Collections : [West Virginia and Regional History Center]

Letters, books, clippings, biographical and literary articles, and other papers regarding Appalachian poet and author, Jesse Stuart, gathered by family friend, Maryan Dahmer. There are over 90 letters from Stuart to Dahmer, dating from 1966 to 1976, which discuss travel, speaking engagements, publishers, opinions of authors and scholars, teaching, personal matters, etc. The collection also includes a large number of Stuart's books, many of which are first editions inscribed to Dahmer, as well as publications by his daughter Jane Stuart. Jesse Hilton Stuart was born on August 8, 1906 in Greenup County, Kentucky. He published over 2000 poems and over 60 books, writing primarily about Appalachian life in poems, novels, children's books, autobiographical works, and short stories. He received several prestigious accolades for his work, including the highest award for poetry in America, the Fellowship for the Academy of American Poets. Stuart spent the majority of his life in his hometown of Greenup and remained deeply devoted to his Appalachian roots until he died on 17 Feburary 1984.

There are typescripts containing some of the writings and articles of Mr. J. F. McNeely of Morgantown, W. Va. They are as follows: "Economic Facts You Should Know," and "From The Writings of J. F. McNeely."

Correspondence, manuscripts, notes and notebooks, diaries, press clippings, photographs, and printed material of a West Virginia essayist, short-story writer, poet and novelist, who won the first O. Henry Memorial Prize in 1919 for her short story, "England to America." The papers include correspondence from editors, publishers, agents and critics; readers' correspondence; family letters; manuscripts of short stories and other works; outlines, plots, and drafts; and diaries and notebooks primarily concerned with religious meditation, Christian mysticism, and Miss Montague's concept of human ennoblement through suffering. Correspondents include Bernard Baruch, Russell Doubleday, Howard M. Gore, M.A. DeWolfe Howe, Vachel Lindsay, Christopher Morley, Philip Van Doren Stern, Joseph P. Tumulty, and Woodrow Wilson.