Roger Asselineau Walt Whitman Collection
- TxAM-CRS 94
- Collection
- 1842-2002; Undated
This consists, aside from the group of 900 or so monographs collected by Asselineau, chiefly of correspondence, accompanied by handwritten drafts of reviews written in ink or pencil by Asselineau on slips of paper, apparently placed in the relevant book on his shelf as a file. The correspondence and draft of reviews are often associated with clippings, photographs or snapshots, offprints, programs, newsletters, and a few postcards.
Most of these manuscript materials were found in the process of cataloging the monograph collection, apparently filed by Asselineau in volumes of his monograph collection, usually related to the author of the book into which he inserted the materials over a period of years. A title page of the relevant book into which the manuscript materials were found inserted is now clipped to the materials in the collection folder and the call number of the book written on the photocopied title page in pencil. Also present are musical scores of adaptations of Whitman's poetry, and quite a few copies of the Walt Whitman Circle quarterly newsletter, published by composer and Whitman enthusiast, Robert Strassburg.
Series 1 includes notable correspondents such as Gay Wilson Allen, V. K. Chari, Betsy Erkkila, Ed Folsom, Donald D. Kummings, Jerome Loving, Robert Strassburg, and Leandro Wolfson.
Series 2 consists of a bound manuscript book entitled "Walt Whitman on Burns and a Portrait Gallery of Walt Whitman". The book measures 21 cm by 13 cm and is bound in green half-calf with marbled boards. According to a letter pasted into the book, it was apparently purchased by Roger Asselineau on August 20, 1942, from Alfred F. Goldsmith of New York, NY. Twenty-seven leaves of the manuscript book are filled with mostly photographic portraits of Walt Whitman, a few obviously cut from published works, and one leaf containing a section from a page of a handwritten manuscript in pencil and ink, labeled "Rough draft of a page in 'Robert Burns as poet and person' in November Boughs (p. 61)." Twenty other leaves of the book are left blank.
Series 3 consists of four folders with programs, offprints, and newspaper clippings collected by Asselineau. Contains manuscripts with commentary and suggestions (1856-2000), programs, announcements and catalogs (1963-2000), and clippings collected (1962-1992) regarding the life of Walt Whitman, his writings, collections, and offprints.
Series 4 contains over 900 monographs collected by Asselineau, these materials are cataloged separately in the Library of Congress classification and housed in the Cushing repository stacks as part of the Lit/Whitman collection. These monographs include first editions of Walt Whitman's works, particularly Leaves of Grass, many translations of the poem into an incredible variety of languages, biographies, and other scholarly works. The breadth of Asselineau's scholarly activity and acquaintance is well represented by the amount of correspondence and other memorabilia which was found inserted into these volumes.
Sans titre