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Creator
Haste, Gwendolen
Call number
MssCol 1349
Physical description
3 linear feet (8 boxes)
Language
Materials in English
Preferred Citation

Gwendolen Haste papers, Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library

Repository
Manuscripts and Archives Division
Access to materials
Request an in-person research appointment.

Gwendolen Haste (1889-1979) was an American poet. She wrote poems and short stories, worked in public relations at the General Foods Corporation from 1926 to 1954, and was active in the Poetry Society of America. She won the Nation Poetry Prize in 1922. Collection consists of correspondence, writings, materials pertaining to Haste's work at General Foods, photographs, and printed matter. Correspondence concerns her work and personal and family matters. Writings include published and unpublished poems, short stories, reminiscences, 1908 and 1912 diaries she kept at the University of Chicago, travel journals, and literary notebooks. General Foods materials contain memoranda, drafts of newsletter Haste edited, and lectures. Also, photographs of Haste and her relatives, and biographical information.

Biographical/historical information

American poet Gwendolyn Haste was born on December 4, 1889 in Streator, Indiana. She lived there and in Wisconsin during her early life. After graduating from the University of Chicago, in 1912, she wrote poems and short stories for several years. During this time Haste also helped her father edit the farm journal The Scientific Farmer, first in Lincoln, Nebraska and then Billings, Montana. During World War I, she spent a year at a munitions factory where she was a laboratory assistant. Haste then spent several more years in Montana, finally coming to New York in 1924 when she was hired as Editorial Assistant of The Survey. She left The Survey in 1926 when she became Public Relations Assistant for the General Foods Corporation, a position which she held until her retirement in 1954.

Miss Haste was winner of the Nation Poetry Prize in 1922 with "The Ranch In The Coulee". Her collection of poems Young Land was published by Coward McCann in 1930. She was secretary of the Poetry Society of America in 1928 and 1929 and served on the Board of Directors until 1936. Ahsahta Press published The Selected Poems of Gwendolyn Haste in 1978.

Gwendolyn Haste passed away on April 18, 1979.

Scope and arrangement

The papers of Gwendolyn Haste are arranged in the following order: Correspondence, Diaries, Writings, Travel Journals, Literary Notebooks and Scrapbooks, General Foods Corporation Material, Biographical and Publicity Material and Photographs.

The Correspondence has been sub-divided in two groups: letters received and letters to/from her parents. Letters received, 1900-1964, are in chronological order and rough alphabetical order within the year. There is much correspondence with her friend Basil Brown, while he was serving with the Australian Imperial Force in France and Belgium during World War I and friend and fellow poet Grace Coates. There are letters from her publisher Edward K. Innes, of Innes & sons, Philadelphia, 1919-1920, and material regarding her attempts to get poems published. The letters to and from her parents, primarily outgoing and undated (ca. 1920s), reflect her life in Greenwich Village, especially her job seeking, social life and theatre going.

The Diaries were kept by Haste, one in 1908 and the other in 1912, while she was a student at the University of Chicago, reflecting social and academic activities and vacations home.

The Writings include poems, published and unpublished, short stories (alphabetical by title), typescript of "Pattern of Time", (reminiscences of her life and friends), skits, college themes and her reminiscences of American poet and editor Harriet Monroe.

The Journals, Notebooks and Scrapbooks consist of the following: journal kept in Paris and London, August 10-September 19, 1929; journal of trip to Italy, May 20-June 18, 1951; journal of trip to Greece, July 12-September 3, 1957, on tour with approximately thirty companions on the "Olympia"; portions of journal of a trip to Chicago, 1953; scrapbook, 1913-1932, containing clippings of published poems by Haste, memorabilia and a few letters from editors and anthologists; scrapbook, 1917-1919, containing memorabilia of World War I and of Haste's work at a munitions laboratory in Amatol, N. J.; literary notebooks, two volumes, containing notes from readings and rough drafts of poems.

The General Foods Corporation Material pertains to Haste's work in the company's Consumer Services Department. Includes memos, drafts of newsletter she edited and General Foods' "Current Literature Lectures", ca. 1937-1938.

The Biographical and. Publicity Material includes information about Haste, lists of published works of hers, notes and clippings.

The Photographs are of Haste and relatives.

The Gwendolen Haste papers are arranged in two series:

Administrative information

Source of acquisition

1972; 1973; 1975, Received from Gwendolyn Haste; James F. Carr

Processing information

Accessioned by LB, October 1988

Using the collection

Location

Manuscripts and Archives Division
Stephen A. Schwarzman Building
Fifth Avenue at 42nd Street, New York, NY 10018-2788
Brooke Russell Astor Reading Room, Third Floor, Room 328

Alternative form available

Entire collection available on microfilm; New York Public Library; *ZL-321