Identity elements
Name and location of repository
Level of description
Collection
Title
Wallace Stevens collection
Date(s)
- 1957-1966 Spring (Creation)
Extent
1 box (1.25 linear feet)
Name of creator
Biographical history
Wallace Stevens (October 2, 1879 – August 2, 1955) was an American modernist poet. He was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, educated at Harvard and then New York Law School, and spent most of his life working as an executive for an insurance company in Hartford, Connecticut.
Stevens's first period begins with the publication of Harmonium (1923), followed by a slightly revised and amended second edition in 1930. It features, among other poems, "The Emperor of Ice-Cream", "Sunday Morning", "The Snow Man", and "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird". His second period commenced with Ideas of Order (1933), included in Transport to Summer (1947). His third and final period began with the publication of The Auroras of Autumn (1950), followed by The Necessary Angel: Essays On Reality and the Imagination (1951).
Many of Stevens's poems, like "Anecdote of the Jar", "The Man with the Blue Guitar", "The Idea of Order at Key West", "Of Modern Poetry", and "Notes Towards a Supreme Fiction", deal with the art of making art and poetry in particular. His Collected Poems (1954) won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1955.
Content and structure elements
Scope and content
This collection contains a phonodisc record titled "Wallace Stevens reading his poems", copyright 1957, as well as two printed poster-sized reproductions of his poem "Cy Est Pourtraicte, Madame Ste Ursule, et Les Unze Mille Vierges", printed in Spring 1966.
System of arrangement
Conditions of access and use elements
Conditions governing access
This collection is open for research. This collection may be housed off-campus and must be requested a minimum of seven calendar days in advance for consultation in the Special Collections. Please contact asc.library@miami.edu to request materials from this collection.
Physical access
Technical access
Conditions governing reproduction
Languages of the material
- English
Scripts of the material
- Latin
Language and script notes
Finding aids
Acquisition and appraisal elements
Custodial history
Immediate source of acquisition
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information
Accruals
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Existence and location of originals
Existence and location of copies
Related archival materials
Related descriptions
Notes element
Specialized notes
Alternative identifier(s)
Description control element
Rules or conventions
Sources used
Archivist's note
Finding aid created by Jordan Jedry, Purdy Project Archivist, 01-14-25.