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University of Texas at Austin

Winnick, R. H. (Roy H.):

A Preliminary Inventory of His Collection of Archibald MacLeish at the Harry Ransom Center

Creator: Winnick, R. H. (Roy H.)
Title: R. H. (Roy H.) Winnick, Collection of Archibald MacLeish
Dates: 1976-2008
Extent: 2 boxes (.84 linear feet)
Abstract: The R. H. (Roy H.) Winnick Collection of Archibald MacLeish consists of materials related to the research and writing of a MacLeish biography and Letters of Archibald MacLeish, 1907-1982 (1983). The great majority of the collection, consisting primarily of correspondence, is related to the former work.
Call Number: Manuscript Collection MS-05110
Language: English
Access: Open for research


Administrative Information


Acquisition: Gift, 2008 (2008-09-05-G)
Processed by: Stephen Cooper, 2009
Repository:

Harry Ransom Center, The University of Texas at Austin

Scope and Contents


The R. H. Winnick Collection of Archibald MacLeish consists of materials related to the research and writing of a MacLeish biography, a project that Winnick handed off to another scholar before its completion, and Letters of Archibald MacLeish, 1907-1982 (1983), published within a year of the poet's death. The great majority of the collection, consisting primarily of correspondence, is related to the former work. The collection is arranged in two series: Series I. Correspondence, 1976-2008 and Series II. Research Materials.
The correspondence series consists of 54 letters from MacLeish to Winnick, all but two handwritten, along with Winnick's carbon and photocopied replies. Additional handwritten MacLeish letters are interspersed with those sent in response to inquiries from Winnick. Also present, and the bulk of Series I., is correspondence between Winnick and friends, family, and colleagues of MacLeish, mostly related to requests for copies of letters and/or interviews. Some of the notable correspondents include James Dickey, Elizabeth Dos Passos, Lillian Hellman, George Plimpton, Arthur Schlesinger, Barbara Tuchman, Robert Penn Warren, and Edward Weeks, as well as short replies from Robert Bly, John Kenneth Galbraith, John Updike, and Eudora Welty, among others.
Series II. Research Materials contains a spiral-bound notebook with Winnick's preliminary work regarding the MacLeish biography, including reading notes, a list of dates on which MacLeish was written about in the New York Times, a fourteen page summary of Winnick's first meeting with MacLeish, and a seventeen page summary of a second meeting a few months later. Five typed transcriptions of interviews of MacLeish with Winnick, loose research notes, and a list on note cards of MacLeish books purchased by Winnick make up the rest of the series.
All of the correspondence and the research materials remain grouped as they arrived at the Ransom Center, and original file names, when present, are denoted by quotation marks. Within the files, the correspondence has been ordered chronologically or alphabetically if it arrived at the Center unarranged.

Separated Material


Close to one hundred books that came with the manuscript material were transferred to the Ransom Center Book Collection.

Container List