Correspondence, writings, and photographs documenting the work of Marion Cummings Stanley Slonimsky and her relationship with Sara Teasdale. Letters from Teasdale to Cummings discuss her writing and publishing, health, relationships, and social circles. Several letters discuss the lives of Grace Parrish, Williamina “Will” Parrish, and Caroline Risque, all members of “The Potters,” a St. Louis based women’s art and literature collective. Teasdale also mentions her relationships with John Myers O’Hara, Vachel Lindsay, and John Hall Wheelock. Also includes a few pieces of correspondence between Teasdale biographer Margaret Haley Carpenter of Norfolk, Virginia and Henry Slonimsky.

The correspondence from Teasdale to Cummings was originally restricted until 1980 due to the content of the letters. In a November 29, 1957 letter to Newberry director Stanley Pargellis, Margaret Carpenter wrote, “I deeply feel that these letters should NOT be used by anyone for a long time, as they might be wholly misunderstood. Sara Teasdale and Marion Cummings loved each other very much; it was a spiritual love entirely, but both of them had natures capable of deep feeling, and some of the things that they wrote might be completely misunderstood; that is the best way that I can express it. Also, some of the people mentioned in these letters have relatives still living today…they are the relatives of the girlhood friends of Sara Teasdale.”

Writings by Cummings are primarily typescripts of poems, unpublished poetry anthologies, and philosophical works. Her philosophical works include many fragments, and titles such as “Western Change and the Immobility of Asiatic Civilizations” and “Chinese Ethical Rationalism versus the Moral Instinctivism of the West.” Henry Slonimsky stated that Cummings’ later works for influenced by World War I, and focus on political and sociological topics. Teasdale’s works are mostly manuscript poems sent to Cummings and include some fragments that were likely originally part of a letter. Also includes photographs, with portraits of Teasdale inscribed to Cummings, portraits of Cummings, snapshots of the two, and miscellaneous and unidentified images.