{"id":5572,"date":"2025-03-19T09:28:45","date_gmt":"2025-03-19T09:28:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/rbx\/?p=5572"},"modified":"2025-03-19T16:55:53","modified_gmt":"2025-03-19T16:55:53","slug":"literary-connections-in-literary-collections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/rbx\/2025\/03\/19\/literary-connections-in-literary-collections\/","title":{"rendered":"Literary Connections in Literary Collections"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Nicole Connell<\/p>\n

RBML holds the papers of many writers, including Carl Sandburg, Gwendolyn Brooks, and H.G. Wells. Not only are these writers notable in their own right, but they boasted a social network that included other prominent writers. So let\u2019s have some fun and explore these relationships in our collections! If you would like to read the letters for yourself, simply right click on the photo and open the image in a new tab.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Many of the letters in these collections offer examples of everyday correspondence. Edith Wharton (1862-1937), the first woman to win a Pulitzer Prize (1921) for her novel <\/span>The Age of Innocence<\/span><\/i> (1920), <\/span>wrote a letter of introduction to Wells, connecting him with someone who wished to make his acquaintance.<\/span> In another letter, author of <\/span>To the Lighthouse<\/span><\/i> Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) wrote to invite Wells to dinner, though the collection implies that her husband and fellow author, Leonard Woolf (1880-1969), was a more frequent correspondent with Wells.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Edith Wharton to Wells, May 9, 1937. W-223, H.G. Wells Papers<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Virginia Woolf to Wells, undated. W-407, H.G. Wells Papers<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Other correspondence reveals a mutual admiration and advocacy for one another\u2019s work. Langston Hughes (1901-1967), poet and leader of the Harlem Renaissance, was an early advocate for Brooks, promoting her work and sharing it with others.<\/span> Maya Angelou (1928-2014), poet and author of <\/span>I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings <\/span><\/i>(1969)<\/span>, was thrilled when she received a handwritten letter from Brooks inviting her to be the keynote speaker at the Black Writers Conference, saying her \u201cheart went all a flutter\u201d when she received the letter and was happy to accept the invitation.<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Left: Langston Hughes to Brooks, September 17, 1953. Box 76, Folder 9, Gwendolyn Brooks Collection<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Right: Maya Angelou to Brooks, June 14, 1999. Box 314, Folder 1.3, Gwendolyn Brooks Collection<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Sandburg wrote to Zora Neal Hurston (1891-1960), author of <\/span>Their Eyes Were Watching God <\/span><\/i>(1937)<\/span>,\u00a0 to inquire about paying her for the use of a song she had introduced him to many years prior for his book <\/span>The American Songbag <\/span><\/i>(1927)<\/span>, an anthology of American folk music.<\/span> Hurston refused, saying \u201cI am highly honored that so great a soul as you could find use for it,\u201d and in a later letter relayed her efforts to track down another ballad she knew he would be interested in.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Left: Sandburg to Zora Neal Hurston, June 6, 1950. 3-013-061, Carl Sandburg Papers (Connemara Accession)<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Right: Zora Neal Hurston to Sandburg, June 12, 1950. 02-029-004, Carl Sandburg Papers (Connemara Accession)<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Finally, some letters offer insights into the friendships between writers. <\/span>Pygmalion<\/i> (1912) playwright George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) and Wells had a sometimes friendly, sometimes contentious, relationship. In one of their friendlier eras, Shaw asks for clarification from Wells about his critiques for Shaw\u2019s upcoming book on economics, saying \u201cNothing can be more improbable than that I am wrong: still, even I am not absolutely infallible; and as you are an interesting youth, I may as well hear what babble you may offer.\u201d<\/span> In another set of letters, fellow Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Robert Frost playfully called Sandburg an \u201cold ballad-monger.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/span><\/p>\n

Left: George Bernard Shaw to Wells, March 26th, 1904. S-196, H.G. Wells Papers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Right: Robert Frost to Sandburg, December 2, 1927. 2-022-022, Carl Sandburg Papers (Connemara Accession)<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

These letters represent just a snapshot of the correspondence we have in our collections. Come explore these connections and many others here at RBML!<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Nicole Connell RBML holds the papers of many writers, including Carl Sandburg, Gwendolyn Brooks, and H.G. Wells. Not only are these writers notable in their own right, but they boasted a social network that included other prominent writers. So let\u2019s have some fun and explore these relationships in our collections! If you would like […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":847,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[449,450,424,339],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5572","post","type-post","status-publish","format-image","hentry","category-archives","category-carl-sandburg","category-gwendolyn-brooks","category-h-g-wells","post_format-post-format-image"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/rbx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5572","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/rbx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/rbx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/rbx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/847"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/rbx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5572"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/rbx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5572\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5717,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/rbx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5572\/revisions\/5717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/rbx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/rbx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/rbx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}