Edith Pope Papers

Collection

Identifier: MS Group 003

Staff Only

Scope and Content

Correspondence, diaries, notebooks, manuscripts, newspaper clippings, photographs, and memorabilia. The papers, which span 1899-1961, are arranged and described in two series, 1)Correspondence and 2) Manuscripts and Miscellaneous Papers.

The Edith Pope correspondence, dated from 1919 to 1961, includes almost 1400 letters by and to family, friends, editors and publishers, and others. The correspondence is arranged in two groups: Letters by Pope and Letters to Pope. Correspondents include Julia Scribner Bigham, Anna Forbes Liddell, Hardwick Moseley, Max Perkins, Kitty Poole, Orville Prescott, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, Charles Scribner, and Owen Young.

The Manuscripts include drafts of her published novels, Colcorton (1944), River in the Wind (1954), and the juvenile book Biggety Chameleon, of the unpublished novel "Well Met at Morning" and her biography of Francis Marion. Also included in the Manuscripts and Miscellaneous Papers series are published and unpublished short stories and poems, autobiographical writings, diaries, newspaper clippings, photographs, and memorabilia.

Dates

Creation: 1899-1961

Creator

Pope, Edith, 1905-1961. (Person)

Access

The collection is open to research.

Usage Restrictions

Copyright to this material, with the exception of letters by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings has not been assigned to the University of Florida. Users are responsible for acquiring copyright permission, when required.

Biographical/Historical Note

Edith Pope was born in St. Augustine, Florida, on July 23, 1905. Her parents were Florence and A.M. Taylor, a local banker and Florida state senator. After attending the Baldwin School in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, she matriculated to the Florida State College for Women, now Florida State University. She received a B.A. degree in 1928, and a M.A. degree from Columbia University (1931). In 1933, she married Verle A. Pope of St. Augustine, later a state senator (1949-1972) and president of the Florida Senate (1967). Her writing career began early. Black Lagoon and Other Verses (1926), her first book, was published while she was still in college, and her first novel, Not Magnolia (1928), the year she graduated. Two additional titles, Old Lady Esteroy (1934), and Half Holiday (1938), were also published under her maiden name Edith Everett Taylor. Her later works Colcorton (1944), River in the Wind (1954), and the juvenile Biggety Chameleon (1946) were authored under the name of Edith Pope. This change of name confused reviewers into believing that her most successful work, Colcorton, was a "first novel."

Extent

10 Linear feet (24 boxes)

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Abstract

Correspondence, diaries, notebooks, manuscripts, newspaper clippings, photographs, memorabilia, and other papers created by or about author, Edith Pope.

Arrangement

The letters in the Correspondence series are both filed and described as follows: Letters by Pope (Boxes 1-3) and to Pope (4-13). The letters by Pope are arranged as letters to her father, to her mother, and to others (alphabetically/chronologically). Some letters bear salutations to "Parents," or "Family," and may be filed in either section, depending upon the name on the envelope or other criteria. Letters to Rawlings and others are arranged alphabetically, then chronologically in Box 3. Letters to Pope (Box 4-13) are filed alphabetically by the name of the writer, then chronologically. A few third party letters are among the letters to Pope. In all lists, letters identifiable only by first name are so-filed. Letters that can not be identified at all are at the end of the lists.