Research Catalog

Title

Owen Dodson collection, 1943-1984.

Author

Gordon, Sol.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

Dodson, Owen, 1914-1983.

Description

2 folders.

Summary

The Owen Dodson collection consists principally of printed matter describing Dodson's career as a poet, playwright and novelist. There are also programs, obituaries and a memorial, a few of his poems and an extensive bibliography. Additionally, the collection contains a handwritten poem (1940s), postcards he wrote to his friend Sol Gordon, court documents and correspondence regarding Dodson's estate and his will.

Donor/Sponsor

Schomburg NEH Automated Access to Special Collections Project.

Subjects

• African American teachers
• African Americans in the performing arts
• African American novelists
• Dodson, Owen, 1914-1983
• African American dramatists
• African American authors
• African American poets

Note

• Photographs transferred to Photographs and Prints Division.
• Record album transferred to Moving Image and Recorded Sound Division .

Source (note)

• Gordon, Sol

Biography (note)

• Owen Dodson, poet, novelist, playwright and educator who influenced the course of African American drama.

Processing Action (note)

• Processed

Call Number

Sc MG 437

OCLC

NYPW088000027-A

Author

Gordon, Sol. Collector

Title

Owen Dodson collection, 1943-1984.

Biography

Owen Dodson, poet, novelist, playwright and educator who influenced the course of African American drama. Born in Brooklyn, New York in 1914, he received a Bachelor's degree from Bates College in Lewiston, Maine, and earned a Master of Fine Arts degree from Yale University with the writing of the play, "Divine Comedy" (1938).

Dodson wrote the novels "Come Home Early, Child," (1977) and "Boy at the Window" (1951) and books of poetry including "The Harlem Book of the Dead" and "Powerful Long Ladder." His plays, totalling fifteen, "Divine Comedy," "Garden of Time," and "Bayou Legend," among others, were more akin to poetic dramas than to plays. His short story "The Summer Five" won a Paris Review award.

Teaching at Atlanta University, Hampton Institute, and Spelman College, as well as serving in the U.S. Navy, helped prepare Dodson for the task that lay before him at Howard University in 1944, where he taught or worked with many contemporary successful African American actors. With two fellow professors, Dodson established Howard University as a primary source in African American theater. He remained at Howard as chairman of the Drama Department and poet in residence until he retired in 1969. Dodson lectured at colleges throughout the country and directed various colleges and repertory groups in major cities. In 1964, he was an advisory board member for the Harlem School of the Arts Community Theater. Dodson's death occurred in 1983.

Connect to:

Finding Aid

Added Author

Dodson, Owen, 1914-1983.

Research Call Number

Sc MG 437