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Robert Francis Papers

An inventory of his papers at Syracuse University


Finding aid created by: RT
Date: 24 Jan 1969

Biographical History

Robert Francis (1901-1987) was an American poet and author.

Born in Upland, Pennsylvania in 1901, the son of Ebenezer Francis, a minister, his childhood was spent in towns in New Jersey and New York states until 1910, when the family moved to Massachusetts. Francis graduated from Harvard College (B.A., 1923) and then taught in the preparatory school of the American University of Beirut, Lebanon, for a year. He returned to attend Harvard University, where he received an Ed. M., followed by a year of teaching high school English in Amherst (1926).

Francis began writing "with a view to publication" about the time he moved to Amherst. By living economically and by doing all his own chores, he has been able to live without salaried positions and to devote much of his time to writing. He held occasional positions as a violin teacher, as an English teacher at Mount Holyoke College, and as a teacher at summer writers' conferences. In 1940, Francis moved alone in a one-man house called Fort Juniper, in Amherst, Massachusetts and subsequently adopted the juniper as his "coat-of- arms."

Francis received numerous awards over his career, including the Shelly Memorial Award and the Golden Rose of the New England Poetry Club. He held fellowships at the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference and in Rome from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His poems have appeared in Saturday Review, The New Yorker, Forum, Yankee, and other national literary magazines. His prose works include We Fly Away (1948), The Satirical Rogue on Poetry (1968), and The Trouble With Francis (1971). His six volumes of poetry include Come Out Into the Sun (1965), The Orb Weaver (1960), The Face Against the Glass (1950), The Sound I Listened For (1943, 1944), Valhalla and Other Poems (1938), and Stand With Me Here (1936). Other works include Rome Without Camera (1958) and What a Witch Told Me (1956).

Scope and Contents of the Collection

The Robert Francis Papers contain biographical material, correspondence, writings, and recordings. Notices of awards for Mr. Francis's poetry, published material about personal appearances, biographical material, 1939-1967.

Biographical materialcontains a folder of awards, and correspondence about awards, won by Francis, and a small amount of correspondence between Francis amd his publisher(s) and archives where his work is held.

Correspondence includes both incoming and outgoing. Here are letters to critics, words of congratulation and criticism about Francis's books of poetry, correspondence with fellow writers, and personal letters between friends. Notable correspondents include the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Borestone Mountain Poetry Awards, Gerald Warner Brace, Robert Frost, John Holmes, Houghton Mifflin Company, Amy Lowell Poetry Traveling Scholarship, The Massachusetts Review, Theodore Morrison, David Morton, New England Poetry Club, and Mary P. Sears Trust.

Writings contains notes, drafts, worksheet, original typescripts and manuscripts, published items, book reviews and so on, pertainining to Francis's books, essays, and poetry. Books include poetry collections, novels, and an autobiography. Essays consists primarily of newspaper clippings of columns written for the "Home Forum Page" of the Christian Science Monitor; in some cases the clippings are interspersed with letters from readers in response to particular pieces. Poetry contains worksheets and drafts for poems not included in any of his published collections. Francis' writings are also present im Published material, below.

Writings about contains a typescript carbon, in English, of a lengthy essay on Francis's poetry by a French scholar.

Published material contains issues of Forum that contain contributions by Francis, a Harvard Film Service catalogue listing several recordings of Francis reading his poetry, "Magazines containing poems not included in my volume," and a volume of American poetry which contains six pieces by Francis. There is also considerable published material in Writings, above.

Recordings contains four audiorecordings of Francis reading his poetry, issued by Harvard University under their Harvard Vocarium label.

Arrangement of the Collection

Correspondence is subdivided into incoming and outgoing, each arranged alphabetically. Writings are arranged alphabetically by type and within that by title; writings about Francis appear at the end of this series. Most of the writings are worksheets of poems revised by the author; these are arranged alphabetically under the title of the book in which the poems appeared, as are printed versions of some of the poems. Notes about the revisions and publication of the poems are filed with the poem, though in some cases these notes were grouped together and called "Histories" by the author. Published material is arranged alphabetically. The oversize package of tape recordings is in no particular order.

Restrictions

Access Restrictions:

The majority of our archival and manuscript collections are housed offsite and require advanced notice for retrieval. Researchers are encouraged to contact us in advance concerning the collection material they wish to access for their research.

Use Restrictions:

Written permission must be obtained from SCRC and all relevant rights holders before publishing quotations, excerpts or images from any materials in this collection.

Subject Headings

Persons

Francis, Robert, 1901-1987.
Frost, Robert, 1874-1963.
Holmes, John Clellon, 1926-1988.
Morrison, Theodore, 1901-1988.

Subjects

American poetry -- 20th century.
Authors, American.
Poets, American.

Genres and Forms

Articles.
Audiorecordings.
Clippings (information artifacts)
Correspondence.
Essays.
Manuscripts for publication.
Phonodiscs.
Poems.

Occupations

Authors.
Poets.

Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

Preferred citation for this material is as follows:

Robert Francis Papers,
Special Collections Research Center,
Syracuse University Libraries

Acquisition Information

Gift of Robert Francis, 1968 and 1969.

Table of Contents

Biographical material

Correspondence

Writings

Writings about

Published material

Recordings

Inventory