MacLeish, Archibald, 1892-1982
Person
Dates
- Existence: 1892 - 1982
Archibald MacLeish, poet, playwright, and government official, was born on May 7, 1892, in Glencoe, Illinois. He graduated from Yale in 1915, entered Harvard Law School, and married Ada Hitchcock in 1916. After the United States entered World War I, he enlisted as a private in the army, served in the artillery in France, and was discharged with the rank of captain. He graduated from Harvard Law School in 1919 and the next year joined the Boston law firm of Choate, Hall, and Stewart. In 1923 the MacLeish family moved to Paris, where they remained for five years. After returning to the United States, he travelled to Mexico to follow the route of Cortez's army in preparation for writing Conquistador.
During the 1930s MacLeish was an editor of Fortune magazine. He served as Librarian of Congress, 1939-44, Assistant Secretary of State for Public and Cultural Affairs, 1944-45, and Boylston Professor of Rhetoric and Poetry at Harvard University, 1949-62. MacLeish's poetry and dramatic writings earned him Pulitizer Prizes in 1932, 1952, and 1959, the Bollingen Prize and the National Book Award for poetry in 1953, the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977, and the National Medal for Literature in 1978. Archibald MacLeish died in Boston on April 20, 1982.
His major works of poetry include Tower of Ivory (1917), The Pot of Earth (1925), The Hamlet of A. MacLeish (1928), New Found Land (1930), Conquistador (1932), America Was Promises (1939), Collected Poems, 1917-1952 (1952), and Songs for Eve (1954). MacLeish also wrote several plays, some of the most important being Panic (1935), The Fall of the City (1937), Air Raid (1938), J.B. (1958), Herakles (1967), and Scratch (1971). Counted among his works of prose are A Time to Speak (1941), The American Story (1944), Poetry and Experience, (1960), and A Continuing Journey (1968).
During the 1930s MacLeish was an editor of Fortune magazine. He served as Librarian of Congress, 1939-44, Assistant Secretary of State for Public and Cultural Affairs, 1944-45, and Boylston Professor of Rhetoric and Poetry at Harvard University, 1949-62. MacLeish's poetry and dramatic writings earned him Pulitizer Prizes in 1932, 1952, and 1959, the Bollingen Prize and the National Book Award for poetry in 1953, the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977, and the National Medal for Literature in 1978. Archibald MacLeish died in Boston on April 20, 1982.
His major works of poetry include Tower of Ivory (1917), The Pot of Earth (1925), The Hamlet of A. MacLeish (1928), New Found Land (1930), Conquistador (1932), America Was Promises (1939), Collected Poems, 1917-1952 (1952), and Songs for Eve (1954). MacLeish also wrote several plays, some of the most important being Panic (1935), The Fall of the City (1937), Air Raid (1938), J.B. (1958), Herakles (1967), and Scratch (1971). Counted among his works of prose are A Time to Speak (1941), The American Story (1944), Poetry and Experience, (1960), and A Continuing Journey (1968).
Found in 5 Collections and/or Records:
Stephen Vincent Benét and Rosemary Benét papers
Collection
Call Number: YCAL MSS 1046
Scope and Contents:
The Stephen Vincent Benét and Rosemary Benét papers consist of correspondence, manuscripts, printed material, and personal and family papers documenting the life and work of American authors Stephen Vincent Benét and Rosemary Benét. The collection spans the years 1829 to 1962, with the bulk of the collection dating from roughly 1910 to 1943.
Collection material is chiefly in English; with some material in French, German, Polish, and Swedish.
Collection material is chiefly in English; with some material in French, German, Polish, and Swedish.
Dates:
1829-1962, bulk 1920-1943
James Joseph Daly papers
Collection
Call Number: YCAL MSS 649
Overview:
Collection contains correspondence, writings, and personal papers documenting the life and professional activity of poet and playwright James Joseph Daly. Correspondence in the collection consists chiefly of incoming correspondence from writers, journal editors, publishers, and others, but also includes drafts and carbons of outgoing letters and writings and enclosures. Correspondents include Elizabeth Ames at Yaddo, Kenneth Burke, John Cheever, Padraic Colum, Malcolm Cowley at The New...
Dates:
1916-1949
Robert Fitzgerald papers
Collection
Call Number: YCAL MSS 222
Overview:
Series I, Correspondence, consists chiefly of incoming personal and professional correspondence and family correspondence. The collection is particularly rich for its correspondence with poets, editors, translators, publishers, and literary scholars and critics during the middle part of the 20th century. There are letters from many well-known poets writing in English during this period, including W.H. Auden, John Berryman, Elizabeth Bishop, Louise Bogan, James Dickey, T.S. Eliot, Seamus Heaney,...
Dates:
1892-1986
Archibald MacLeish Collection Addition
Collection
Call Number: YCAL MSS 269
Overview:
The Archibald MacLeish Collection Addition consists of material related to the life and career of the American poet Archibald MacLeish received by the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library after the processing of the Archibald MacLeish Collection acquired in 1976. The Addition consists of correspondence, manuscripts, photographs, personal papers, and sound recordings documenting MacLeish and his family between 1801 and 1995.
Dates:
1801-1995
Robert Penn Warren papers
Collection
Call Number: YCAL MSS 51
Overview:
The papers consist of drafts of manuscripts and related material, correspondence, photographs, and newspaper clippings documenting Warren's life from his undergraduate years until his death in 1989.
Dates:
1906-1989