Title: Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets Records
Inclusive Dates: 1949-1982

Creator:

• Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets

Call Number: Mss 693; Micro 1090; PH 3672

Quantity: 0.8 c.f. (2 archives boxes), 3 reels of microfilm (35mm), and 12 photographs

Repository:

Wisconsin Historical Society, Division of Library, Archives, and Museum Collections

Archival Locations:

COLLECTION MAY BE STORED OFF-SITE: see catalog entry to request materials and for additional information.

Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)

Abstract:

Records of an organization founded in 1950 to foster the writing of poetry by Wisconsin residents. The collection consists of officers' correspondence; minutes; membership lists; financial records; Hawk & Whippoorwill Recalled (a serial poetry anthology); microfilmed scrapbooks containing the organization's Museletter, clippings, photographs, and information and poetry by members such as Edna K. Meudt, Marian Paust, Dr. Helen Smith, and Rev. Henry Spear. Among the prominent correspondents are August Derleth and Alfred Lunt.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-mss00693

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Although there had been several short-lived state poetry organizations in Wisconsin none were in existence when S. Louise Leighton of the editorial committee of American Poetry Magazine and a member of poetry associations in New York and Minnesota returned to Wisconsin, her native state, in 1947. Thanks to the encouragement of Clara Catherine Prince of Milwaukee, founder of the American Literary Association and editor of American Poetry Magazine, and the support of the Wisconsin Regional Writers Association she began work to form such a society in Wisconsin. Letters of intent were sent to 50 Wisconsin writers and a favorable response was received. In November 1949, a preliminary meeting was held, and on April 23, 1950 at a meeting at the Wisconsin Memorial Union in Madison, the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets was organized and officers elected. The organization's stated purpose was “to be an organization of men and women who are interested in poetry, who write poetry, and (or) who are willing to work to make Wisconsin conscious of its own poets.”

Toward that end, in subsequent years the organization held annual and regional meetings at which members and speakers read their work, conducted poetry contests among school children, sponsored radio broadcasts concerning poetry over WHA, and issued a newsletter and several anthologies including Northern Spring, 1951; Poems Out of Wisconsin, 1961; Wisconsin Harvest, 1966; and Hawk and Whippoorwill Recalled.

The records are divided into two sections. The first consists of two archives boxes of loose general correspondence (1949-1982), minutes, financial records, membership lists, Hawk & Whippoorwill Recalled (a serial anthology), and miscellaneous papers. The correspondence contains letters from various WFOP presidents and officers, although there are many gaps in the files. Among the prominent correspondents are Alfred Lunt and August Derleth.

The second portion of the collection consists of three scrapbooks, the compilation of which was begun by the Society's historian during the organization's earliest days. Now available only on microfilm, the scrapbooks contain the constitution and by-laws, a complete run of the Society's Museletter for the period documented by the collection, newspaper clippings, reviews, miscellaneous publications, and information on members. The member information, which makes up the second and third scrapbooks, is divided into information and poetry about deceased members, inactive members, and active members. Among the most extensively documented are Edna K. Meudt, Marian Paust, Dr. Helen Smith, and Rev. Henry Spear.

In addition, the 1961 WFOP anthology Poems Out of Wisconsin is available in the Historical Society Library.

Acquisition Information

Presented by the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets, October 27, 1984. Accession Number: M86-228

Processing Information

Processed and prepared for microfilming by Maria Caravello (Intern), 1986.

Mss 693 Box   1 Folder   1	Charter membership proof letters, 1949-1950
	General correspondence
Box   1 Folder   2	1949-1950
Box   1 Folder   3-7	1954-1969
Box   1 Folder   8-11	1972-1978
Box   1 Folder   12	1982, undated
Box   2 Folder   1	Membership and subscription lists, undated
Box   2 Folder   2	Financial records, 1954-1975
Box   2 Folder   3	Constitution and by-laws
Box   2 Folder   4	Minutes, 1962-1982
Box   2 Folder   5	Miscellany
Box   2 Folder   6	Hawk & Whippoorwill Recalled (Vol I-II)
Micro 1090	Scrapbooks
	Volume I: Historical Volume
Reel   1	1950-1970
Reel   2	1971-1982
	Volume II
	Deceased members
Reel   2	A-Fischer, Arthur
Reel   3	Geurink, W.-Z
Reel   3	Inactive members
Reel   3	Volume III: Active Members
PH 3672	Photographs from scrapbooks
PH 3672 (3)	Oversize photographs
Mss 693 Box   2 Folder   7	Henry Spear anthologies
Box   2 Folder   8	Miscellaneous loose clippings