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A collection of letters from authors, critics, and scholars, primarily relating to lectureships and courses given under the auspices of the English Department. Some of the correspondence, notably the ten letters from Amy Lowell, deal with essays written for the revised edition of C.D. Warner's LIBRARY OF THE WORLD'S BEST LITERATURE. The letters are written to Ashley H. Thorndike, John W. Cunliffe, George R. Carpenter, Ernest H. Wright, and Marjorie Nicolson. The correspondents include John Mason Brown, Marchette Chute, Robert P. Tristram Coffin, Padraic Colum, Bernard DeVoto, T.S. Eliot, John Erskine, Robert Frost, Otto Jespersen, Howard Mumford Jones, Joyce Kilmer, Ludwig Lewishon, Amy Lowell, Archibald MacLeish, Thomas Mann, Brander Matthews, H.L. Mencken, Christopher Morley, Ezra Pound, Theodore Roosevelt, Charles P. Snow, Allen Tate, Robert Penn Warren, and Edmund Wilson. Two boxes of miscellaneous uncataloged correspondence cover the years, 1896-1917, and a folder for the 1935 Mark Twain Centennial sponsored by the English Department. The correspondence is chiefly with Ernest Hunter Wright.

Correspondence, manuscripts, and memorabilia of the American poet, Hart Crane, range in date over most of his active life. This collection includes over 500 letters written by Crane to members of his family and close friends and received by him from his family and contemporary authors including Eugene O'Neill, Sherwood Anderson, T. S. Eliot, Alfred Stieglitz, Waldo Frank, and Allan Tate. Among these is a group of letters written to Mrs. Crane upon Crane's death. There is correspondence and documents relating to his books, THE BRIDGE, WHITE BUILDINGS, and THE COLLECTED POEMS. Also present are most of the original manuscripts of Crane's major works ("The Bridge" "White Buildings" "West Indies Poems" etc) with corrections and additions in Crane's hand. Included here are a number of drafts of poems of his earlier period. The is also a copy of the 16mm motion picture "In Search of Hart Crane."

Personal and professional papers including correspondence, manuscripts, documents, diaries, journals, photographs, and printed materials relating to his teaching at various universities, his literary studies and writings, and his professional activities in such organizations as the Modern Language Association and P.E.N. His correspondents include contemporary authors such as Edmund Blunden, Christopher Hassall, Louis Kronenberger; scholars such as James P. Clifford, Leon Edel, and A.L. Rowse. There are also some letters collected by Halsband, including those by Mrs Piozzi, John Wilkes (1727-1797) and John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute (1713-1792). Among the manuscripts are notes, drafts, typescripts, and proofs of his LIFE OF LADY WORTLEY MONTAGU (Oxford, 1956) and COMPLETE LETTERS OF LADY MARY WORTLEY MONTAGU (Oxford, 1965-1967). Also, manuscripts and typescripts of Halsband's diaries, journals, lectures, articles, book reviews, and essays. The printed materials include ephemera, books, and offprints by Halsband and books by other authors inscribed to him. There is a watercolor portrait of Halsband by Stephen Andrews, London, ca. 1966.