Jean Starr Untermeyer papers

The Jean Starr Untermeyer Papers contain correspondence, photographs, book reviews, obituaries, poems, offprints, newspaper clippings, and miscellaneous papers. The materials span the years 1924 to 1970, with the bulk falling between 1940 and 1965. The collection consists of papers inserted in the books of Jean Starr Untermeyer's personal library. She gave and bequeathed her library to the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library in 1969 and 1971, respectively, in honor of her son who died at Yale University in 1927. She donated her personal papers to the library of the State University of New York at Buffalo.

The first section of the papers contains correspondence from others to Jean Starr Untermeyer. Much of this consists of letters and cards from aspiring poets, accompanying the gift of a recently published volume of poetry, such as those from Gladys Greene and Polly Hanson. There is also correspondence from publishers who have sent complimentary copies of books or express thanks for permission to reprint material, such as New Orlando Publications and Crown Publishers. Some letters seek advice, while others show appreciation for praise and encouragement, such as those from Max and Fanny Berman, Sue Abbott Boyd, and Hazel Hutchinson. A few simply contain greetings and news from friends, such as Alys Bentley, Bryher, Connie Carrier, Michel Farano, Nandor Fodor, Djane Hearst, Eric Mendelsohn, and Edith Sitwell. Folder 25 contains letters from the poet and critic Joel Keith. Letters from The Saturday Review and Simon and Schuster concern business matters.

The second section, Photographs , includes pictures of Hermann Broch, Michel Farano, Allen Tate, and Jean Starr Untermeyer, along with photographs of her childhood home in Zanesville, Ohio.

The third section, Miscellaneous Papers , includes book reviews of Bryher's The Player's Boy and Edith Sitwell's autobiography Taken Care Of, obituaries of Nandor Fodor, a controversial psychoanalyst, and Erich Kahler, cultural historian and close friend of Hermann Broch, along with offprints of articles by Lancelot Law Whyte, and poems translated by Untermeyer. Folder 48 contains an epistolary biography of Carl Heinrich Hertz, a German officer in World War I, who was killed in 1918.