Walter Rice Hard Papers
Scope and Content
The Walter Hard Papers consist of three cartons and one box of manuscripts, newpaper clippings and printed material. Mr. Hard's writings dominate the collection, in the form of clippings of his newspaper columns, drafts of his plays and stories, typescripts and manuscripts of his poems, and different versions of several of his books. The Papers have been arranged by type or subject, with correspondence, newspaper columns, poetry and prose constituting the four main categoies. The correspondence section includes letters from many noted Vermonters -- George D. Aiken, Daniel L. Cady, Sarah N. Cleghorn, Walter J. Coates, Dorothy C. Fisher, Helen H. Flanders, Vrest Orton and Wendell P. Stafford -- as well as from such national figures as Hervey [??] Allen, Stephen V. Benet, Carl Carmer, Carl Sandburg and Alexander Woollcott [??]. With the exception of the newspaper columns, grouped chronologically, the material within each section has been placed in alphabetical order. The bound volumes in the collection have been grouped together at the back of the Papers.
Dates
- 1894-1967
Creator
- Hard, Walter R. (Person)
Access:
Collection is open for research.
Publication Rights:
All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Curator of Manuscripts.
Background
Probably Vermont's most popular native-born twentieth century poet, Walter Rice Hard was born in Manchester on May 3, 1882, the son of Jessie N. and Eliza Pennock Hard. After graduating from Burr and Burton Seminary in Manchester, Hard went on to Williams College but dropped out in his senior year to take over the family drugstore following the death of his father. He began his career as a writer in the early 1920's with columns in the Manchester Journal and Rutland Herald, closing each with a free verse poem on some Vermont theme or subject. Walter Hard's poems proved quite popular, and they came out in a number of well-received and critically-esteemed volumes, beginning with Some Vermonters in 1928 and including Salt of Vermont (1931), A Mountain Township (1933), Vermont Vintage (1937), Vermont Valley (1939), Vermont Salt and Vintage (1941), A Matter of FiftyHouses (1952), Vermont Neighbors (1960), and A Vermont Sampler (1963). Mr. Hard also published two prose volumes about his native state, co-authoring This Is Vermont with his wife, Margaret Steel Hard, in 1936, and contributing The Connecticut to the Rivers of America series in 1947. In 1936 he and his wife sold the drugstore to become full-time proprietors of the Johnny Appleseed Bookshop, which their daughter had opened in Manchester seven years earlier. In addition to running the bookshop and continuing his writing, Hard also served one term in the Vermont House in 1937 and followed that with four consecutive terms in the state Senate. Walter Rice Hard, Sr.[????] died in Manchester in 1966.
Extent
3.4 Linear Feet (Three cartons, one box)
Language of Materials
English
Abstract
The Walter Hard Papers consist of three cartons and one box of manuscripts, newpaper clippings and printed material. Mr. Hard's writings dominate the collection, in the form of clippings of his newspaper columns, drafts of his plays and stories, typescripts and manuscripts of his poems, and different versions of several of his books.
Physical Location
Library Research Annex; contact uvmsc@uvm.edu for access.
- Title
- Guide to the Walter Rice Hard Papers, 1894-1967
- Status
- Completed
- Date
- 1998
- Language of description
- Undetermined
- Script of description
- Code for undetermined script
- Language of description note
- English
Repository Details
Part of the University of Vermont Libraries, Special Collections Repository
Silver Special Collections Library
48 University Place, Room B201
Burlington Vermont 05405 U.S.A. US
(802) 656-2138
(802) 656-4038 (Fax)
uvmsc@uvm.edu
