Edgar Lee Masters papers, 1928-1946
John Hay Library , Special Collections
Box A
Brown University
Providence, RI 02912
Tel: 401-863-2146
email: hay@brown.edu
Published in 2013
Collection Overview
| Title: | Edgar Lee Masters Papers |
| Date range: | 1928-1946 |
| Creator: | Masters, Edgar Lee, 1868-1950 |
| Extent: | 0.25 Linear feet |
| Abstract: | The Masters papers consist chiefly of letters to his son, Hilary T. Masters; along with poems, short stories, sketches, and two letters from H. L. Mencken to Hilary Masters. |
| Language of materials: | English |
| Repository: | John Hay Library
, Special Collections |
| Collection number: | Ms.Masters |
Scope & content
The Masters papers consist of approximately 300 letters, manuscripts, and sketches for the period 1928-1946. Chiefly letters to his son, Hilary T. Masters; the collection also includes manuscript poems, short stories, sketches, and two letters from H. L. Mencken to Hilary Masters.Access Points
Subject Names- Masters, Edgar Lee, 1868-1950
- Masters, Hilary
- Mencken, H. L. (Henry Louis), 1880-1956
- Patterson, Carrie L
Arrangement
The collection is divided into six sections:
- Series 1. Letters
- Series 2. Poetry
- Series 3. Prose
- Series 4. Drawings
- Series 5. Clippings
- Series 6. Letters to Hilary Masters from H. L. Mencken
Items within Series 1 (Letters) are ordered chronologically. Items within Series 2, 3, 4, and 5 (Poetry, Prose, Drawings, and Clippings) are ordered alphabetically. Items within Series 6 (Letters to Hilary Masters from H. L. Mencken) are ordered chronologically.
Biographical/Historical note
Edgar Lee Masters was born inGarnett, Kansas, on August 23, 1868, but soon after his birth his family moved to
Lewistown, Illinois, the town near Springfield where Masters grew up. His youth was marred by his father's financial struggles with a faltering law practice and reluctance to support his son's literary interests. Masters attended Knox College
for a year but was then forced by the family's finances to withdraw and continue his studies privately. He was admitted to the bar in 1891, and he moved to
Chicago in 1892, where he found a job collecting bills for the Edison Company
. He gradually built a successful law practice, and for eight years he was the partner of Clarence Darrow. In 1898 he published his first collection, A Book of Verses, and married Helen Jenkins. His first books, some of which were published under pseudonyms, showed strong influences from the English Romantic poets and Edgar Allan Poe.
During this time Masters considered writing a novel about the relationships of people in a small Illinois town. This idea was transformed through a chance acquaintance. Masters had been submitting poems to Marion Reedy, the editor of Reedy's Mirror in
St. Louis. While Reedy didn't publish these poems, he kept up the correspondence and gave Masters a copy of J. W. Mackail's Selected Epigrams from the Greek Anthology. After reading these, Masters felt the challenge to adopt the idea for his novel into this form, combining free verse, epitaph, realism, and cynicism to write Spoon River Anthology, a collection of monologues from the dead in an Illinois graveyard. The
Spoon River of the title is the name of an actual river in Illinois, but the town combines Lewistown, where Masters grew up, and Petersburg, where his grandparents lived. These poems were serialized in Reedy's Mirror from 1914-15, and then discovered by Harriet Monroe, the editor of Poetry, who helped Masters issue a complete edition in 1915. Spoon River Anthology was wildly successful, going through several editions rapidly and becoming one of the most popular books of poetry in the history of American literature. His success and friendship with Monroe also brought him into the Chicago Group
and contact with such poets as Carl Sandburg and Vachel Lindsay.
Masters was never to equal the success of Spoon River Anthology. He published thirty-nine more books, including novels, plays, collections of poetry, and biographies of Lindsay, Mark Twain, Whitman, and Lincoln. In 1917, Masters left his family; he and his wife would divorce in 1923. In 1920 Masters gave up his law firm and moved from Chicago to
New York City, where he retired to the Chelsea Hotel
to write. In 1926 he married Ellen Coyne, thirty years his junior. In his later years, Masters received several awards based on his earlier successes, including a Poetry Society of America
Award, the Shelley Memorial
Award, and a grant from the American Academy of Arts and Letters
. He died March 5, 1953, in a convalescent home in
Philadelphia and was buried in
Petersburg, Illinois.
Source: The American Academy of Poets.
Access & Use
| Access to the collection: | To be used only with permission of the donor. |
| Use of the materials: | Although Brown University has physical ownership of the collection and the materials contained therein, it does not claim literary rights. Researchers should note that compliance with copyright law is their responsibility. Researchers must determine the owners of the literary rights and obtain any necessary permissions from them. |
| Preferred citation: | Edgar Lee Masters Papers, Ms. Masters, Brown University Library. |
| Contact information: | John Hay Library
, Special Collections Box A Brown University Providence, RI 02912 Tel: 401-863-2146 email: hay@brown.edu |
Administrative Information
| ABOUT THE COLLECTION | |
| Acquisition: | The Edgar Lee Masters papers were given to Brown University by Hilary Thomas Masters, Brown class of 1952, over the period 1961-1965. |
| ABOUT THE FINDING AID | |
| Author: | Finding aid prepared by Jennifer Long |
| Encoding: | This finding aid was produced using the Archivists' Toolkit 2013-03-14 |
Additional Information
Inventory
Letters, Poetry, Prose, Drawings, Clippings, Letters to Hilary Masters from H. L. Mencken
300.0 items
Inventory not completely encoded. PDF version available.