Inventory of the John Myers O'Hara Papers, 1908-1942 The Newberry Library Roger and Julie Baskes Department of Special Collections 60 West Walton Street Chicago, Illinois 60610-7324 USA Phone: 312-255-3506 Fax: 312-255-3646 E-Mail: specialcolls@newberry.org URL: http://www.newberry.org Machine-readable finding aid encoded by Lisa Janssen, 2003. ©2000.

Administrative Information

Cite As

John Myers O'Hara Papers, Midwest Manuscript Collection, The Newberry Library, Chicago.

Provenance

Gift of John Hervey, 1955

Processed by

Amy Nyholm, 1955; Virginia H. Smith, 2000.

Acknowledgements

This inventory was created with the generous support of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this inventory do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Access

The John Myers O'Hara Papers are open for research in the Special Collections Reading Room; 1 box at a time (Priority III).

Ownership and Literary Rights

The John Myers O'Hara Papers are the physical property of the Newberry Library. Copyright may belong to the authors or their legal heirs or assigns. For permission to publish or reproduce any materials from this collection, contact the Roger and Julie Baskes Department of Special Collections.

Biography of John Myers O'Hara

Lawyer and stockbroker, but notably a writer of poetry, prose and literary translations.

Born into a wealthy family of Chicago in 1870, John O'Hara was educated and then practiced law in that city until he moved permanently to New York in his early thirties. He worked on Wall Street as a broker and although he and his whole family lost their fortunes in the 1929 crash and the subsequent depression, O'Hara continued not only to work in a brokerage house but carried on his life-long activity of writing and publishing poetry. Much of O'Hara's output was entirely his own, including volumes of sonnets and rather creative translations of Greek, Roman and French authors. He also produced poetical works purported to be translations of foreign literature but which actually were completely original works like Poems of Ming Wu (1941) and Xochicuicatl (1940).

When O'Hara's interpretation of the Poems of Sappho appeared in 1907 it was a critical success and later his own poetry collections, such as Pagan Sonnets, Manhattan, Threnodies and his last book Embers in 1921, received favorable notice. He was well-known and active in the poetical circles of his day, which is evident in his lengthy correspondence with several women writers, most notably Sara Teasdale.

John Myers O'Hara died in 1944.

Scope and Content of the Collection

Collection of incoming correspondence, 1910-1942 - the bulk from poet Sara Teasdale -- and duplicate copies of some of the works of John Myers O'Hara, 1935-1943.

There are 446 letters and related items in the collection, of which 263 are from Sara Teasdale. The other correspondents were almost all women poets, with 52 letters from Jessie B. Rittenhouse, and 73 letters from Corinne Roosevelt Robinson. The rest of the collection consists of manuscript duplicates of O'Hara's poems and translations; manuscripts of each of these items are cataloged individually and shelved separately. The collection is significant because of the Teasdale letters, which reflect much of Teasdale's life during the period of 1908 to 1914.

Narrative descriptions of the subject matter, types of material, and arrangement of each series are available through the Organization section of the finding aid.

Papers are organized in the following series:

Series 1: Incoming Correspondence, 1910-1942. Box(es) 1

Letters and related items sent to John Myers O'Hara from 14 correspondents: Bebe Daniels (2); Alice Dunne (5); John Hervey (1); J. Howland (1); Jeannette E. McKee (1); Catherine Markham (7); Helene Mullins (5); Jessie B. Rittenhouse (52); Corinne Roosevelt Robinson (73); Corinne E. Schwartz (1); Leonora Speyer (15); Blanche Shoemaker Wagstaff (18); Calla Wallace (2). Arranged alphabetically by correspondent.

Arranged alphabetically by correspondent.

Series 2: Sara Teasdale Incoming Correspondence, 1908-1914. Box(es) 2

Sara Teasdale letters to John Myers O'Hara (263 items)

Arranged chronologically.

Series 3: Works, 1935-1943. Box(es) 3

Duplicates of the works of John Myers O'Hara; originals shelved separately. The titles are: Christ and the Faun; Epigrams of Nossis; For Allah's Answer; Graffiti; A Grecian Garland; Greek Epitaphs; Kawi Idyls; Pagan Sonnets; Poems of Ming Wu; Regnier's Mythologic Scenes; Te Fare Ute; Xochicuicatl.

Arranged alphabetically.

Selected Search Terms

The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the Newberry Library's public catalog. Researchers desiring additional materials on a particular topic should search the catalog using these headings.

Names

• Daniels, Bebe, 1901-1971
• Dunne, Alice
• Markham, Catherine
• Mullins, Helene, 1899-
• O'Hara, John Myers, 1870-1944
• Rittenhouse, Jessie Belle, 1869-1948
• Robinson, Corinne Roosevelt, 1861-1933
• Speyer, Leonora, 1872-1956
• Teasdale, Sara, 1884-1933
• Wagstaff, Blanche Shoemaker, 1888-
• Wallace, Calla

Subjects

• Correspondence, 1908-1914
• Manuscripts, American
• New York (N.Y.)--Intellectual life--History--20th century-Sources
• Poems, 1935-1943
• Poets, American--History--20th century--Sources
• Women poets, American--History--20th century--Sources

Container List