Paul Hindemith's opera, Wir Bauen eine Stadt], undated |
| 38 | 28 | Writings, "John Kinsella's Lament for Mrs. Mary Moore," music score, undated |
| 38 | 29 | Writings, "Kaschei the Immortal," translation of libretto for Rimsky-Korsakov's opera, 1963-1964 |
| 38 | 30 | Writings, "Le Pont Mirabeau," translation of Apollinaire, manuscript, undated |
| 38 | 31 | Writings, "Lucian: The Service of the Destructive Element," graduate essay, undated |
| 39 | 1 | Writings, "Marie Antionette: An Incident of the French Revolution," essay, undated |
| 39 | 2 | Writings, The Man She Made, play, fragments only, typescript, undated |
| 39 | 3 | Writings, "The New England Novitiate," biographical essay and poems, undated |
| 39 | 4 | Writings, notes, undated ["Modern Language Notes and "TLS"] |
| 39 | 5 | Writings, "The Not-So-Greek Tradition," graduate essay, undated |
| 39 | 6 | Writings, "Pater's Four Essays on Wordsworth," graduate essay, undated |
| 39 | 7 | Writings, "Plans for Work," prospectus for "The Manual of Hand Printing," undated |
| 39 | 8 | Writings, "Plato's desire for security and stability," graduate essay, undated |
| 39 | 9 | Writings, poem fragments, undated |
| 39 | 10 | Writings, Poems and Translations, 1953-1955 [includes typescripts, correspondence with Charles Scribners's Sons Publishers, proofs, and contract] |
| 39 | 11 | Writings, "Poetry in the Dial, 1920-1929," graduate essay, undated |
| 39 | 12 | Writings, "Portrait in Brownstone," libretto for Paul Reif, 1963 |
| 39 | 13 | Writings, review of Robert Frost and His Printers, typescript, 1985 |
| 39 | 14 | Writings, "The Sacred Moon," music score, undated |
| 39 | 15 | Writings, "The Second Poem from Dante's Convivio," translation, 1956-1957, undated |
| 39 | 16 | Writings, "Shelley's Reputation Since the World War," graduate essay, untitled |
| 39 | 17 | Writings, "The Structure of The Prelude," graduate essay, undated |
| 39 | 18 | Writings, "The Three Daisy Millers," essay, undated |
| 39 | 19 | Writings, "Three Operas Minute," libretto translated by Harry Duncan, drafts, typescripts, correspondence, 1961-1963 |
| 39 | 20 | Writings, "Two Pagan Monologues," 1982 [published by Juan Pascoe at The Taller Martin Pescador, Mexico] |
| 39 | 21 | Writings, untitled, biographical essay for Nebraska Book Arts Center, February 1991 |
| 39 | 22 | Writings, untitled, graduate essay with literary graphs, undated |
| 39 | 23 | Writings, untitled lecture on books as objects, undated |
| 39 | 24 | Writings, untitled lecture on bookmaking, fragments, undated |
| 39 | 25 | Writings, untitled music scores, undated |
| 39 | 26 | Writings by others, Racine, Jean, Andromache, printed by the Anvil Press, with illustrations by Fritz Kredel, 1970 [includes photocopies of correspondence between Kredel and Carolyn Hammer of Anvil Press] |
| Katherine Frazier papers | ||
| 40 | 1 | Writings, Antiphonal Assize, manuscript draft, 1933 |
| 40 | 2 | Writings, Antiphonal Assize, typescript draft, undated |
| 40 | 3 | Writings, "Art in Social Regeneration," undated |
| 40 | 4 | Writings, The Crooked Road, typescript draft, undated |
| 40 | 5 | Writings, "Fugue," fragments, undated |
| Paul Wightman Williams papers | ||
| 41 | 1 | Correspondence, 1943-1946 |
| 41 | 2 | Correspondence 1947-1954, undated |
| 41 | 3 | Photograph, Paul Wightman Williams' paintings, "A list of paintings and drawings by Paul W. Williams," undated |
| 41 | 4 | "Plans of a house proposed for the Cummington Press," architectural drawing, 1945 |
| OP1 | 9 | Printed material, Greenfield Recorder-Gazette, 1956 |
| 41 | 5 | Printed material, The Lyric vol. XXIII No. 3 Autumn Number, 1943 [published "Beyond the Night," a poem by Paul Wightman Williams] |
| OP1 | 10 | Printed material, P-EM, Paper for Enlisted Men, Coast Artillery School, 3 issues featuring poems by Williams, 1943 |
| 41 | 6 | Slides, Paul Wightman Williams gravesite |
| 41 | 7 | Writings, 21 Poems [bound draft], untitled typescript, "On a Print by Utamaro: II" [typescript poem], untitled |
| 41 | 8 | Writings, An Experiment, undated |
| OP1 | 11 | Writings, My Country Dreams, 1950 |
| 41 | 9 | Writings, Of Plastic Circumstance, undated |
| 41 | 10 | Writings, poems, typescripts, manuscript submissions, circa 1942-1943, undated |
| 41 | 11 | Writings, Poems and Prose, undated |
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