Research Catalog

Title

William Stanley Braithwaite papers, 1898-1979.

Author

Braithwaite, William Stanley, 1878-1962.

Supplementary Content

Finding Aid

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

• Auslander, Joseph, 1897-1965.
• Beebe, Lucius, 1902-1966.
• Benét, William Rose, 1886-1950.
• Bontemps, Arna, 1902-1973.
• Carpenter, Margaret Haley.
• Clement, Rufus E., 1900-1967.
• Cozzens, James Gould, 1903-1978.
• Du Bois, W. E. B. (William Edward Burghardt), 1868-1963.
• Johnson, Georgia Douglas, 1886-1966.
• Kline, Burton, 1877-1958.
• Locke, Alain LeRoy, 1886-1954.
• Murphy, Carl, 1889-1967.
• Schuyler, George S. (George Samuel), 1895-1977.
• Spingarn, Arthur B. (Arthur Barnett), 1878-1971.
• Van Vechten, Carl, 1880-1964.

Description

2 lin. ft. (5 archival boxes).

Summary

The William Stanley Braithwaite Papers consist of family and literary correspondence, writings and printed matter documenting his career as a writer, anthologist and educator. The Personal Papers comprise individual files on Braithwaite and his family, and include biographical and autobiographical sketches, school records, memorial tributes and obituaries, religious notations copied from the Bible and other scholarly texts, and memorabilia of his wife, children and relatives. The Correspondence series is divided into Family and General subseries and is arranged chronologically into incomimg and outgoing files. Correspondents include Arna Bontemps, W.E.B. DuBois, Rufus Clement, Carl Murphy, William Rose Benet, Burton Kline, Joseph Auslander, George Schuyler, Arthur Spingarn, Carl Van Vechten and several publishing concerns. The Alain Locke Memorial file consists of printed matter, eulogies and letters, and includes a March 28, 1912 letter from Booker T. Washington. The Writings series comprises holograph and typescript drafts of Braithwaite's works, both published and unpublished, and selected poems from his anthologies, and an extensive autobiographical essay in which he discusses his relationship with poets he championed: Robert Frost, Amy Lowell and Edwin Arlington Robinson (1956).

Subjects

• Brown, William Wells, 1814?-1884
• African Americans > Intellectual life > 20th century
• Braithwaite, William Stanley, 1878-1962
• Upson, Arthur, 1877-1908
• Atlanta University
• American literature > 20th century
• Authors and publishers > United States
• Washington, Booker T., 1856-1915
• African American poets
• Harper, Frances Ellen Watkins, 1825-1911
• American literature > African American authors > Publishing > United States
• Douglass, Frederick, 1818-1895
• Locke, Alain LeRoy, 1886-1954
• Frost, Robert, 1874-1963
• Vane, Henry, Sir, 1613-1662
• Robinson, Edwin Arlington, 1869-1935
• American literature > African American authors > History and criticism
• Black author
• Lowell, Amy, 1874-1925

Note

• Three tintypes and one archival box of photographs and portraits of William Stanley Braithwaite and his family, friends, relatives and colleagues have been transferred to the Photographs and Prints Division, and are described separately.

Biography (note)

• William Stanley Braithwaite was a self-educated African-American author, publisher, educator and anthologist. He worked as a literary critic for the Boston Evening Transcript from 1906 to 1931, and published two volumes of poetry, Lyrics of Love and Life (1904) and The House of Falling Leaves (1908), as well as occasional essays and verses in the Atlantic Monthly, Scribner's and the North American Review. Braithwaite was best known, however, for the annual anthologies he edited from 1913 to 1939 (19 volumes), his anthologies of British verse published in 1906, 1908, 1909 and 1919, his anthologies of Catholic and wartime verse, and his Anthology of Magazine Verses for 1958 compiled with Margaret Carpenter. His Selected Poems appeared in 1948, and a biography of the Bronte family (The Bewitched Parsonage) two years later. Braithwaite founded and headed a publishing firm, B.J. Brimmer, in the 1920s, which published works by Lucius Beebe, Georgia Douglas Johnson and the early novels of James Gould Cozzens.
• Braithwaite met Emma Kelly in 1902, while working in New Hampshire. They married the following year. Three daughters and four sons were born to this union: Fiona Lydia Rossetti (Mrs. Merrill Carter), Katherine Keats (Mrs. William Arnold), William Stanley Beaumont, Jr., Edith (Mrs. Carman Agard), Paul Ledoux, Arnold DeWolfe and Francis Robinson. Braithwaite was awarded the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People's Arthur B. Spingarn Award for outstanding achievement in the field of literature in 1918. He accepted a professorship in creative literature at Atlanta University in 1935, and remained in this post until his retirement in 1945. William Stanley Braithwaite died at his home in Harlem on June 8, 1962.

Call Number

Sc MG 84

OCLC

122580594

Author

Braithwaite, William Stanley, 1878-1962.

Title

William Stanley Braithwaite papers, 1898-1979.

Biography

William Stanley Braithwaite was a self-educated African-American author, publisher, educator and anthologist. He worked as a literary critic for the Boston Evening Transcript from 1906 to 1931, and published two volumes of poetry, Lyrics of Love and Life (1904) and The House of Falling Leaves (1908), as well as occasional essays and verses in the Atlantic Monthly, Scribner's and the North American Review. Braithwaite was best known, however, for the annual anthologies he edited from 1913 to 1939 (19 volumes), his anthologies of British verse published in 1906, 1908, 1909 and 1919, his anthologies of Catholic and wartime verse, and his Anthology of Magazine Verses for 1958 compiled with Margaret Carpenter. His Selected Poems appeared in 1948, and a biography of the Bronte family (The Bewitched Parsonage) two years later. Braithwaite founded and headed a publishing firm, B.J. Brimmer, in the 1920s, which published works by Lucius Beebe, Georgia Douglas Johnson and the early novels of James Gould Cozzens.

Braithwaite met Emma Kelly in 1902, while working in New Hampshire. They married the following year. Three daughters and four sons were born to this union: Fiona Lydia Rossetti (Mrs. Merrill Carter), Katherine Keats (Mrs. William Arnold), William Stanley Beaumont, Jr., Edith (Mrs. Carman Agard), Paul Ledoux, Arnold DeWolfe and Francis Robinson. Braithwaite was awarded the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People's Arthur B. Spingarn Award for outstanding achievement in the field of literature in 1918. He accepted a professorship in creative literature at Atlanta University in 1935, and remained in this post until his retirement in 1945. William Stanley Braithwaite died at his home in Harlem on June 8, 1962.

Connect to:

Finding Aid

Local Subject

Black author.

Added Author

Auslander, Joseph, 1897-1965.

Beebe, Lucius, 1902-1966.

Benét, William Rose, 1886-1950.

Bontemps, Arna, 1902-1973.

Carpenter, Margaret Haley.

Clement, Rufus E., 1900-1967.

Cozzens, James Gould, 1903-1978.

Du Bois, W. E. B. (William Edward Burghardt), 1868-1963.

Johnson, Georgia Douglas, 1886-1966.

Kline, Burton, 1877-1958.

Locke, Alain LeRoy, 1886-1954.

Murphy, Carl, 1889-1967.

Schuyler, George S. (George Samuel), 1895-1977.

Spingarn, Arthur B. (Arthur Barnett), 1878-1971.

Van Vechten, Carl, 1880-1964.

Research Call Number

Sc MG 84