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:
Bangs family papers
Collection
Call Number: YCAL MSS 47
Overview:
Scrapbooks, manuscripts, diaries. letters, and personal papers documenting the lives and careers of American humorist John Kendrick Bangs and his son, Francis Hyde Bangs.
Dates:
1881-1964
Wilmarth Sheldon Lewis Papers
Collection
Call Number: LWL MSS 20
Overview:
The Wilmarth Sheldon Lewis Papers consists of correspondence, writings, financial records, and other papers documenting the personal and professional activities and interests of the American author, editor, and collector Wilmarth Lewis and his wife Annie Burr Lewis. At their home in Farmington, Connecticut, the Lewises created a world-renowned collection of eighteenth-century print, graphic, and manuscript material related to the English author, connoisseur, and collector Horace Walpole...
Dates:
1800-1980, bulk 1926-1979
Found in:
Lewis Walpole Library
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Wilmarth Sheldon Lewis Papers
Myers family papers
Collection
Call Number: YCAL MSS 27
Overview:
The papers contain correspondence with family, friends, and acquaintances, plus a variety of personal papers, including obituaries, letters of sympathy, diaries, and scrapbooks documenting the lives of Richard E. and Alice Lee Myers and their children. Prominent correspondents include Stephen Vincent Benét, Nadia Boulanger, Grace Flandrau, John Gielgud, Charlotte Kett, Archibald MacLeish, and Gerald Murphy.
Dates:
1908-1986
Yale in World War II collection
Collection
Call Number: MS 1212
Overview:
The collection consists of printed matter, reports, correspondence, memoranda, radio scripts, memorabilia, scrapbooks and clippings documenting some of the activities at Yale University and of the individual colleges during World War II. Letters from Yale men in the services, both in the United States and abroad, to officials of the university make up a substantial part of the collection. Also included are correspondence and financial documents of the "Yale Library Project," a military...
Dates:
1938-1946