Papers of John L. (Jack) Sweeney and Máire MacNeill Sweeney LA52 Descriptive Catalogue UCD Archives School of History and Archives archives @ucd.ie www.ucd.ie/archives T + 353 1 716 7555 F + 353 1 716 1146 © 2007 University College Dublin. All rights reserved ii CONTENTS CONTEXT Biographical history iv Archival history v CONTENT AND STRUCTURE Scope and content v System of arrangement vi CONDITIONS OF ACCESS AND USE Access xiv Language xiv Finding-aid xiv DESCRIPTION CONTROL Archivist’s note xiv ALLIED MATERIALS Allied Collections in UCD Archives xiv Related collections elsewhere xiv iii Biographical History John Lincoln ‘Jack’ Sweeney was a scholar, critic, art collector, and poet. Born in Brooklyn, New York, he attended university at Georgetown and Cambridge, where he studied with I.A. Richards, and Columbia, where he studied law. In 1942 he was appointed curator of Harvard Library’s Poetry Room (established in 1931 and specialising in twentieth century poetry in English); curator of the Farnsworth Room in 1945; and Subject Specialist in English Literature in 1947. Stratis Haviaras writes in The Harvard Librarian that ‘Though five other curators preceded him, Jack Sweeney is considered the Father of the Poetry Room …’. 1 He oversaw the Poetry Room’s move to the Lamont Library, ‘establishing its philosophy and its role within the library system and the University; and he endowed it with an international reputation’.2 He also lectured in General Education and English at Harvard. He was the brother of art critic and museum director, James Johnson Sweeney (Museum of Modern Art, New York; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; and the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, amongst others). He married in 1949 Máire MacNeill, a distinguished folklorist and daughter of Eoin MacNeill and Agnes Moore (the novelist Brian Moore was Máire’s first cousin). After his retirement from Harvard, the Sweeneys moved to their house in Corofin, County Clare. Máire MacNeill was born in Portmarnock, County Dublin. She grew up in a bi- lingual household, acquiring a deep knowledge of Irish culture: her father was a founding member of the Gaelic League, Professor of Early Irish History at UCD, and Minister for Education, 1922–25, in the first Irish Free State government. Máire was educated at Muckross College, Dublin and UCD, graduating with a BA degree in Celtic Studies in 1925. Initially, she worked as a clerk in the Cumann na nGaedheal office and then as a secretary, journalist and sub-editor until 1935 when she joined the staff of the Irish Folklore Commission where she met the renowned folklorist, Seamus Ó Duilearga. Under his guidance, she worked for several years with a team of people collecting and recording an enormous wealth of folklore. She left the Folklore Commission when she married. Máire and Jack went to live in Boston and she taught in the Department of Celtic Studies at Harvard. Her major publication, The Festival of Lughnasa, was published in 1962. She was awarded a DLitt from the National University in recognition of her work. The Sweeneys settled in Clare in 1967 and moved to a house beside Lake Inchiquin near Corofin, memorialised in a poem by their friend Richard Eberhart. Máire renewed her ties with the Folklore Commission and continued with her research. Jack died suddenly in 1986 and Máire died the following year. Her generous bequest of a collection of modern art to the National Gallery of Ireland is known as The Máire MacNeill Sweeney Bequest and includes paintings by Picasso, Modigliani, Matisse, Gerard Dillon and Barrie Cooke. 1 The Harvard Librarian July 1986, p. 9. 2 Ibid. iv Archival history The Sweeney Papers were bequeathed to University College Dublin by Máire Sweeney and were transferred by her sister and executor, Eilis McDowell. The bulk of the collection was transferred on 1 December 1988. It should be noted that letters from certain correspondents to Sweeney are not necessarily situated within this collection. There are indications within the papers, usually consisting of acknowledgements from manuscript librarians and archivists, that Sweeney gave batches of letters from individual correspondents to whatever curatorial institution held the literary papers of that correspondent. Scope and Content Letters to Jack and Máire Sweeney at 51 Beacon Street, Boston, Mass.; the Woodberry Poetry Room, Harvard University Library; and Corofin, County Clare from a large number of poets, playwrights, artists and critics, concerning the progress of their own work and its publication, developments in contemporary culture and letters, Irish writers and literature, their views of the work of other writers, arrangements for public readings, news of mutual friends, and personal and social affairs and travels. The majority of the correspondents are personal friends of the Sweeneys. Includes occasional draft letters and copies of letters by Jack. It should be noted that the collection provides little information concerning Máire and her work. Correspondents include Conrad Aiken, William Alfred, Katherine Biddle, Austin Clarke, Padraic Colum, Barrie Cooke, EE Cummings, Richard Eberhart, Leon Edel, TS Eliot, Robert Fitzgerald, Seamus Heaney, Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath, Thomas Kinsella, Philip Larkin, Harry Levin, Thomas MacGreevy, John Montague, Marianne Moore, Edwin and Willa Muir, Peter Orr, Wallace Stevens, Robert Tracy, Hugh Whitney and Richard Wilbur. A feature of the collection is the strong presence of certain literary figures who are not represented in the collection to any great extent, except in other people’s letters. This applies particularly to Robert Lowell. Another noteworthy feature of the collection is the close-knit nature of the artistic community in which the Sweeney’s lived: many of the correspondents refer to each other in their letters. v System of Arrangement The original arrangement of the collection has been maintained, the files of correspondence are in alphabetical order by correspondent, with the exception of two files, one of Christmas cards and the other of letters of condolence to Máire Sweeney on the death of her husband, which are placed at the end of the catalogue. Within the papers relating to individual correspondents, correspondence has been placed first, followed by any supplementary material. Photographs are not necessarily described separately but are noted within the file description. There is some evidence within the collection that Jack Sweeney kept subject files made up of letters from a number of different correspondents, for example concerning the death of Robert Lowell. It seems that the contents of such files were at some stage redistributed amongst the files of correspondence for each individual. 1. Conrad Potter Aiken 1 2. Mary Hoover Aiken 4 3. Una Gwynn Albery 5 4. William ‘Buzz’ Alexander 6 5. William ‘Bill’ Alfred 7 6. Lee Anderson 11 7. W.H. Auden 12 8. Michael Ayrton 13 9. Herschel Baker 13 10. Wendy Beck 14 11. John Beecher 14 12. Bruce Bennett 15 13. John Berryman 16 14. John Betjeman 16 15. Katherine Garrison Chapin Biddle and Francis Biddle 17 16. Elizabeth Bishop 18 17. Thomas Blackburn 19 vi 18. Alan Martin Boase 20 19. William H. Bond 20 20. Yves Bonnefoy 21 21. Philip Booth 22 22. Francis James Ronald Bottrall 23 23. Muriel Clara Bradbrook 23 24. John O. Brew 23 25. Douglas Geoffrey Bridson 24 26. Donald G. Brien 24 27. Jacob Bronowski and Rita Bronowski 25 28. Esther and Peter Brooks 25 29. Rene Kuhn Bryant and Douglas Bryant 26 30. Gertrude Buckman 27 31. William S. Burroughs 28 32. Douglas Bush and Hazel Bush 28 33. Henri Cartier-Bresson 29 34. John E. Castellini 29 35. Jean Valentine Chace 30 36. Margaret Chanler 31 37. Austin Clarke 31 38. William F. Clarke 33 39. Alvin Langdon Coburn 34 40. Maurice S. Coctin 35 41. Jane Rabb Cohen 36 42. Carvel Collins 36 43. Cecil Collins 37 44. Horatio Colony 37 vii 45. Padraic Colum 38 46. Jill Ker Conway and John Conway 40 47. Barrie Cooke 41 48. Cid Corman 44 49. Annette Brinckerhoff Cottrell and Bill Cottrell 45 50. Maurice Craig 46 51. Robert Creeley 47 52. E.E. [Edward Estlin] Cummings and Marion 47 Morehouse 53. Marjorie Davenport and John Davenport and Family 51 54. Wilfrid Desan and Betty Desan 51 55. Denis Devlin 52 56. Mr & Mrs L.V. Dodge 52 57. Elizabeth Drew 53 58. Richard Eberhart and Betty Eberhart 54 59. Joseph Léon Edel 59 60. Vicky, Georges and Susan ‘Sue’ Edelen 62 61. Thomas Stearns Eliot 62 62. Valerie Eliot [Esmé Valerie Fletcher] 66 63. Henry Eliot and Therese Eliot née Garrett 66 64. William Everson/Brother Antoninus 67 65. Monroe Engel 68 66. Padraic Fallon 68 67. Stephen B. Fossett 69 68. William R. Ferguson 70 69. Dudley Fitts 70 70. Robert Stuart Fitzgerald and Sally Fitzgerald 71 71. Barbara Foster 75 viii 72. Robert Francis 76 73. Robert Lee Frost 76 74. Myron P. Gilmore 81 75. Andrew L. Glaze 82 76. Agnes Grace 82 77. Robert Graves 82 78. Arthur Gregor 83 79. Horace Gregory and Marya Zaturenska and Patrick 83 Gregory 80. Thomas Gunn 86 81. Donald Hall 86 82. Mason Hammond and Florence Pierson Hammond 87 83. Jim Harrison 88 84. Seamus Heaney and Marie Heaney née Devlin 89 85. John Hewitt 90 86. Philip Hofer 91 87. Gerald Holton 92 88. Robert Hooker 92 89. Celia Thaxter Hubbard 93 90. Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath Hughes 93 91. William James 95 92. Joseph E. Jeffs 97 93. David Jones 97 94. Pierre Jean Jouve 104 95. Walter J. Kaiser and Neva Rockefeller Kaiser 105 96. Patrick Kavanagh 105 97. John V. Kelleher 106 98. Joseph Joel Keith 109 ix 99. X.J. ‘Joe’ Kennedy 110 100. Galway Kinnell 111 101. Thomas Kinsella 111 102.