University of Texas at Austin

Charles Tomlinson:

A Preliminary Inventory of His Papers at the Harry Ransom Center

Creator: Tomlinson, Charles, 1927-2015
Title: Charles Tomlinson
Dates: 1940s-1992
Extent: 29 document boxes, 1 oversize box, 4 galley folders (13.88 linear feet)
Abstract: The Charles Tomlinson Papers contain materials related to his career as a poet and translator, including notebooks, handwritten and typescript drafts, and proofs of many of his works. Also present is extensive correspondence from colleagues and friends.
Call Number: Manuscript Collection MS-04251
Language: English, French, Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese
Access: Open for research, except for correspondence from Michael Alexander, Michael Edwards, and Geoffrey Hill, to remain restricted until writers decease.


Administrative Information


Acquisition: Purchases, 1993 (R12828, R13124)
Processed by: Hope Rider, 2007
Repository:

Harry Ransom Center, The University of Texas at Austin

Scope and Contents


The Charles Tomlinson Papers contain materials related to his career as a poet and translator, including notebooks, handwritten and typescript drafts, and proofs of many of his works. Also present is extensive correspondence from colleagues and friends. The collection is divided into three series: Series I. Works; Series II. Correspondence; and Series III. Other Papers. Some of the materials in the collection are in French, Italian, Spanish, or Portuguese.
The works in Series I. are arranged alphabetically by title, and include published and unpublished individual poems, articles, lectures, and books. There are several interviews with and by Tomlinson about poetry, as well as introductions for several collections edited by Tomlinson. Some titles are more heavily represented than others, and frequently there is a mix of handwritten and typescript drafts, as well as proofs and tear sheets. Titles include Airborn / Hijos del Aire, a book of collaborative poems written by Tomlinson and Octavio Paz; American Scenes, and Other Poems; The Necklace, one of Tomlinson's earliest published efforts; A Peopled Landscape; Poetry and Metamorphosis, a collection of lectures Tomlinson delivered at Cambridge University; and Renga: A Chain of Poems, a collaboration between Tomlinson, Paz, Jacques Roubaud, and Edoardo Sanguineti. There are several boxes of poetry notebooks that contain early ideas and drafts for poems, from the early 1950s through 1990. Also present are five folders labeled Juvenilia that contain early projects, as well as some student essays from Tomlinson's time at Queens' College, Cambridge.
Series II. Correspondence is divided into Subseries A. Outgoing; and Subseries B. Incoming. The Outgoing correspondence is comprised of letters to the poet and educator Donald Davie, Tomlinson's tutor at Queens' College and later a close personal friend, and to Oscar Mellors at Fantasy Press, who published the first edition of The Necklace.
The incoming correspondence in Subseries B. represents Tomlinson's wide circle of acquaintances in the world of poetry and literature. Particularly well-represented are Bruce Berlind, Attilio Bertolucci, Ronald Bottrall, Frederick Busch, Donald Davie, Ted Hughes, Hugh Kenner, James Laughlin, George Oppen, Octavio Paz, and Michael Schmidt. Other notable correspondents include Dannie Abse, Homero Aridjis, John Betjeman, Austin Clarke, Cid Corman, Guy Davenport, Fay Godwin, Donald Hall, Seamus Heaney, F. R. Leavis, Marianne Moore, Kathleen O'Gorman, Omar Pound, Mary de Rachewiltz, and Louis Zukofsky.
Series III. Other Papers includes several academic papers written by others about Tomlinson's poetry, as well as extensive newspaper clippings of reviews of his works.

Folder List