Preliminary Inventory of the James Boyd Papers, 1903-1953, 1964-1969
Collection Number 3610
Manuscripts Department, Library of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Collection Information
- Contact Information:
- Manuscripts Department
- CB#3926, Wilson Library
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
- Chapel Hill, NC 27514-8890
- Phone: 919/962-1345
- Fax: 919/962-3594
- Email: mss@email.unc.edu
- URL: http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/
- Processed by
- Jackie Dean
- Date Processed
- 1997
- Encoded by
- Jackie Dean
- Date Encoded
- 1997
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Descriptive Summary
- Repository
- Southern Historical Collection
- Creator
- Boyd, James, 1888-1944.
- Title
- James Boyd Papers, 1903-1953, 1964-1969
- Call Number
- 3610
- Extent
-
- About 1,020 items (4.0 linear feet)
- Abstract
- James Boyd (1888-1944) was an American author and journalist. Papers include more than 400 letters written by James Boyd to his parents in Harrisburg, Pa., and other places, beginning in 1903 and continuing through his years at Princeton University, 1907-1910, and Cambridge University, 1910-1912, and while he worked as a journalist and for the Red Cross in New York City. Also included are letters to his wife while he was overseas, 1917-1919, serving as an ambulance driver with the American Expeditionary Forces in France, and correspondence with friends, readers, other writers, and publishers about his work, especially about the novels Drums and Bitter Creek and about The Free Company, a group of American writers, producers, and broadcasters who presented radio programs on the ideas of the free world, 1940-1941. Correspondents include Sherwood Anderson, Stephen Vincent Benet, Robert Bridges, Louis Bromfield, Bernard De Voto, F. Scott Fitzgerald, John Galsworthy, Frank Porter Graham, Paul Green, Sinclair Lewis, Archibald MacLeish, Thomas Mann, Maxwell Perkins, William Saroyan, Laurence Stallings, John Steinbeck, and Thomas Wolfe. Also included are drafts and copies of manuscripts of stories, articles, radio scripts, and poems; and clippings and pictures.
Administrative Information
- Restrictions to Access
- This collection has restrictions to access. Please see details below or contact the Manuscripts Department for more information.
- Provenance
- Received from Mrs. James Boyd in 1963-1966 and 1970, and from Nancy Boyd Sokoloff in 1977.
- Preferred Citation
- [Identification of item], in the James Boyd Papers #3610, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
- Copyright Notice
- Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.
Online Catalog Headings
These and related materials may be found under the following headings in online catalogs.
- Anderson, Sherwood, 1876-1941.
- American literature--20th century.
- Authors, American--Correspondence.
- Authors, American--North Carolina.
- Authors, American--Political activity.
- Benet, Stephen Vincent, 1898-1943.
- Boyd family.
- Boyd, James, 1888-1944.
- Bridges, Robert Seymour, 1844-1930.
- Bromfield, Louis, 1896-1956.
- College students--England-Social life and customs--20th century.
- College students--United States--Social life and customs--20th century.
- De Voto, Bernard Augustine, 1897-1955.
- Fitzgerald, F. Scott (Francis Scott), 1896-1940.
- Free Company (New York, N.Y.).
- Galsworthy, John, 1867-1933.
- Graham, Frank Porter, 1886- .
- Green, Paul, 1894-1981.
- Lewis, Sinclair, 1885-1951.
- MacLeish, Archibald, 1892- .
- Mann, Thomas, 1875-1955.
- New York (N.Y.)--Social life and customs--20th century.
- Perkins, Maxwell E. (Maxwell Evarts), 1884-1947.
- Princeton University--Students--History--20th Century.
- Saroyan, William, 1908- .
- Stallings, Laurence, 1894-1968.
- Steinbeck, John, 1902-1968.
- United States. Army. American Expeditionary Forces.
- University of Cambridge--Students--History--20th Century.
- Wolfe, Thomas, 1900-1938.
- World War, 1914-1918--France.
Biographical/Historical Note
| 1888 | James Boyd born in Harrisburg, Pa., on 2 July. |
| 1910 | Received undergraduate degree from Princeton. |
| 1910-1912 | At Trinity College in Cambridge. |
| 1912 | Became an English/French teacher at Harrisburg Academy. |
| 1914-1916 | Convalesced in Southern Pines, N.C., from a recurrent illness. |
| Fall 1916 | Served on the editorial staff of Country Life in America. |
| 1917 | Married to Katharine Lamont of Millbrook, N.Y. |
| 1917-1918 | Served on the volunteer staff of the Red Cross. |
| June 1918-June 1919 | Served as Second Lieutenant in the United States Army Ambulance Service. |
| 1919 | Settled in Southern Pines, N.C. to begin career as a writer. |
| 1925 | Drums, historical novel about the American Revolution, published. |
| 1927 | Marching On, about the Civil War, published. |
| 1927-1928 | Served as president of North Carolina Literary and Historical Association. |
| 1930 | Long Hunt, about the long hunters on the trans-Appalachian frontier, published. |
| 1935 | Roll River, about a Pennsylvania farm family, published. |
| 1939 | Boyd's last novel, Bitter Creek, set in the Wyoming cattle country, published. |
| 1938 | Awarded honorary degree by the University of North Carolina. |
| 1940 | Organized and served as national chairman of the Free Company Players, a group American writers, producers, and broadcasters who presented radio programs on the ideas of the free world. |
| 1941 | Purchased and became editor of The Pilot, a nearly defunct conservative weekly newspaper, which under Boyd's leadership became a "progressive regional newspaper repeatedly honored for its excellence in the North Carolina Press Association." |
| 1944 | Suffered a fatal cerebral attack while attending a seminar at Princeton University on 25 February. |
Collection Overview
The papers include more than 400 letters written by James Boyd to his parents in Harrisburg, Pa., and other places, beginning in 1903 and continuing through his years at Princeton University, 1907-1910, and Cambridge University, 1910-1912, and while he worked as a journalist and for the Red Cross in New York, N.Y. Also included are letters to his wife while he was overseas, 1917-1919, serving as an ambulance driver with the American Expeditionary Forces in France, and correspondence with friends, readers, other writers, and publishers about his work, especially about the novels Drums and Bitter Creek and about the Free Company, a group of American writers, producers, and broadcasters who presented radio programs on the ideas of the free world, 1940-1941. Correspondents include Sherwood Anderson, Stephen Vincent Benet, Robert Bridges, Louis Bromfield, Bernard De Voto, F. Scott Fitzgerald, John Galsworthy, Frank Porter Graham, Paul Green, Sinclair Lewis, Archibald MacLeish, Thomas Mann, Maxwell Perkins, William Saroyan, Laurence Stallings, John Steinbeck, and Thomas Wolfe. Also included are drafts and copies of manuscripts of stories, articles, radio scripts, and poems; and clippings and pictures.
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Detailed Description of the Collection
James Boyd Papers, 1903-1952, 1964-1969.
About 1,020 items.
Box
1
Correspondence, 1906-1911
Box
2
Correspondence, 1912-August 1925
Box
3
Correspondence, September 1925-January 1941
Box
4
Correspondence, February 1941-1952; 1964-1969
Box
5
Correspondence, undated
Box
5
Clippings, fragments, and notes
Box
5
Lamont family record
Box
6
Writings, A-S
Box
7
Writings, T-W
Box
7
Poems and verses
Miscellaneous
Box
8
Volume
Letters from James Boyd, Jr.
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