Note: This brief collection description is an accession record. The collection is not fully processed or cataloged; no biographical sketch, descriptions of series, or indexes are available.
Acquisition: Gift, 2005
Access: Open for research, except for restricted correspondence and versions of "Leander"
Processed by: Liz Murray, 2006
RLIN Record ID: None
The William Goyen Series is subdivided into three Subseries: A. Works; B. Goyen Correspondence, 1945-1983; and C. About Goyen.
The Works in Subseries A. contain short stories and novels already present in the Ransom Center's Goyen Papers. Titles include Arcadio (1983), Had I a Hundred Mouths: New and Selected Stories, 1947-1983 (1985), Half a Look of Cain: A Fantastical Narrative (1994), House of Breath (1999), New Work and Work in Progress (1983) preface by Joyce Carol Oates, Precious Door (1982), and Wonderful Plant (1980). Also present are individual short stories and Study Master notes by Goyen for works by Willa Cather and Ralph Ellison.
Subseries B. Goyen Correspondence, 1945-1983, includes original and photocopied letters to and from writers Eve Caram and Katherine Anne Porter, theater director-producer Margo Jones, editor and publisher Carol Southern, and Reginald Gibbons.
Material about Goyen in Subseries C. includes articles, obits, reviews, biographical entries, a 1982 interview for Masques, inventories of Goyen's literary papers, and a 1992 issue of Mid-American Review on Goyen.
The Gibbons correspondence regarding Goyen in Series II. has much to do with his active role as Goyen's literary executor and the publication of Goyen's works. Correspondents include Eve Caram; Clark Davis; Gary Haber; Robert Phillips; Patrice Repusseau, Goyen's wife, actress Doris Roberts; Stephen Spender; Eudora Welty; and others.
The Thomas McGrath papers in Series III. are arranged in two Subseries: A. "Thomas McGrath: Life and the Poem," in TriQuarterly 70, 1987, and B. Correspondence re TriQuarterly issue and McGrath-Related Material.
Subseries A. contains drafts, corrections, and proofs of an interview conducted between January 30 and February 1, 1987 by Gibbons and Terrence Des Pres. The interview titled "Thomas McGrath: Life and the Poem" was subsequently published as a special isssue of TriQuarterly and in an expanded version by the University of Illinois Press in 1992.
Much of Subseries B. regarding the TriQuarterly interview includes Gibbons correspondence with Philip Levine, Frederick Stern, British historian E. P. Thompson, and Josh Weiner. Of special interest are numerous letters from McGrath to Gibbons from 1987-1988. Also present is a typescript of an oral interview of Alice McGrath conducted by Michael Balter in 1987.
An audio cassette commemorating a celebration of Tom McGrath on March 15, 1991 in Chicago was transferred to the Ransom Center's Sound Recordings Collection.
Box Folder Description
1 1 "Another Man's Son," short story, corrected typescripts ARCADIO (1983), novel Corrected typescripts 2 October 9, 1979 3 September 8, 1981 4 Uncorrected proof with marginal notes by Gibbons 5 Drafts of Gibbons's review for THE NEW YORK TIMES, November 6, 1983 6 Reviews and publicity 7 THE FACES OF BLOOD KINDRED: A NOVELLA AND TEN STORIES (French translation, 1996), reviews 8 "The Fallen Aerialist: Marvello's Story," published version in THE SOUTHERN REVIEW, Spring 1991 HAD I A HUNDRED MOUTHS: NEW AND SELECTED STORIES, 1947-1983 (1985) 9 Edited typescript and print versions of title story 10 Edited draft of collected stories 2 1 Edited draft, cont'd 2 Preface by Joyce Carol Oates, typescripts and correspondence 3 Proof, corrected pages 4 Reviews and correspondence HALF A LOOK OF CAIN: A FANTASTICAL NARRATIVE (1994), novel 5 Typescript, incomplete photocopy 6 "Related papers," typescripts, 1993 7 Edited typescript, selected galley pages, and afterword, Spring 1994 3 1 Excerpt in GULF COAST, Summer 1994 HOUSE OF BREATH (1999), novel 2 Afterword drafts by Gibbons 3 Book proposal by Gibbons and Hahn; reviews 4 "Jesus in My Body, Jesus in My Flesh," uncorrected carbon typescript NEW WORK AND WORK IN PROGRESS (1983), short works and interview 5-7 Interview, typescripts and fragments 8 TRIQUARTERLY 56, Winter 1983 issue 9-10 TRIQUARTERLY and Palaemon Press, camera-ready copy and photocopy of published version, with correspondence PRECIOUS DOOR (1982), short stories 4 1 Partial uncorrected typescript 2-3 Final versions, November 1980 and 1982 4 Typescript copy from Goyen, inscribed to Gibbons, April 29, 1981 5 "Recovering," typescript, and print version in TRIQUARTERLY 58, Fall 1983 6 Short stories, various typescripts and print versions, photocopies 7-8 Study Master notes (text by Goyen) for Willa Cather's MY ANTONIA and Ralph Ellison's INVISIBLE MAN 9 WONDERFUL PLANT (1980), novel, photocopy of Palaemon Press edition
5 1 Caram, Eve, copies of Goyen's letters, with Robert Phillips's correspondence, 1980-1982 2 Gibbons, Reginald, 1979-1983 3 Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, 1974-1983, and related material 4-5 Jones, Margo, photocopies, 1945-1955 6 Porter, Katherine Anne, photocopies, 1947-1951 7 Rice University, 1969-1979 8 Southern, Carol, photocopies, 1982-1983
9 Articles, obits, reviews, etc. 10 DICTIONARY OF LITERARY BIOGRAPHY, re Goyen entry 11 THE HANDBOOK OF TEXAS, 1984-1985, with typescripts of Goyen article 12 Interview for MASQUES, Summer 1982, full and edited typescripts Inventories 13 1983, Gibbons 14 1984, Nancy Escher 6 1 MID-AMERICAN REVIEW, vol. 13, no. 1, 1992, issue on Goyen
2 re Goyen's script "Aimee," 1990 3 Caram, Eve, 1984-1987 4 Davis, Clark, and others re Goyen book projects, 1993-2004 5 Haber, Gary, 1984-1985 Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center 6 1983-1988, Decherd Turner 7-8 1990-1999 9 Hoffman, Mary-Pat, 1987-1995 10 Horvath, Brooke, and others re A GOYEN COMPANION (1997) 11 ICM (Jed Mattes, Roberta Pryor), 1981-1988 7 1 MID-AMERICAN REVIEW, 1990-1993 2 Miller, Steve (Red Ozier Press), 1983-1985 3-4 Permissions, 1989-1994 5 Phillips, Robert, 1983-2004 6-7 Repusseau, Patrice, 1982-2004 8 Rice University, Fondren Library, 1984-1985 8 1 Roberts, Doris, 1984-1996 2 Serpent's Tail Press, 1987 3 Spender, Stephen, 1993, with typescript introduction to SELECTED LETTERS FROM A WRITER'S LIFE 4-5 THE TEXAS HUMANIST, 1983-1986 6 University of Chicago Press, 1985 7-8 University of Texas Press, 1984-1994 9 Vaughn, Sam (Doubleday), 1984-1985 10 Welty, Eudora, 1984 11-12 Various correspondents, 1982-1999
Typescripts, corrections, and proofs 9 1-2 Unedited top copy 3-4 Full interview with corrections and marks for first cuts 5 First revision 6-7 Second revision 8 Edited version sent to McGrath, January 1987 10 1 Des Pres corrections 2 McGrath corrections 3-4 Page proofs
5 ACM interview, "Thomas McGrath: A Conversation" 6-8 Gibbons, Reginald, especially letters from McGrath, 1987-1988 11 1 Gibbons, Reginald, cont'd 2 Levine, Philip 3 McGrath, Alice. "The Education of Alice McGrath," oral history interview by Michael Balter, 1987 4 Stern, Frederick C. 5 Thompson, E. P. University of Illinois, re "Life and the Poem" 12 1-2 General 3 Permissions 4 Royalties 5 TRIQUARTERLY issue annotated for publication (1992) 6 Weiner, Josh
Reference queries to: reference@hrc.utexas.edu
Return to Finding Aids