Norfolk Poet's Club records

Access and use

Location of collection:
University of Virginia, Special Collections Dept.
Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library
University of Virginia
P.O. Box 400110
160 McCormick Rd
Charlottesville, Virginia 22904-4110
Contact for questions and access:
POC: Brenda Gunn
Phone: (434) 924-1037
Phone: (434) 243-1776
Fax: (434) 924-4968
Restrictions:

This collection is open for research use.

Preferred citation:

MSS 14245 Norfolk Poet's Club records, Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia.

Summary

Extent:
2 Cubic Feet 4 oversize boxes
Language:
English
Preferred citation:

MSS 14245 Norfolk Poet's Club records, Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia.

Background

Scope and content:

Norfolk Poet's Club Records (1912-1983; 2 cubic feet) include manuscripts of Josephine Johnson and Margaret Haley Carpenter; and correspondence of Mary Sinton Leitch, Josephine Johnson, Julia Johnson Davis, and William Stanley Braithwaite. There are also press releases, newspaper clippings, printed items, and scrapbooks about these poets and editors and their colleagues as well as their poetry and the creative writing process.

"Sara Teasdale: A Biography" Margaret Haley Carpenter; "Anthology of Magazine Verse", 1958 Margaret Haley Carpenter; "The Treasure" Margaret Haley Carpenter; "It is the Year's End" Josephine Johnson; "The Sun Again in the---Returning" Josephine Johnson, "Unused Versions of Unused Poems" Josephine Johnson; "Autumnal"; "Side Boy"; "Notes on Truth and Poetry" Josephine Johnson; "Titled Poems" Josephine Johnson; "Untitled Poems" Josephine Johnson; Holograph poem; notes and drafts writen on the verso of rejection letters by Josephine Johnson; "The Fur Coat Story Josephine Johnson; Prose, short stories; Mr. Hall"; "Flies" Josephine Johnson.

Newspaper clippings, rejection letters, and press releases can also be found in scrapbooks.

Includes letter from University of Virginia professor Armistead C. Gordon

[Turner] family business receipts. Josephine Johnson papers related to her interests in gardening and flower arrangements.

Biographical / historical:

The Norfolk Poet's Club originally consisted of five women: Josephine Johnson, her sister Julia Johnson Davis, Mary Sinton Leach, Virginia Taylor McCormick, and Virginia Lynne Tunstall. In 1921, they sponsored the formation of a literary magazine called "The Lyric" (originally edited by John R. Moreland) which has been called "America's oldest traditional poetry magazine of independent and continuous publication," and has operated under different editorships for over 50 years. Source: Dealers notes

Josephine Johnson, one of the outstanding poets in the country, and a sonneteer of note, was awarded first prize for her collection of poems, "The Unwilling Gypsy," in the sixth book publication contest of the Kaleidograph Press, Dallas, Texas in 1936. Miss Johnson was vice-president of the poetry Society of Virginia, and a member of the Poetry Society of America, the Catholic Poetry Society, and the Writers' Club of Norfolk. She was born in Norfolk and attended the University of Virginia and Harvard College. Her poems have appeared in "The American Mercury", "The New Republic", "Harpers Magazine", "The London Mercury, "The Commonwealth", "The Personalist", "The New York Times", "The New York Sun", and the "Boston Transcript". Josephine Johnson "is a poet of a single theme-that of life's challenge to the spirit to endure.z' Source: Scrapbook

William Stanley Braithwaite (1878-1962)was a poet, editor, publisher, and anthologist who was born and raised in Boston, Massachussetts. In 1890 upon his father's death, he had to quit school and educate himself while working as a typesetter in a Boston printing firm. He developed a love of lyric poetry and wrote several poems that were published. Writing a regular column for the "Boston Transcript" he brought serious attention to the works of many African American poets and eventually edited "The Anthology of Magazine Verse". Throughout the years of compiling the Anthology, he remained committed to the notion that verse should be an expression of spiritual truth and eternal beauty beyond what he conceived of as the limits of merely political or racial concerns. He introduced the general poetry-reading public to a wide range of African American voices they might otherwise never have heard. Source: Dealers notes

Eleanor Shipp is the mother of poet Josephine Johnson

Arrangement:

This collection is arranged into 5 series. Series 1. Manuscripts; Series 2. Correspondence; Series 3. Press releases, newspaper clippings, and printed items; Series 4. Scrapbooks (and acccount book of poems sold to publications); Series 5. Miscellaneous (hobbies of Josephine Johnson and business receipts from 1896 {Turner Family])

Scrapbook contained correspondence that was in envelopes attached to very brittle and fragile pages. Removed the letters and placed them in acid-free inserts in the scrapbooks. Numbered the letters to match the original envelopes.

Scrapbook contains correspondence in envelopes attached to very brittle and fragile pages. Letters removed and placed in acid-free inserts. Matched numbers for letters and original envelopes.

Scrapbook contains correspondence in envelopes attached to very brittle and fragile pages. Letters removed and placed in acid-free inserts. Matched numbers for letters and original envelopes.

Scrapbook contains correspondence in envelopes attached to very brittle and fragile pages. Letters removed and placed in acid-free inserts. Matched numbers for letters and original envelopes.

Physical facet:
6 scrapbooks
Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard