William Alfred Letter

Collection

Identifier: MSS 0012

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

Alfred's letter from London congratulates Mr. and Mrs. Robert Lowell on the birth of their child. He also mentions an article from that morning's Daily Mail, a play, All that Fall, that had recently been on the radio, and ends with a poem, Old Baldy's Lullaby to his Ever-loving Soul.

Dates

1957

Creator

Alfred, William (Person)

Conditions Governing Access

Collection is open for research.

Conditions Governing Use

Copyright is retained by the creators of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information. Please see our Sensitive Materials Statement.

Biographical or Historical Information

William Alfred (1922-1999) was a playwright, poet and beloved Harvard professor specializing in early English literature. He was born in Brooklyn in 1922 to working-class parents; served in the Army tank corp in World War II; and received his doctoral degree in English from Harvard in 1954 before joining the faculty, where he stayed until 1991.

Alfred's works include: Hogan's Goat, Agamemnon, The Curse of an Aching Heart and Nothing Doing. Luminaries he taught, influenced, or corresponded with include: Faye Dunaway, Tommy Lee Jones, Stockard Channing, John Lithgow, Gertrude Stein, Archibald MacLeish, and Robert Lowell. Alfred was the recipient of the New York Drama Desk Award, and served on the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award poetry panels.

Extent

1.00 items (1 folder)

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Abstract

William Alfred (1922-1999) was a playwright, poet and beloved Harvard professor specializing in early English literature.

This letter is from Alfred in London to the poet Robert Lowell and his wife, on the occasion of the birth of their child.

Method of Acquisition

Unknown.

Related Materials

See also the William Alfred Collection at Brooklyn College Library.

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