- Scope and Contents
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The William Force Stead Papers document the literary career, personal life, and religious vocation of poet, clergyman and scholar William Force Stead. The papers include personal and professional correspondence; writings; notebooks, personal papers and photographs; printed material; and documents relating to Stead's work as Honorary Secretary of the Keats-Shelley Memorial Association.
Series I through Series VI contain material acquired in 1969 and organized shortly thereafter into six series, while Series VII through X contain post-1969 acquisitions in order of acquisition, and Series XI contains printed material acquired at various times during the 1970s. For some types of material, therefore, it is necessary to consult several series.Correspondence is located in Series I, Correspondence, as well as in Series VII through Series X, while Stead's writings are located in Series II, Series III, and Series VII and Series X. Many of the items in Series XI, Printed Materials, are also works by Stead.
Correspondence includes extensive and detailed family correspondence with Stead's father, brother, and wife, Anne Frances Goldsborough Stead; letters from a number of English literary figures, including Edmund Blunden, T. S. Eliot, Frank Morley, Lady Ottoline Morrell, and W. B.Yeats, and English composer Henry Vere Fitzroy Somerset; and letters from a variety of scholarly and religious colleagues on personal and professional subjects. The Stead Papers also contain notes, drafts, and manuscripts and typescripts for many of Stead's works, particularly his poetry and his religious meditations; folders with titles beginning with "Stead" in Series II appear to contain draft chapters of an unpublished memoir. Other material of biographical interest includes several boxes of diaries; papers relating to Stead's consular service; and school notebooks, found in Series IV, as well as additional personal and family documentation in Series VII through Series X. - Conditions Governing Access
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The materials are open for research.
Box 68 (film reel): ‡a Restricted fragile material. For further information consult the appropriate curator. - Conditions Governing Use
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The William Force Stead Papers are the physical property of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University. Literary rights, including copyright, belong to the authors or their legal heirs and assigns. For further information, consult the appropriate curator.
- Immediate Source of Acquisition
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Series I-VI purchased from Dom Julian Stead, and purchased from Wesleyan University Library, 1969; Series VII gift of Dom Julian Stead, 1974; Series VIII transferred from the Manuscript Department, University of Virginia Library, 1975; Series IX purchased from Frank Shivers, 1978; Series X gift of Dom Julian Stead, 1978.
T. S. Eliot letter to W. F. Stead, 1930 December 2, purchased from Gotham Book Mart, 1969. - Arrangement
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Organized into 11 series: I. Correspondence, 1900-1972. II. Writings, 1899-1963. III. Notebooks, 1876-1955. IV. Personal Papers, 1891-1967. V. Photographs, 1910-1935. VI. Keats-Shelley Memorial Association Papers, 1906-1950. VII. November 1974 Acquisition, 1848-1968. VIII. October 1975 Acquisition, 1978, undated. IX. May 1978 Acquisition, 1922-1948. X. December 1978 Acquisition, 1859-1960. XI. Printed Materials, 1900-1960.
- Dates
- 1859 - 1968
- Majority of material found within 1900 - 1940
- Extent
- 32.83 Linear Feet (75 boxes)
- Related Names
- Stead, William Force, 1884-1967
- Language of Materials
- English