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D. D. Todd, Miller Williams Collection

 Collection
Identifier: MC 1387

Scope and Content Note

The collection includes letters, all from Williams to Todd, newspaper clippings, photocopies of various materials relating to Miller Williams's career, and an inscribed copy of one of Williams's early books.

The letters were written by Miller Williams to D.D. Todd in three phases of Williams's life: (1) Jonesboro, 1950-1951; (2) Baton Rouge, 1951; and (3) Fayetteville, 1973-1995. Attached to the letters in the first two groups are Dr. Todd's explanatory notes. In one of these addenda Dr. Todd explains the gap in Williams's correspondence from 1951 to 1973

The remainder of the collection comprises printed materials that Dr. Todd collected relating to Miller Williams's career. They include newspaper clippings of articles about Williams's life and works, a photocopy of an interview given by Miller Williams in New Letters in 1989, a photocopy of Williams's essay appearing in Contemporary Authors Autobiography Series (vol. 20, 1994), reviews of some of Williams's books, photocopies of critical essays discussing Williams's work in The History of Southern Literature (1985) and The Southern Review (1990), a photocopy of Williams's essay "The Line in Poetry" appearing in Antaeus (vols. 30/31, 1978), and a copy of Williams's early volume Et Cetera (Imboden, Ark., Stovall Printing Co., 1952) inscribed to D.D. Todd.

Dates

  • 1950-1995

Creator

Language of Materials

Materials are in English.

Access Information

Please call (479) 575-8444 or email specoll@uark.edu at least two weeks in advance of your arrival to ensure availability of the materials.

Use Information

No Use Restrictions Apply.

No Interlibrary Loan.

Standard Federal Copyright Laws Apply (U.S. Title 17).

Biographical Note

Donald David Todd was born on October 26, 1930, in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. He received a B.A. in 1958 from San Francisco State College and a Ph.D. in philosophy in 1967 from the University of British Columbia. Dr. Todd joined the faculty of the philosophy department at Simon Fraser University as an assistant professor in 1967 and was appointed associate professor in 1973. He and Miller Williams met in 1948 in Little Rock when they worked in the 1948 Progressive Party/Henry Wallace for President campaign. This collection reflects the active correspondence Todd and Williams have maintained for over forty years.

Miller Williams was born on April 8, 1930 in Hoxie, Arkansas. After a year at Arkansas State Teachers' College he transferred to Arkansas State College (later Arkansas State University) in Jonesboro, where in 1951 he received a B.S. in biology. Williams began his graduate studies in zoology at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge and completed his M.S. degree at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. At a poetry reading in 1961, Williams met John Ciardi, who, after reading some of Williams's poetry, invited him to the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference that year. Williams returned to Baton Rouge, where he taught high school biology. He met John Corrington, a faculty member in LSU's English department, and soon was offered a teaching position there. He also taught at Loyola University in New Orleans, and as a visiting professor at the University of Chile, Santiago and at the National University of Mexico. Williams joined the University of Arkansas's English department in 1971 as co-director of the creative writing department. He founded the Master of Fine Arts in Translation Program in 1978 and in 1980 was appointed first director of the University of Arkansas Press.

Williams has received many honors and awards for his poetry, including the Amy Lowell traveling scholarship (1963), Arts Fund Award (1973), Prix de Rome (1976), and the Poets' Prize (1990). He read one of his poems at President Clinton's second inauguration on January 20, 1997.

Williams has written several critically distinguished volumes of verse, including A Circle of Stone, 1965; So Long at the Fair, 1968; Halfway from Hoxie, 1973; Living on the Surface, 1989; and Points of Departure, 1994. Williams translated the poetry of Nicanor Parra and Giuseppe Belli and has edited several volumes of poetry, including The Achievement of John Ciardi (1968) and (with John Corrington) Southern Writing in the Sixties (1966). In addition, Williams has authored or co-authored books on poetics, such as How Does a Poem Mean? (with John Ciardi, revised edition, 1974) and Patterns of Poetry: An Encylopedia of Forms (1986).

Extent

0.5 Linear Feet (1 box)

Arrangement of the Papers

Materials are arranged into two series:

Series I. Miller Williams to D.D. Todd, 1950-1995

Series II. Printed Materials

Acquisition Information

D.D. Todd donated his collection of Miller Williams correspondence and other materials according to terms set forth by D.D. Todd of Vancouver, British Columbia, on August 12, 1998.

Processing Information

Processed by Julie Watkins, Special Collections Division, University of Arkansas Libraries, Fayetteville, Arkansas, in March 1999.

Title
D. D. Todd, Miller Williams Collection, 1950-1995
Status
Completed
Author
Julie Watkins
Date
1999
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin
Language of description note
Finding aid is written in English.

Repository Details

Part of the Special Collections Department Repository

Contact:
University of Arkansas Libraries
365 N. McIlroy Avenue
Fayetteville AR 72701 United States
(479) 575-8444