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Edmund Clarence Stedman Collection

 Collection
Call Number: YCAL MSS 1008

Scope and Contents

The collection documents the professional literary work and personal life of the writer Edmund Clarence Stedman. It includes incoming and outgoing correspondence with fellow writers and editors, with publishers, and with friends and family. A small number of autograph manuscripts of his writings are present. The collection also contains papers of and correspondence among Stedman's extended family, including his mother Elizabeth Kinney; his wife Laura Hyde Woodworth Stedman; his son Frederick Stedman; Frederick's wife Ellen Douglas Stedman; and the Douglas family. Correspondence and papers of Frederick Stedman's daughter, Laura Woodworth Stedman Gould Dees, who served as literary executor for her grandfather, chiefly concern E.C. Stedman's work and legacy.

Dates

  • circa 1860-1915

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

The materials are open for research.

Conditions Governing Use

The Edmund Clarence Stedman Collection is 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

Acquired by gift and purchase from various sources. Source information is recorded in the finding aid when known. For further information, consult the appropriate curator.

Arrangement

Arranged in the order in which the library maintained the collection from its inception in the 1940s. Items and groups of items were numbered by the library between the 1940s-1962; the collection remains in this numerical order.

Extent

1.67 Linear Feet (5 boxes)

Language of Materials

English

Catalog Record

A record for this collection is available in Orbis, the Yale University Library catalog

Persistent URL

https://hdl.handle.net/10079/fa/beinecke.stedmanec

Biographical/Historical note

Edmund Clarence Stedman was born in Hartford, Connecticut, on October 8, 1833, the son of Edmund Burke Stedman, a lumber merchant, and Elizabeth Clementine (Dodge) Stedman, a poet. He attended Yale College for two years, and then began a career as a journalist in New York. During the Civil War he served as Washington Correspondent for the New York World, but after the war resigned this position and bought a seat on the New York Stock Exchange. Concurrent with his career in banking, Stedman devoted himself to poetry and literary criticism. Major editorial works include Victorian Poets (1875) and Poets of America (1885).

Stedman married Laura Hyde Woodworth in 1853. They had two sons, Frederick and Arthur. His granddaughter Laura Woodworth Stedman served as Stedman’s secretary in the last years of his life, and later as his literary executor. Stedman died of a heart attack on January 18, 1908.

Processing Information

Collections are processed to a variety of levels, depending on the work necessary to make them usable, their perceived research value, the availability of staff, competing priorities, and whether or not further accruals are expected. The library attempts to provide a basic level of preservation and access for all collections, and does more extensive processing of higher priority collections as time and resources permit.

This finding aid was produced in 2015 from a previously existing card set in the Manuscripts Catalog and from information written on the folders from which items were transferred into standard acid-free folders. All pertinent bibliographical information has been retained.

Title
Edmund Clarence Stedman Collection
Status
Under Revision
Author
Beinecke Staff
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description note
Finding aid written in English.

Part of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library Repository

Contact:
P. O. Box 208330
New Haven CT 06520-8330 US
(203) 432-2977

Location

121 Wall Street
New Haven, CT 06511

Opening Hours

Access Information

The Beinecke Library is open to all Yale University students and faculty, and visiting researchers whose work requires use of its special collections. You will need to bring appropriate photo ID the first time you register. Beinecke is a non-circulating, closed stack library. Paging is done by library staff during business hours. You can request collection material online at least two business days in advance of your visit, using the request links in Archives at Yale. For more information, please see Planning Your Research Visit and consult the Reading Room Policies prior to visiting the library.