Overview of the Collection |
|
| Creator: | O'Connor, William Van, 1915-1966. |
| Title: | William Van O'Connor Papers |
| Inclusive Dates: | 1943-1967 |
| Quantity: | 1.7 linear ft. |
| Abstract: | Papers of the American literary critic, editor, educator, author. Collection contains correspondence (1943-1967) and writings (1960-1966). Correspondents include Kingsley Amis, Caroline Gordon, Lewis Mumford, Karl Jay Shapiro, Allen Tate, Lionel Trilling, Robert Penn Warren, and others. Writings include typescripts of books, plays, and an untitled and unfinished collection of literary reminiscences. |
| Language: | English |
| Repository: | Special Collections Research Center, Syracuse University Library 222 Waverly Avenue Syracuse, NY 13244-2010 http://scrc.syr.edu |
William Van O'Connor (1915-1966) was an American literary critic, editor, educator, and author.
O'Connor was born in Syracuse, New York, on January 15, 1915, the son of Sarsfield and Violet Belle (McKnight) O'Connor. He attended Christian Brothers Academy and graduated from Syracuse University in 1936. After receiving an M.A. at Syracuse University in 1937, he attended Columbia University from which he earned his Ph.D. degree in 1947.
Prior to World War II, O'Connor taught at Ohio State University, 1940-1941, and at Louisiana State University, 1941-1913. A tour in the United States Army which included service in New Guinea from 1943-1946 saw him rise to the rank of Staff Sergeant. After being discharged, he taught at the University of Minnesota, 1946-1962, and at the University of California at Davis, 1962-1966, in the latter case as chairman of the English department. He received a Rockefeller Foundation fellowship, 1946-1947, acted as executive editor of American Quarterly, 1949-1951, served as Berg Professor of English and American literature at New York University, 1958, and was a Fulbright lecturer at the University of Liel, Belgium, 1953-1954, and at the University of Hull, England, 1964-1965.
O'Connor was a prolific literary critic, writer and editor. To his credit are monographs entitled New Woman of the Renaissance (with his wife), 1942; Climates of Tragedy, 1943; Sense and Sensibility in Modern Poetry, 1918; The Shaping Spirit: a Study of Wallace Stevens, 1950; An Age of Criticism, 1900-1950, 1952; The Tangled Fire of William Faulkner, 1954; Modern Prose, Form and Structure, 1958; William Faulkner, 1959; The Grotesque, An American Literary Genre, 1962; A Key to American Literature, 1962; The New University Wits, 1963; Ezra Pound, 1963; Religion and American Literature, with Robert Wiggin and Joyce Cary, 1966. O'Connor also edited Forms of Modern Fiction: Essays Collected in Honor of Joseph Warren Beach, 1948; the six volume series Twentieth Century Literature in America (with Frederick J. Hoffman), of which his own An Age of Criticism was part; a three volume History of the Arts in Minnesota, 1958; A Casebook on Ezra Pound (with Edward Stone); and Seven Modern American Novelists, 1964. He also published a book of short stories, Campus on the River, 1950, and a volume of poetry, High Meadow, 1964.
On January 23, 1942, O'Connor married Mary Theresa Allen, and the couple subsequently became the parents of two daughters, Willa Van and Ellen Lee, and a son, Jewett Marion. O'Connor died at Davis, California, on September 26, 1966, at the age of fifty-one.
The William Van O'Connor Papers consist of correspondence and writings.
Correspondence, 1943-1967, contains both incoming and outgoing. A complete index of correspondents is included at the end of this inventory.
In general, the correspondence reflects Mr. O'Connor's literary interests, although there are a number of letters of condolence to his wife following his death. Several of the British writers among his correspondents reply at length to his inquiries concerning their participation in the group called the "new university wits." A number of letters deal with the Ezra Pound controversy, and the large number of Lewis Mumford letters includes one expressing reaction to the use of the first atomic bomb. Of particular interest is the long run of letters from Karl Shapiro. Other significant correspondents include the following:
Kingsley Amis, British author, 1957-1958Lee Anderson, 1957-1964Joseph Warren Beach, literary critic and educator, 1946-1952Cleanth Brooks, literary critic, 1949-1965Erskine Caldwell, novelist, 1957Hayden Carruth, poet, 1949Clem Cristesen, editor of Meanjin, 1944-1947Robert Conquest, British author, 1956, 1958Malcolm Cowley, literary critic, 1959-1967David Daiches, British literary critic, 1943, 1962Donald Davie, British author, 1957-1958T. S. Eliot, poet, 1958-1959D. J. Enright, British author, 1958-1959John Gould Fletcher, poet, 1943David Garnett, British author and editor, 1954-1965Caroline Gordon, literary critic, 1962Thom Gunn, British author, 1958Frederick J. Hoffman, literary critic, 1944-1966Rolfe Humphries, poet, 1943, 1948A. E. Johnson, poet and educator, 1914, 1958Philip Larkin, British poet, 1958, 1964-1966Lewis Leary, educator, 1960-1963Harry T. Moore, literary critic and educator, 1961-1963Lewis Mumford, author, 1944-1950Iris Murdoch, British author, 1958Marjorie Nicolson, educator, 1943-1963Flannery O'Connor, author, 1947Robert S. Phillips, 1962-1967Katherine Anne Porter, writer, 1954Ezra Pound, poet, 1959 (repro.)Nat Rosen, 1949Karl Shapiro, poet and editor, 1944-1966Theodore Spencer, author, 1943-1945Holly Stevens Stephenson, daughter of the poet Wallace Stevens, 1964Wallace Stevens, poet, 1948-1951Phil Stone, friend of William Faulkner, 1955Allen Tate, literary critic, 1943, 1949-1962Lionel Trilling, literary critic, 1947-1960John Wain, British author, 1958Robert Penn Warren, author and educator, 1944-1966William Carlos Williams, poet, 1946, 1949
Other prominent persons represented in the correspondence by letters of lesser research significance include Louis S. Auchincloss, F. W. Bateson, Clive Bell, William Rose Benet, Eric Bentley, R. P. Blackmur, John Malcolm Brinnin, Van Wyck Brooks, Oscar Cargill, Bennett Cerf, Richard Chase, John Ciardi, Harold Clurman, Louis O. Coxe, Leon Edel, George Elliott, Francis Fergusson, Vardis Fisher, E. M. Forster, Robert B. Heilman, Irving Howe, Stanley Edgar Hyman, William Inge, Alfred Kazin, Clark Kerr, Sir Geoffrey Keynes, Joseph Wood Krutch, Stanley J. Kunitz, James Laughlin, Robert Lowell, Frederick F. Manfred, Klaus Mann, Josephine Miles, Arthur Mizener, Samuel French Morse, Wright Norris, Raymond Mortimer, Gorham Munson, Howard Nemerov, Aileen Pippett, Henry Rago, Philip Rahv, John Crowe Ransom, I. A. Richards, Mark Schorer, Allan Seeger, Wallace Stegner, E. M. N. Tillyard, William York Tindall, William Troy, Mark Van Doren, Peter Viereck, Jose Garcia Villa, Eliseo Vivas, Brom Weber, Theodore Weiss, Rene Wellek, Eudora Welty, Glenway Wescott, Oscar Williams, Leonard Woolf, and Louis Zukofsky.
Writings, 1960-1966, contain articles, books, drama, poetry and book reviews. The book category includes in several instances both a holograph and typed drafts of a work as well as galley proofs. Two of the books, Sir Ferdinando Gorges, and The Wild Swans, as well as the unfinished and untitled collection of literary reminiscences O'Connor was working on during the summer just prior to his death, are apparently unpublished. The two plays in the collection have been performed, but also apparently are unpublished. A small number of poems eliminated from the manuscript prior to publication are included in the materials relating to the poetry volume, High Meadow. The second poetry volume, Malade, a collection of verse in a lighter vein, does not appear to have been published thus far.
Correspondence is arranged chronologically, preceded by two folders of undated letters; the second of these contains those which are partially dated with a month and day but no year. Both folders of undated material are arranged alphabetically by name of sender.
Writings are subdivided by genre (drama, fiction, etc.). Each of the categories which contain more than a single item are further arranged alphabetically by title.
There are no access restrictions on this material.
Written permission must be obtained from SCRC and all relevant rights holders before publishing quotations, excerpts or images from any materials in this collection.
Preferred citation for this material is as follows:
William Van O'Connor Papers,
Special Collections Research Center,
Syracuse University Library
Gift of William Van O'Connor and the William Van O'Connor Estate, 1963-1969.
Created by: -
Date: 7 Feb 1996
Revision history: 20 May 2010 - converted to EAD (MRC);
27 Apr 2011 - fixed F. O'Connor date (MRC)
| Correspondence | |||||||||||
| Box 1 | undated A-Z | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | undated no year, A-Z | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | 1940-1967 (26 folders) | ||||||||||
| Writings | |||||||||||
| Articles | |||||||||||
| Box 2 | "Epigonism in Contemporary Poetry," A Comment, no. 21 Oct 1944 | ||||||||||
| Box 2 | "A Memory of Theodore Roethke," Critical Quarterly 1965 | ||||||||||
| Box 2 | "Parody as Criticism," College English | ||||||||||
| Box 2 | "A Tribute to Joseph Warren beach," Poetry, XLI, 192-194 Dec 1957 | ||||||||||
| Books | |||||||||||
| Box 2 | An Age of Criticism, 1900-1950 1952 | ||||||||||
| Box 2 | Ezra Pound 1963 | ||||||||||
| The Grotesque, An American Literary Genre circa 1962 | |||||||||||
| Box 2 | Pages 1-327 (3 folders) | ||||||||||
| Box 2 | Galley proofs | ||||||||||
| Joyce Cary 1966 | |||||||||||
| Box 2 | Draft A, holograph 1964-1965 | ||||||||||
| Box 2 | Draft B, typescript revised 1964-1969 | ||||||||||
| Box 2 | Galley proof A, revised | ||||||||||
| Box 2 | Galley proof B, revised | ||||||||||
| The New University Wits circa 1963 | |||||||||||
| Box 3 | Draft A, typescript copy | ||||||||||
| Box 3 | Draft B, typescript revised (2 folders) | ||||||||||
| Box 3 | Page proofs | ||||||||||
| Box 3 | Sir Ferdinando Gorges, Founder of American Colonies Summer 1964 - holograph and typescript revised | ||||||||||
| The Wild Swans - alternate title: The Swans of Shelley Lake | |||||||||||
| Box 3 | Draft A, typescript copy and holo. revised | ||||||||||
| Box 3 | Draft B, typescript revised (3 folders) | ||||||||||
| Box 4 | Untitled literary reminiscences Summer 1966 | ||||||||||
| Drama | |||||||||||
| Box 4 | "The Heron and the Hawk," typescript and typescript revised circa 1963 | ||||||||||
| "In the Cage" | |||||||||||
| Box 4 | Typescript and printed material 1960-1961 | ||||||||||
| Box 4 | Notes 1960-1961 | ||||||||||
| Fiction | |||||||||||
| Box 4 | "Durham Woods," short story 1965 | ||||||||||
| Poetry | |||||||||||
| High Meadow 1964 | |||||||||||
| Box 4 | Typescript, typescript revised, reproduction revised, and holograph | ||||||||||
| Box 4 | Poems not used, typescript, typescript revised, repro. revised | ||||||||||
| Page proofs | |||||||||||
| Box 4 | Malade: Twenty-One Poems on the Same Theme undated | ||||||||||
| Reviews | |||||||||||
| Box 4 | Ehrengard, by Isak Dinesen, New York Times Book Review, p. 7 Jun 9, 1963 | ||||||||||
| Box 4 | No In Thunder, by Leslie Fiedler, Saturday Review, pp. 46-47 Nov 19, 1960 | ||||||||||
| Box 4 | Untitled review of seven books, Southern Review circa 1965 | ||||||||||
| Fragments | |||||||||||
| Box 4 | Miscellaneous | ||||||||||
