Scope and arrangement
The Charles A. Frye Papers, 1964-1995, reflect the teaching and writer career of this professor of African and African American philosophy, religion, and literature.
The Personal series consists of resumes, obituaries, correspondence for his jobs searches (1976-1994), and a script for "The Claudia and Charles Show", the literary show that Frye and his wife Claudia presented in England in 1993. The Teaching career series contains primarily administrative material from the various colleges where he taught. Included are annual reports for the Center for African and African American Studies at Southern University at New Orleans; his appointments at the various colleges; student evaluations; proposals that he wrote; projects that he initiated; and his personal leave file. There is an extensive tenure and promotion file he prepared for Prairie View College (1985-1988), and appointment and reappointment material and syllabi for the University of Massachusetts. There is limited information about the Afro-American Studies Department at Howard University. Frye organized these files in reverse chronological order by name of college; this arrangement has been maintained. The Correspondence series includes correspondence with colleagues, among them Fela Sowande, one of his professors at Howard University. Correspondence dealing with conferences pertains to themes of multiculturalism, literature, Black studies curricula, and related subjects. The Institute of the Black World file contains conference papers by St. Clair Drake and James Turner. Correspondence with publishers discusses manuscripts that Frye submitted for publication, including his novel The Peter Pan Chronicles.
The Writings series, 1964-1993, contains drafts and in some instances, photocopies and background materials for articles and other writing, most of which were published. Among other topics, he wrote about African and African American studies, Black philosophy, and aspects of his study of the Don Juan figure. Included are some of his college papers, Master's thesis and Ph.D. dissertation, academic books, The Peter Pan Chronicles, an unpublished screenplay, "Solina," short stories, and poems. Manuscripts for his unpublished novel, "A Good Night's Leap", his unfinished study "Peasant Ways of Knowing", and papers presented at seminars and conferences also form part of this series.
Additionally, there are files pertaining to Frye's consultancies and board membership, reference material including papers presented at conferences, and a number of articles by Fela Sowande.
The Charles A. Frye papers are arranged in eight series:
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1960-1995
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1972-1999
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1972-1994
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1964-1994
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1971-1994
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1967-1993
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1874-1971