Collection Summary
Karl Jay Shapiro Papers 1930-1963
1930-1963
MSS40790
Feinberg, Charles E., 1899-1988
Shapiro, Karl Jay, 1913-2000
170 items
13 containers
6 linear feet
English
Collection material in English
Manuscript Division, Library of Congress
Washington, D.C.
Collector. Writings, notebooks, printed
matter, photographs, a few items of correspondence and other papers pertaining chiefly
to the poetry of Karl Jay Shapiro collected by Feinberg.
Selected Search Terms
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the LC Catalog. They are grouped by name of person or organization, by subject or location, and by occupation and listed alphabetically.
People
Feinberg, Charles E., 1899-1988, collector.
Shapiro, Karl, 1913-2000. Karl Jay Shapiro papers in the Charles E. Feinberg collection. 1930-1963.
Subjects
American poetry.
Occupations
Collectors.
Provenance
The papers of Karl Jay Shapiro in the Charles E. Feinberg Collection were acquired by
the Library of Congress through gifts and deposits converted to a gift by Feinberg,
1970-1981.
Processing History
The Shapiro Papers in the Charles E. Feinberg Collection were processed in 1985. The
finding aid was revised in 2013.
Copyright Status
The status of copyright in the unpublished writings of Karl Jay Shapiro in the
Charles E. Feinberg Collection is governed by the Copyright Law of the United States
(Title 17, U.S.C.).
Access and Restrictions
The papers of Karl Jay Shapiro in the Charles E. Feinberg Collection are open to
research. Researchers are advised to contact the Manuscript Reading Room prior to
visiting. Many collections are stored off-site and advance notice is needed to
retrieve these items for research use.
Preferred Citation
Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information:
Container number, Karl Jay Shapiro Papers, Charles E. Feinberg Collection,
Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
Biographical Note
Karl Jay Shapiro
Date
Event
1913, Nov. 10
Born, Baltimore, Md.
1937
1939
Student, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md.
1941
1945
Served in United States Army
1944
Received grant, American Academy of Arts and Letters
1945
Awarded Pulitzer Prize in Poetry
Married Evelyn Katz (divorced 1967)
1946
1947
Consultant in poetry, Library of Congress
1948
1950
Associate professor of writing, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore,
Md.
1950
1956
Editor,
Poetry Magazine
1953
Published
Poems, 1940-1953.
New York: Random House
1953
1954
Guggenheim fellow
1956
1957
Fellow, Kenyon School of Letters
1956
1966
Professor of English, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebr.; editor,
Prairie Schooner
1960
Edited
American Poetry.
New York: Crowell
Published
In Defense of Ignorance.
New York: Random
House
1964
Published
The Bourgeois Poet.
New York: Random House
1965
Published with Robert Beum
A Prosody Handbook.
New York: Harper
& Row
1967
Married Teri Kovach (died 1982)
1968
Published
To Abolish Children, and Other Essays.
Chicago:
Quadrangle Books
1968
1985
Professor, University of California, Davis, Calif.
1969
Awarded Bollingen Prize in Poetry
1971
Published
Edsel
([New York:] B. Geis Associates
1973
Published
Selected Poems.
New York: Vintage Books
1978
Published
Collected Poems, 1948-1978.
New York: Random
House
1985
Married Sophie Wilkins
1987
Published
New & Selected Poems, 1940-1986.
University of
Chicago Press
1988
Published
The Younger Son.
Chapel Hill, N.C.:Algonquin Books of
Chapel Hill
1990
Published
Reports of My Death.
Chapel Hill, N.C.:Algonquin
Books of Chapel Hill
2000, May 14
Died, New York, N.Y.
Scope and Content Note
The papers of Karl Shapiro (1913-2000) in the collection of Charles E. Feinberg
(1899-1988) span the years 1930-1963 and consist of writings, notebooks, printed matter,
photographs, a few items of correspondence, and other papers collected by Feinberg
pertaining chiefly to Shapiro's poetry. Included are typescripts and drafts of Shapiro’s
poems and articles as well as print copies of published material.
The collection is arranged in folders with descriptions and numbers supplied by
Feinberg, largely in the order received. The papers are organized into four series: [
Writings File
](Write), [
Miscellany
](Misc), [
Printed Matter
](Print),
and [
Addition
](Add).
Arrangement of the Papers
This collection is arranged in four series:
-
[
Writings File, circa 1930s-1960s
](Write)
-
[
Miscellany, 1959
](Misc)
-
[
Printed Matter, 1940-1963
](Print)
-
[
Addition, 1960-1963
](Add)
Catalog Record: [https://lccn.loc.gov/mm82040790]
Container List
Container
Contents
1-8
Writings File, circa 1930s-1960s
circa 1930s-1960s
Drafts and annotated typescripts, work sheets, galleys, page proofs, notebooks, and other
material relating to the production of Shapiro’s writings.
Housed and described largely as received from Feinberg.
1
American Poetry Anthology
1
Book draft with notes
2
Galleys
3
"Poems of Good and Evil," Manuscript Notebooks,
1941, 1944
1941, 1944
3
Poems of a Jew
3
Make-up and presentation copy
3
Typescript, galleys, and page proofs
4
"What the Poet Knows," typescript
4
"The Brassai Show at the Art Institute,"
typescript
4
"The Critic in Spite of Himself," typescripts
(2 folders)
4
"Criticism," typescript
4
"Book Burial," Manuscript worksheets
4
"Criticism of the Censorship in Plato's
Republic, typescript
4
"The Death of Modernism," typescript
4
"The Deism of Thomas Jefferson," typescript
4
"Discards," typescript
4
"Dylan Thomas," typescript
4
A One Act Play with Interlude,
Manuscript notebook with typescript
4
"Essay on Rime," galley proof sheets
4
"Ezra Pound: The Scapegoat of Modern Poetry,"
two drafts with revisions, typescripts
4
"The Auden Forgeries & the Pound Index
(Failure of English Cleverness," typescript
4
"The First White Aboriginal," typescript
4
"Five Idols and a Conversationalist," typescript
5
Person, Place and Thing,
Galley
proof sheets
5
"Mind and Matter," typescript
5
"Nostalgia," song, music sheet
5
"Messias," manuscript worksheet and typescript
5
"Mark Twain's Notebook," typescript
5
"Majesty & Mystery of the Audience, A
Different Opinion," typescripts
5
"Jefferson," typescript
5
"The Jewish Writer in America," typescript
5
Lectures at Salzburg Seminar,
typescripts 1952-1953
1952-1953
5
"Phi Beta Kappa Talk: PEN Meeting (in Japan), 11
Feb. 1958," typescript
5
"In Defense of Ignorance," typescript
5
"Introduction," typescript. Polish Anthology
5
Correspondence on Copy Editing of
Defense
of Ignorance,
typescripts
5
"How Not to Stop Understanding Poetry,"
typescript
5
"Horace," typescript
5
Harcourt, Brace anthology,
Modern
American & British Poetry,
edited by Louis Untermeyer in
consultation with Shapiro and Richard Wilbur, manuscript and typescript,
1955
1955
5
Elliston Lectures, University of Cincinnati,
Cincinnati, Ohio, 1959
1959
5
"The Greatest Living Author, Henry Miller,"
typescript
5
Manuscript notebook
6
Proposed introduction to "Poems of a Jew,"
unused
6
"Poems of a Jew"
6
Typescripts
6
Review,
Jerusalem Post,
Mar. 1958
Mar. 1958
6
Clipping
6
"Appearances" ("The Poet Outside"), typescript
6
Poetry in 1956, typescript
6
"Poets and Psychologists," typescript
6
"Poets of the Cosmic Consciousness," typescript
6
"The Power of the Little Magazine," typescript
6
"Prosody as the Meaning," typescript
6
"Recent American Poetry," typescript
6
"The Retreat of W. H. Auden," first draft,
typescript
6
"The Silent Poem," typescript
6
"T. S. Eliot: The Death of Literary Judgment,"
typescripts, first draft, second draft and second draft revisions
6
"Editorial / Romanticism Comes Home," typescript
6
"She Served Them Well," typescript,
New
York Times Book Review,
1959
1959
6
"The Unemployed Magician or Thomas Hardy's
Haircut," typescript and page proofs
6
Japanese anthology, including "A Telescope for
the Emperor,” published volume in Japanese
6
"The Unemployed Magician," typescript
6
"V-Letter and Other Poems," typescript and
galley proofs
7
"W. B. Yeats: Trial by Culture," typescripts,
first draft and second draft with revisions
7
"What Is American Poetry?," typescript
7
"What Is Anti-Criticism?," typescript
7
"The Not-Word (What Is Not Poetry?)," typescript
7
"The Russian Revolution in American Education or
Teaching Modern Poetry," typescript
7
Elliston Lectures, University of Cincinnati,
Cincinnati, Ohio, 1959
1959
7
“William Carlos Williams, the True
Contemporary,” typescript
7
"The Writer on-Campus in America," typescript
7
Fletcher, J. G., autographed typed letter to
Shapiro
7
Williams, W. Carlos, typed letter signed to
Shapiro
7
Miller, Henry, letters to Shapiro
7
Williams, Oscar, autographed letters and
postcards signed, from Shapiro
7
"The Garden in Chicago," typescript
7
"Waiting for Pope," autographed manuscript
7
"A Modest Funeral," autographed manuscript and
worksheets
7
"The Farmer and the Poet," typescript
7
"Is Poetry an American Art?," manuscript
7
"The Contraband," typescript
7
"Photographs of the Poets," typescripts
7
"New Museum," typescript
7
"11 Minto," typescript; in Italian
7
"The Poetry Reading," typescript
7
"Calling the Child," typescript
7
"California Winter," typescript
8
Miscellany, 1959
1959
Proof sheets of a biography of Shapiro, correspondence, photographs,and printed
matter.
Housed and described largely as received from Feinberg.
8
Karl Shapiro: A Bibliography,
by
William White, proof sheets
8
Loan to American Academy of Arts. letter and
pamphlet
8
Loan to Shapiro exhibition, University of
Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio, correspondence
8
Photographs of exhibition at Wayne [State
University; Detroit, Mich. (?)]
8-9
Printed Matter, 1940-1963
1940-1963
Magazines, clippings, and musical score.
Housed and described largely as received from Feinberg.
8
Newspaper reviews, clippings
8
Libertinage,
1952
1952
8
Saturday Review,
27 Feb. 1960
27 Feb. 1960
8
Reporter, 9
June 1960
9
June 1960
8
Bitzaron /The Hebrew Monthly of
America,
(two copies, in Hebrew), Sept. 1958
Sept. 1958
8
The Tenor
by Hugo David Weisgall,
operatic score/libretto
8
Miscellaneous
(2 folders)
8
Beyond Criticism,
by Shapiro,
book
8
Poetry,
June 1960
June 1960
8
Galleria,
Sept.-Dec. 1958
Sept.-Dec. 1958
8
A Bibliography of Modern Prosody,
unbound sheets
8
Nebraska Alumnus,
Mar. 1960
Mar. 1960
8
American Judaism,
1960
1960
9
Hopkins Review
9
Summer 1949
9
Winter 1949
9
Comment,
Nov. 1940-winter 1947
Nov. 1940-winter 1947
9
Shenandoah,
summer 1963
summer 1963
9
Encounter,
May 1955
May 1955
9
Amepnka /American
Illustrated,
undated
(two issues, in Russian)
undated
10-13
Addition, 1960-1963
1960-1963
Typescripts and other production material of two books by Shapiro.
Arranged by title and therein type of material.
10
Writings
10
The Bourgeois Poet,
typescripts
(7 folders)
11
(4 folders)
12
In Defense of Ignorance
12
Title on notebook spine and publishers
schedule (dates) from inside front cover
12
Typescripts
12
Final drafts, carbons
(3 folders)
12
Typescripts, ribbon copies
(3 folders)
13
Galley proofs
(2 folders)
13
Miscellany