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Chard Powers Smith papers

 Collection
Call Number: YCAL MSS 324
Scope and Contents

The papers contain writings, correspondence, personal papers, photographs, and family papers of twentieth-century American writer Chard Powers Smith, who wrote in several genres including poetry, historical fiction, and literary analysis. The collection documents his career through drafts of his writings and through correspondence that reveals his personal and professional relationships with fellow writers, publishers, and literary organizations. The papers also contain information about his family, documenting not only his relationships with family members but also the lives of his parents and grandparents in nineteenth-century Watertown, New York. Smith’s experiences during World War I and his travels in Europe in the 1920s are documented through correspondence, autobiographical writings, photographs, and scrapbooks. His involvement in the Distributist and Agrarian movements of the 1930s is evidenced by correspondence, writings, and printed ephemera, and the collection also documents his involvement with the Society of Friends, or Quakers, particularly from the 1950s through the end of his life.

Conditions Governing Access

The materials are open for research.

Cold Storage (Photographic negatives): Restricted fragile material. For further information consult the appropriate curator.

Conditions Governing Use

The Chard Powers Smith Papers 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

Gift of Chard Powers Smith and Eunice Clark Smith, 1950-1989.

Arrangement

Organized into six series: I. Correspondence (1901-1978). II. Writings (circa 1922-1956, undated). III. Personal Papers (1759-1977). IV. Family Papers (1852-1965, undated). V. Subject Files and Printed Material (circa 1920s-1960s). VI. Photographs (circa 1870s-1960s).

Dates
1759 - 1978
Majority of material found within 1910 - 1977
Extent
92.5 Linear Feet (225 boxes)
Related Names
Smith, Chard Powers, 1894-1977
Language of Materials
English