Scope and Content Note
The papers of John Anthony Ciardi span the years 1910-1997, with the bulk of the items concentrated in the period between 1960 and 1985. The collection, which focuses on Ciardi's work as a poet, editor, literary critic, lecturer, and journalist, is made up of three parts. Part I consists of two series: Writings and Subject File . Part II consists of four series: General Correspondence , Professional File , Writings , and Subject File . Part III also consists of four series: General Correspondence , Professional File , Writings , and Subject File . Included in the papers are advertisements, biographical material, contracts, correspondence, newspaper clippings, notes, photographs, press releases, research material, and royalty statements as well as drafts, proofs, and printed versions of articles and essays, aphorisms, book reviews, books, columns, etymological dictionaries, limericks, plays, poems, poetry reviews, radio and television scripts, and speeches and lectures. A few of the items are in Italian.
Part I
The Writings series in Part I contains articles and essays on various topics, drafts, notes, and proofs from five of Ciardi's books, including You Read to Me, I'll Read to You and his translation of Paradiso, writings from his Saturday Review column “Manner of Speaking,” and numerous poems.
The Subject File contains biographical material as well as items relating to art exhibitions, censorship, English language instruction, plagiarism, and speaking engagements.
Part II
Part II consists of material organized in four series. The first series, General Correspondence , principally covers the period of the 1950s and 1960s during which Ciardi was director of the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference and poetry editor at Saturday Review magazine. Prominent correspondents include writers and poets, publishers, and others influential in American culture, such as Leonie Adams, Norman Cousins, Richard Eberhardt, Dudley Fitts, Robert Frost, John Holmes, Dan Jaffe, X. J. Kennedy, Alfred Kreymborg, Archibald MacLeish, John Frederick Nims, Theodore Roethke, Muriel Rukeyser, Winfield Townley Scott, William Sloane, May Swenson, and Richard Wilbur. The series primarily documents Ciardi's activities at Saturday Review. In addition to exchanges between Ciardi and Norman Cousins, managing editor of the magazine, regarding operational policy and procedures, the correspondence also includes reader responses, poems and essays submitted for publication, and literary controversies, such as Ciardi's review of Anne Morrow Lindbergh's collection of poems, The Unicorn, and his debate with Lord Dunsany concerning the state of contemporary poetry. Additional correspondence may be found in Selected Letters of John Ciardi, a published collection of letters to and from Ciardi from 1935 through 1986.
The Professional File reflects Ciardi's association with colleges and universities, the publishing industry, educational television, the promotion of writing and poetry, public speaking, and audio recordings. His years as a college professor are documented in files on Harvard College, Rutgers University, and the University of Missouri at Kansas City. His tenure at Saturday Review is covered in files by that name. His work as editor of poetry and science fiction at Twayne Publishers is also chronicled in the series. A sizable file of correspondence, primarily between Ciardi and Jacob Steinberg, managing editor and cofounder of the company, documents the establishment and operation of the publishing firm in its early years. Although “Unity of the Arts,” Ciardi's 1958 proposal for an educational television series, failed to receive sponsorship, in 1961-1962 he did have a successful run with “Accent,” which he hosted and narrated on the CBS Television Network. Both of these activities are documented in the Professional File.
Ciardi promoted the training of writers and poets through his participation in writing conferences and his twenty-five-year involvement with the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, seventeen of which he served as its director. His frequent public speaking engagements are noted in files related to general conferences, the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, and Harry Walker, Inc., the speakers bureau which represented Ciardi. Ciardi was also involved with several companies which produced recordings of him reading his own poems and those of others. These activities are chronicled in files on Folkway Records, Harcourt, Brace & World, and the Library of Congress.
Poetry constitutes the largest section of the Writings series in Part II . His column, “Manner of Speaking,” appeared in Saturday Review for over a decade. Ciardi published over four dozen books, particularly collections of poetry and essays. There is also material related to his work during a twenty-year period in which he translated Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy. He published each part as he finished translating it and then published all three in a complete edition. Ciardi's program on National Public Radio, “A Word in Your Ear,” is documented in radio scripts in the series. His pedagogical activities are reflected in files on anthologies and textbooks. The series also contains writings by others, many of which were complimentary copies from writers, poets, and playwrights who were friends of Ciardi, while other material was submitted by strangers for review or publication. Among these are a draft of Fletcher Pratt's proposed fourth biographical volume on Napoleon Bonaparte, a photocopy of Archibald MacLeish's director's copy of J.B.: A Play in Verse, poems by Richard Eberhard, John Holmes, Selwyn Schwartz, and Peter Viereck, a radioscript by Studs Terkel, and a short story by Stephen Vincent Benét.
The Subject File consists of awards, interviews, obituaries, military service records, newspaper clippings, painting and sculpture catalogs, photographs, material on Ciardi's student days at Bates College and Tufts University, and numerous writings about him. The series includes files on Ciardi's support for Henry Wallace and the Progressive Party in the 1947 presidential election, literary censorship, cancellation of speaking engagements at racially segregated conferences in Alabama and Mississippi during the 1960s, and the House Internal Security Committee which labeled him a “radical speaker” during the campus unrest of the 1960s. Additional files document Ciardi's fellowship from the American Academy in Rome in 1957, his membership in the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, and his involvement with the College English Association.
Part III
Part III consists of material organized in four series. The General Correspondence series principally covers the years 1961-1962 and documents Ciardi's work as poetry editor at Saturday Review. Prominent correspondents include George Abbe, Roy P. Basler, Norman Cousins, J. Frank Dobie, Richard Eberhardt, Dudley Fitts, John Holmes, Archibald MacLeish, Robert Pack, and Henry F. Thoma. Subjects in the correspondence include discussions between Norman Cousins and Ciardi regarding editorial matters, proposed literary projects with colleagues, reader response, and material submitted for publication.
The Professional File chronicles Ciardi's activities as a television personality, public speaker, magazine editor, and a poetry reader for commercial sound recordings. From 1961 through 1962 Ciardi was the host and narrator of “Accent,” a documentary series on the CBS Television Network, and files under this heading contain ideas for shows, scripts, and an essay by Ciardi summarizing the cancellation of the series. Files related to Harry Walker, Inc., contain Ciardi's itineraries and expense accounts, reflecting his career as a public speaker. Many of his reviews of phonograph records are included in files related to the Saturday Review. Ciardi's recordings are also noted in the series.
Poetry covering a wide range of subjects constitutes the major portion of the material in the Writings series of Part III . Articles, essays, and columns are also included, particularly Ciardi's column in the Saturday Review. The files also document many of Ciardi's collections of poetry and essays, such as Dialogue with an Audience, In Fact, and Person to Person. Material related to his translation of Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy is contained in the series as well. Representative of Ciardi's collections of children's poems are files on An Alphabestiary, I Met a Man, The King Who Saved Himself from Being Saved, The Man Who Sang the Sillies, and The Monster Den. In addition, there is material relating to limericks and textbooks as well as writing by others.
The Subject File reflects Ciardi's varied interests and activities. Ciardi's appearance as a witness in the trial regarding William Burrough's Naked Lunch is documented in a file on censorship. His cancellation of a speaking engagement at a racially segregated teachers' conference in Alabama in 1961 is chronicled in the Alabama Education Association file. His service as a consultant to the Special Committee on Student Publications is detailed in a Tufts University file. His interest in modern art is reflected in painting and sculpture catalogs he collected over the years. Samples of his own artistic renderings are found in the drawings file. Additional subjects include the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters and the Garden State Choral Society.