TABLE OF CONTENTS
Descriptive Summary of the Collection
Biography of Edith Franklin Wyatt
Scope and Content of the Collection
Series 1: Outgoing Correspondence, n.d., - 1955
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Inventory of the Edith Franklin Wyatt Papers, 1894-1968, bulk 1894-1955
Machine-readable finding aid encoded by Lisa Janssen, 2003. ©2000. |
Descriptive Summary of the Collection |
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| Creator | Wyatt, Edith Franklin, 1873-1958 |
| Title | Edith Franklin Wyatt Papers |
| Dates | 1894-1968, |
| Dates | bulk 1894-1955 |
| Extent | 2.6 linear feet (3 boxes and 1 oversize case) |
| Abstract | Correspondence of Chicago writer and social activist Edith Franklin Wyatt, plus drafts of works, contracts, scrapbooks, clippings and mementos. |
| Language | Materials are in English. |
| Repository | Newberry Library, Roger and Julie Baskes Department of Special Collections |
| Collection Call Number | Midwest MS Wyatt |
| Collection Stack Location | 3a 44 3 |
Administrative Information
Cite As
Edith Franklin Wyatt Papers, The Newberry Library, Chicago.
Provenance
Gift of Faith Wyatt, 1959
Processed by
Amy Nyholm, 1965; Virginia H. Smith, 2001
Acknowledgements
This inventory was created with the generous support of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this inventory do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Access
The Edith Franklin Wyatt Papers are open for research in the Special Collections Reading Room; 5 folders at a time maximum (Priority II).
Ownership and Literary Rights
The The Edith Franklin Wyatt Papers are the physical property of the Newberry Library. Copyright may belong to the authors or their legal heirs or assigns. For permission to publish or reproduce any materials from this collection, contact the Roger and Julie Baskes Department of Special Collections.
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Biography of Edith Franklin Wyatt
Chicago author of novels, short stories, poetry, social commentary and literary criticism.
Edith Franklin Wyatt was born in Tomah, Wisconsin in 1873 but lived almost her entire life in Chicago. Her father was a railroad and mining engineer and her mother a published poet, so her early years engendered many interests. After two years at Bryn Mawr College, 1892-1894, and five years of teaching at a local girls' school, Wyatt's first publication in 1900 was entitled "Three Stories of Contemporary Chicago." This work was greatly admired by William Dean Howells, who became her friend and literary champion.
During the century's first decade, while teaching at Hull House and being active in The Little Room, Wyatt produced her best fiction, including short stories in Every One His Own Way (1901) and her first novel True Love (1903). At the same time she began to produce work that reflected her commitment to social causes and she became in great demand as a social commentator and Progressive activist, writing on themes of working-class women, child labor, stockyard animal abuses and other societal problems she observed in Chicago. Although she continued to write stories and poetry, and was one of the founders of Poetry magazine, Wyatt's talents were best displayed in her articles in newspapers and magazines based on civic and social investigations, many of which were assigned by McClure's Magazine. Her first success in this vein was her report of the Cherry Mine Disaster in the Illinois coal fields, and she continued throughout her life to demonstrate her concerns with social issues and human welfare.
Wyatt had friendships with many outstanding people of her day, including William Dean Howells and his daughter. Through her work she was acquainted with Jane Addams, Janet Ayer Fairbank, Dorothy Canfield Fisher, Henry B. Fuller, Vachel Lindsay, John T. McCutcheon, Edgar Lee Masters, Theodore Roosevelt, Karl Shapiro, Ida Tarbell, Booth Tarkington and Edmund Wilson. Wyatt, who never married, died in Chicago in 1958.
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Scope and Content of the Collection
Part of the collection consists of correspondence, primarily incoming regarding her work, with a few letters about her rather than to her. There are manuscript copies and excerpts of her writings, a few examples of published articles and mementos, numerous newspaper clippings and reviews, and five scrapbooks of miscellaneous material which reflect her interests and work. Also, a manuscript of an annotated edition of Wyatt's work on William Dean Howells, by Rudolf and Clara Kirk in 1968.
Narrative descriptions of the subject matter, types of material, and arrangement of each series are available through the Organization section of the finding aid.
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Organization
Papers are organized in the following series:
- Series 1: Outgoing Correspondence, n.d., - 1955. Box(es) 1
- Series 2: Incoming Correspondence, Etc., 1900-1955. Box(es) 1
- Series 3: Works, Etc., ca. 1901-1955. Box(es) 2-4
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Selected Search Terms
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the Newberry Library's public catalog. Researchers desiring additional materials on a particular topic should search the catalog using these headings.
Names
- Addams, Jane, 1860-1935
- Daland, Katharine
- Fairbank, Janet Ayer, 1878-1951
- Fisher, Dorothy Canfield, 1879-1958
- Fuller, Henry Blake, 1857-1929
- Howells, Mildred, b. 1872
- Howells, William Dean, 1837-1920
- Lindsay, Vachel, 1879-1931
- Masters, Edgar Lee, 1868-1950
- McClure's Magazine
- McCutcheon, John T. (John Tinney), 1870-1949
- Poetry
- Pound, Ezra, 1885-1972
- Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919
- Shapiro, Karl
- Tarbell, Ida M. (Ida Minerva), 1857-1944
- Tarkington., Booth, 1869-1946
- Wilson, Edmund B. (Edmund Beecher), 1856-1939
- Wyatt, Edith Franklin, 1873-1958
Subjects
- American Literature -- Illinois -- Chicago
- Chicago (Ill.) -- Intellectual life -- 20th century
- Chicago (Ill.) -- Social conditions
- Correspondence -- United States -- 1901-1950
- Manuscripts, American
- Scrapbooks -- Illinois -- 1851-1900
- Scrapbooks -- Illinois -- 1901-1950
- Social action -- Illinois - Chicago
- Social settlements -- Illinois -- Chicago
- Women novelists, American -- Illinois -- Chicago
- Women poets, American -- Illinois -- Chicago
- Women social reformers -- Illinois -- Chicago
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Container List
Series 1: Outgoing Correspondence, n.d., - 1955 |
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| Letters are mostly about Wyatt's work to friends, editors and publishers, including an undated rough draft of a letter to William Dean Howells. | |||||||||||
| Arranged chronologically. | |||||||||||
| Box | Folder | Contents | |||||||||
| 1 | 1 | Outgoing, n.d. | |||||||||
| 1 | 2 | Outgoing 1922-1929 | |||||||||
| 1 | 3 | Outgoing 1930-1939 | |||||||||
| 1 | 4 | Outgoing 1940-1948 | |||||||||
| 1 | 5 | Outgoing 1952-1955 | |||||||||
Series 2: Incoming Correspondence, Etc., 1900-1955 |
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| Letters mostly from admirers and writers, including Jane Addams, Janet Ayer Fairbank, Dorothy Canfield Fisher, Henry B. Fuller, Vachel Lindsay, John T. McCutcheon, Edgar Lee Masters, Theodore Roosevelt (thoughts regarding prostitution), Karl Shapiro, Ida Tarbell, Booth Tarkington and Edmund Wilson. Also a few miscellaneous published mementos and magazine illustrations, a copy of a letter from Ezra Pound to Lawrence Gilman and a letter from William James to "My Dear Pauline." | |||||||||||
| Arranged alphabetically. | |||||||||||
| Box | Folder | Contents | |||||||||
| 1 | 6 | Addams, Jane | |||||||||
| 1 | 7 | Ade, George | |||||||||
| 1 | 8 | Aldis, Dorothy | |||||||||
| 1 | 9 | Authors' League of America | |||||||||
| 1 | 10 | Baker, Martha-Burke, Father R. | |||||||||
| 1 | 11 | Brown, Phyllis Wyatt | |||||||||
| 1 | 12 | D-E | |||||||||
| 1 | 13 | Fairbank, Janet A. | |||||||||
| 1 | 14 | Fisher, Dorothy Canfield | |||||||||
| 1 | 15 | Folsom, William R. | |||||||||
| 1 | 16 | Fuller, Henry B. | |||||||||
| 1 | 17 | Gale, Zona--Gerstenberg, Alice | |||||||||
| 1 | 18 | Gilman, Lawrence (incl. Ezra Pound to Gilman) | |||||||||
| 1 | 19 | Ham, Roswell -- Hooker, Katherine | |||||||||
| 1 | 20 | Howells, Joseph A. | |||||||||
| 1 | 21 | Howells, Mildred | |||||||||
| 1 | 22 | Howells, William Dean | |||||||||
| 1 | 23 | Ilsley, Samuel | |||||||||
| 1 | 24 | James, William to "My Dear Pauline" | |||||||||
| 1 | 25 | Kelley, Florence | |||||||||
| 1 | 26 | Lindsay, Vachel | |||||||||
| 1 | 27 | Loesch, F. J. | |||||||||
| 1 | 28 | McCutcheon, John T. | |||||||||
| 1 | 29 | Martin, George Madden | |||||||||
| 1 | 30 | Masters, Edgar Lee | |||||||||
| 1 | 31 | Moldenhawer, J.V. -- Moore, E.M. | |||||||||
| 1 | 32 | Nightingale, Florence: repros of illustrations | |||||||||
| 1 | 33 | Perry, Ralph B. -- Post, Alice Thacher | |||||||||
| 1 | 34 | Roosevelt, Edith Kermit | |||||||||
| 1 | 35 | Roosevelt, Theodore | |||||||||
| 1 | 36 | Sanborn, Louise --Synon, Mary | |||||||||
| 1 | 37 | Tarbell, Ida | |||||||||
| 1 | 38 | Tarkington, Booth | |||||||||
| 1 | 39 | Trilling, Lionel | |||||||||
| 1 | 40 | U.S. Library of Congress | |||||||||
| 1 | 41 | Wilson, Edmund --Wilson, John A. | |||||||||
| 1 | 42 | Wyatt, Edith Franklin (clippings and biography) | |||||||||
| 1 | 43 | Wyatt, Marian Lagrange | |||||||||
| 1 | 44 | Young, Helen | |||||||||
Series 3: Works, Etc., ca. 1901-1955 |
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| Mainly manuscript copies of Wyatt's stories and articles, newspaper clippings, reviews, contracts and other published material, and five scrapbooks. Also typescript of Homage to William Dean Howells, edited by Rudolf and Clara Kirk, 1968, and a manuscript copy of Two Fairy Tales with original illustrations by Katharine Daland. The scrapbooks, which date ca. 1894-1944, contain a miscellany of manuscripts, printed items, illustrations, clippings, and memorabilia by and about Edith Wyatt and her work. | |||||||||||
| Arranged alphabetically, followed by scrapbooks. | |||||||||||
| Box | Folder | Contents | |||||||||
| 2 | 45 | A-D | |||||||||
| 2 | 46 | Everyone in His Own Way | |||||||||
| 2 | 47 | Fairy Stories | |||||||||
| 2 | 48 | Fatigue | |||||||||
| 2 | 49 | Great Companions | |||||||||
| 2 | 50 | History of a City Garden | |||||||||
| 2 | 51 | Homage to William Dean Howells (Wyatt typescript) | |||||||||
| 2 | 52 | Homage to William Dean Howells, ed. By R. and C. Kirk | |||||||||
| 2 | 53 | Invisible Gods | |||||||||
| 2 | 54 | L-M | |||||||||
| 2 | 55 | Poetry A Magazine of Verse (2 copies) | |||||||||
| 2 | 56 | Pursuit of Happiness | |||||||||
| 2 | 57 | Satyr's Children | |||||||||
| 2 | 58 | Sea-Horse | |||||||||
| 2 | 59 | Society of Midland Authors | |||||||||
| 2 | 60 | Symphony Concert, part 1 | |||||||||
| 2 | 61 | Symphony Concert, part 2 | |||||||||
| 2 | 62 | Trapped in the Mine | |||||||||
| 2 | 63 | True Love | |||||||||
| 2 | 64 | Two Fairy Tales | |||||||||
| 2 | 65 | What's Worth While | |||||||||
| 2 | 66 | Wind in the Corn | |||||||||
| 2 | 67 | Working Girls' Budgets | |||||||||
| 3 | 68 | Scrapbook, 1894-1931 | |||||||||
| 3 | 69 | Scrapbook, 1922-1943 | |||||||||
| 3 | 70 | Scrapbook, 1897-1924 | |||||||||
| 3 | 71 | Scrapbook, 1915-1942 | |||||||||
| 4 | Scrapbook (in oversize case), 1914-1944 | ||||||||||