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 4 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
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
Harry Roskolenko collection
Collection
Call Number: YCAL MSS 142
Overview:
The collection consists of correspondence and writings of American writer Harry Roskolenko. Correspondents include William Carlos Williams, Marianne Moore, Carl Sandburg, Katharine Anne Porter, John Dos Passos, Dwight Macdonald, William Saroyan, Wallace Stevens, Cleanth Brooks, Archibald MacLeish, Lewis Mumford, John Wheelwright, and James Laughlin, among other American poets, editors, critics, and publishers.Writings include a manuscript poem titled "Perfidious Albion," a...
Dates:
1933-1952
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