The papers of Daniel Hoffman (1923-2013) span the years 1918 to 2012, with the bulk of the material dating from 1946 to 2012. The collection documents Hoffman’s career as a poet, scholar, and literary critic and his personal relationships with family members and fellow writers. The papers are primarily in English, with some French and Hungarian. The collection is organized into seven series: Personal; Published Works; Professional Correspondence and Academic File; Literary Correspondence; Literary Reference and Research Material; Working Poems; and Unpublished Works

The collection documents Hoffman’s work as a writer of poetry and prose, and as a professor of English, primarily at the University of Pennsylvania. Materials include working drafts of published and unpublished writings, correspondence with publishers and fellow writers, research files, and documentation of his work as a critic and professor. Hoffman was an active participant in the world of poetry and corresponded with writers from many literary movements, including W. H. Auden, John Berryman, Elizabeth Bishop, Hayden Carruth, James Dickey, Richard Eberhart, Allen Ginsberg, Robert Graves, Anthony Hecht, Ted Hughes, Galway Kinnell, Maxine Kumin, Laura Riding, Stanley Kunitz, Denise Levertov, Robert Lowell, William Meredith, James Merrill, W. S. Merwin, Marianne Moore, Theodore Roethke, Philip Roth, Karl Shapiro, W. D. Snodgrass, Gary Snyder, John Updike, Mark Van Doren, Robert Penn Warren, Richard Wilbur, and William Carlos Williams. Notable among his correspondence are letters from Snyder describing the emergence of the Beat Generation; letters and postcards from Eberhart, including several typescripts of his poems; letters from Warren, Hoffman’s longtime friend, with Warren’s hand-edits to a section of Hoffman’s poem, Brotherly Love; several letters from Riding and Graves about comments Hoffman made regarding their relationship in Shenandoah magazine; a letter from Roethke sent to Elizabeth McFarland, as poetry editor at Ladies’ Home Journal, with four poem typescripts; and a letter from Ginsberg written on the back of his typed speech given at a National Book Award gathering. Also included are letters from Auden confirming Hoffman’s selection for the Yale Younger Poets series and recommending him for a Guggenheim Fellowship.

The collection’s series are listed and briefly described below. A fuller description of each series and a list of its contents can be accessed in the series descriptions within the container list.

The Personal series contains correspondence with Hoffman’s friends and family, family photographs, and Hoffman’s personal journals containing notes, research and drafts of poems.

The Published Works series contains page proofs, manuscript drafts, correspondence, research files, and reviews of Hoffman’s books.

The Professional Correspondence and Academic File series contains records of Hoffman’s activities as a faculty member at Swarthmore College and the University of Pennsylvania, his work as a translator of Hungarian poetry, correspondence with publishers, documentation of his involvement in various professional organizations, and writings and correspondence with students and emerging writers.

The Literary Correspondence series contains professional and personal correspondence with fellow writers from a variety of poetry movements.

The Literary Reference and Research Material series contains correspondence and subject files compiled by Hoffman containing notes and clippings relating to various writers and subjects.

The Working Poems series contains drafts of published and unpublished poems, and correspondence related to publication.

The Unpublished Works series contains drafts of unpublished poetry and prose, and correspondence related to publication.