Scope and Contents
The Peter Davison Papers provide evidence of the career and personal life of author and editor Peter Davison. In addition to documenting Davison's professional and literary circles, the papers also provide insight into Davison's creative output, including his books of poetry (such as The Breaking of the Day and Other Poems and Walking the Boundaries: Poems, 1957-1974) and his autobiography (Half Remembered: A Personal History). The papers are comprised of business and personal correspondence, writings, 1 audio compact disk, photographs, personal papers, and other papers by or relating to Peter Davison.
Dates
- circa 1938-2005
Creator
Conditions Governing Access
The materials are open for research.
Box 16 (CD): Restricted Fragile Material. Reference copies of electronic files may be requested. Consult Access Services for further information.
Conditions Governing Use
The Peter Davison 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 Peter Davison, 2007.
Arrangement
Organized into five series: I. Correspondence, 1941-2002. Series II. Personal and Family Papers, 1938-1950s. Series III. Professional Papers, 1954-1995. Series IV. Writings, 1957-2003. Series V. Other Papers, 1970s-2005.
Extent
15.21 Linear Feet (16 boxes)
Language of Materials
English
Catalog Record
A record for this collection is available in Orbis, the Yale University Library catalog
Persistent URL
Abstract
The Peter Davison Papers provide evidence of the career and personal life of author and editor Peter Davison. In addition to documenting Davison's professional and literary circles, the papers also provide insight into Davison's creative output, including his books of poetry (such as The Breaking of the Day and Other Poems and Walking the Boundaries: Poems, 1957-1974) and his autobiography (Half Remembered: A Personal History). The papers are comprised of business and personal correspondence, writings, 1 audio compact disk, photographs, personal papers, and other papers by or relating to Peter Davison.
Peter Davison (1928-2004)
Davison was a poet and literary editor for the Atlantic Monthly Press and Atlantic Monthly. He was born on June 27, 1928 in New York City to Edward and Natalie Weiner Davison. He began his editorial career at Harcourt, Brace in New York after graduating from Harvard University in 1949. In 1956 Davison joined the Atlantic Monthly Press where he worked in several capacities, including executive editor, director, and senior editor, until 1985. From 1985 to 1998 Davison was the poetry editor for Houghton Mifflin.
Davison maintained a writing career in tandem with his career as a literary editor. He published several books of poetry in addition to his autobiography Half Remembered: A Personal History (1973). His books of poetry include: The Breaking of the Day and Other Poems (1964), Walking the Boundaries: Poems, 1957-1974 (1974), and Breathing Room: New Poems (2000). Davison also edited One of the Dangerous Trades: Essays on the Work and Workings of Poetry (1991) and The Fading Smile: Poets in Boston, 1955-1960, from Robert Frost to Robert Lowell to Sylvia Plath (1994).
Davison married Jane Auchincloss Truslow, a writer, on March 7, 1959. They had two children: Edward Angus and Lesley Truslow. Following his first wife's death in 1981, Davison married the architect Joan Edelman Goody on August 11, 1984.
Davison died of pancreatic cancer on December 29, 2004 in Boston, Massachusetts.
Processing Information
This collection received a basic level of processing, including rehousing and in some instances minimal organization.
The finding aid for this collection is compiled from a preliminary list for the acquisition that was created at or around the time of receipt by the library. The preliminary list was migrated to comply with current archival descriptive standards and merged into a single file in 2007-2008. As part of the migration, modifications were made to the formatting of the list; however, the content of the list was neither modified nor verified.
As a rule, descriptive information found in the Collection Contents section is drawn in large part from information supplied with the collection and from an initial survey of the contents. Folder titles appearing in the contents list below are often based on those provided by the creator or previous custodian. Titles have not been verified against the contents of the folders in all cases. Otherwise, folder titles are supplied by staff during initial processing.
Former call number: Uncat MSS 949.
This finding aid may be updated periodically to account for new acquisitions to the collection and/or revisions in arrangement and description.
- American literature -- 20th century
- Atlantic Monthly Press
- Authors, American -- 20th Century -- Archives
- Born digital
- Coles, Robert, 1929-
- Davison, Peter, 1928-2004
- Editors -- United States
- Electronic documents
- Ford, Jesse Hill, 1928-1996
- O'Connor, Edwin
- Photographs
- Publishers and publishing -- United States
- Swenson, May, 1913-1989
- Title
- Guide to the Peter Davison Papers
- Author
- by Beinecke staff
- Date
- 2007-05-15
- 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
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.