Inventory of the Shelby Stephenson Papers, 1965-2007

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Biographical Note

Shelby Stephenson was born 14 June 1938, near Benson, N.C. The youngest of four children, he lived in a three-room shanty on the 62-acre family farm until 1951, when the family built a ranch house on the property. The Stephensons lived off the farm, where they hunted, fished, and raised livestock.

As a child, Stephenson learned to play the guitar and to appreciate and write poetry. He was graduated from Cleveland High School in 1956 and was named the most outstanding student of his class. The following fall, Stephenson began working his way through the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, where he cleaned tables in the dining hall. While in college, Stephenson also worked at as janitor and disc jockey at WMPM radio in Smithfield. After graduation from UNC in 1960, Stephenson worked at WTVD-TV in Durham, N.C. At the same time, Stephenson began studying at the UNC Law School, but quit after two and a half years, leaving one semester short of graduation.

Stephenson then worked for American Telephone & Telegraph for a year and a half. In April 1965, he entered graduate school in English at the University of Pittsburgh. In 1966, he married Linda Letchworth Wilson, and, in 1968, he was admitted to the doctoral program in English at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. Stephenson received his Ph.D. in May 1974 with a dissertation on law in the novels of William Faulkner. In 1974, Stephenson became chairman of the English Department at Campbell College in Buies Creek, N.C. In 1978, he left for a position at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke (formerly Pembroke State University), Pembroke, N.C., where he has edited Pembroke Magazine since 1979.

Stephenson began to publish his own poetry in spring 1973, gaining a reputation as one of the finest poets of eastern North Carolina. His first book, Middle Creek Poems (1979) was the co-winner of the Zoe Kincaid Brockman Memorial Award. Other books include Carolina Shout! (1985); Finch's Mash (1990); The Persimmon Tree Carol (1990); Plankhouse (1993), a poetic documentary with photographs by Roger Manley; and Poor People (1998). He and his wife have also recorded a CD called Tribute to Hank Williams.

Stephenson lived in Southern Pines, N.C., from August 1978 to March 1996, when he moved to his birthplace near Benson.

Collection Overview

The collection includes personal and professional correspondence of Shelby Stephenson; files relating to Pembroke Magazine, North Carolina arts organizations, and Stephenson's academic career studying and teaching at the University of Pittsburgh, the University of Wisconsin, and the University of North Carolina at Pembroke (formerly Pembroke State University); and many writings by Stephenson, both poetry and prose. Included is correspondence with local, national, and international poets, novelists, editors, and publishers, including A. R. Ammons, Fred Chappell, Guy Owen, and Paul Green. There is also some correspondence with friends and relatives. Files relating to Pembroke Magazine include material on each issue since Stephenson began to edit the magazine in 1979. Items include manuscripts of literary pieces included in the issues, correspondence with readers of the magazine, correspondence with subscribers to the magazine, and organizational notes about the issues. Financial information about each issue is also included.

Included in the writings are manuscripts of individual poems as well as manuscripts for books of poems, and Stephenson's critical essays and book reviews. There are also two boxes of material containing rejection letters from literary contests and journals and one box of index cards documenting successes and failures of Stephenson's literary submissions.

Note that additions received after January 1994 have not been integrated into the original deposit.

Arrangement of Collection

Series Descriptions

Correspondence and other items arranged by correspondent. Included are letters and, in some cases, writings by the correspondents and/or essays by Stephenson about their work. In a few cases, letters to Stephenson about particular correspondents also appear.

There is substantial correspondence with A. R. Ammons, Fred Chappell, Norman Macleod, Guy Owen, and others. With Ammons, Stephenson discussed Ammons's poetry, Stephenson's poetry, Stephenson's reviews of Ammons's books, interviews with Ammons, the Ammons issue of Pembroke Magazine (#18), book awards, and topics of personal interest. With Chappell, Stephenson discussed his own poetry and Chappell's views about academia and poetry in general, with specific references to individual poets. There is also discussion of opera, bluegrass, and jazz. Correspondence with Macleod chiefly concerns Pembroke Magazine and Macleod's health. A few drafts of Macleod's poetry are included.

While most of the correspondence is with people connected in some formal way with creative writing or academia, there is also some correspondence with family members and others. Topics discussed are poetry, Pembroke Magazine, and Stephenson's personal and professional life. Greeting cards, wedding announcements, and get-well letters are also included.

Files for each issue of the annual Pembroke Magazine since Stephenson assumed the editorship in 1979, plus some material from previous issues.

Folders typically contain materials generated in the process of putting an issue together. Material tangential to particular issues--grant applications, financial items, reader correspondence--appears as "Other Material" in the issue's final folder. folders marked "Layout/Design/Editing" include materials that relate to the organization of the issues--contributors' lists, internal memos, etc. folders marked "Original Manuscripts" submissions as received; folders marked "Typeset Manuscripts" contain galleys and proofs of those manuscripts along with corrections and printer's directions.

Submissions to Pembroke Magazine and correspondence relating to those submissions. Included are manuscripts of poems and works of short fiction. Included are submissions and related correspondence from other authors not represented in Series 1.

Materials relating to North Carolina arts organizations of which Stephenson was a member or from which Pembroke Magazine received funding. Organizations substantively represented are the North Carolina Literary and Historical Association, the North Carolina Writers' Network, the North Carolina Poetry Society, and the Friends of Weymouth. Items include memos, letters and notes, grant information, and materials relating to specific arts events.

Files relating to academic institutions with which Stephenson was associated, especially the University of Pittsburgh, the University of Wisconsin, and the University of North Carolina at Pembroke (formerly Pembroke State University). Included are teaching materials and items relating to institutional self-study, classes taken, classes taught, degrees earned, student evaluations, employment, and guitar classes Stephenson took at Sandhills Community College. Other institutions included are the North Carolina Governor's School, where Stephenson was a teacher, and South Johnston High School, where he was a member of the evaluation committee, 1981-1982.

Handwritten and typed writings by Stephenson, including writing his Ph.D. dissertation, notebooks, poems, critical essays, book reviews, and bibliographies of his published works.

Materials removed from binders and tipped in materials. Following the notebooks that were numbered by Stephenson are six previously unnumbered and untitled notebooks now labeled "A" through "F," containing handwritten drafts of poems. Following these notebooks are five folders of material labeled "Culls" by Stephenson. These contain rough drafts of poems.