Robert Beum collection

Collection – Box: 1

Identifier: MS-0777

Staff Only

Collection Overview

Abstract

Personal papers including correspondence between Frederick Eckman from 1992-1996 and a memoir by Robert Beum on his relationship with Frederick Eckman and the Golden Goose Press.

Dates

Creation: 1992-1998

Extent

0.25 Cubic Feet (1 half legal archive box)

Creator

Beum, Robert Lawrence (Person)

Scope and Contents

The Robert Beum Collection includes correspondence between Frederick Eckman from 1992-1996, and a memoir by Robert Beum on his relationship with Frederick Eckman and the Golden Goose Press.

The correspondence between Beum and Eckman begins in 1992 when, after a silence of some thirty years, the two renewed their friendship and began to share reminiscences about old friends as well as describe life around retirement age. Their exchanges on the poets and writers they knew provides an interesting look at the personal lives of some well-known mid-twentieth century writers including Karl Shapiro and Richard Wirz Emerson. Researchers will also want to consult the Frederick Eckman Collection (MS 775) for additional material, especially dealing with the late 1940s and early 1950s.

Biographical / Historical

Robert Lawrence Beum was born August 20, 1929 in Mount Vernon, Ohio. He received his education at the Ohio State University (B.A., 1952; M.A., 1958) and did postgraduate work at the University of Nebraska (1958-1962). During his career, he has been a member of the English faculty at a number of colleges in the midwest and Canada. Beum has continued to publish poetry (sometimes under the pseudonym Robert Lawrence) as well as literary criticism. His poetry includes The Ninth Hour (1949), Orpheus and Other Poems (1959), and Ten for the Light (1971). His critical works have included Edmund Spenser: Epithalamion (1968), The Poetic Art of William Butler Yeats (1969), A Prosody Handbook (1965, with Karl Shapiro), and Nineteenth Century French Poets (2000).

While a student at the Ohio State University, he became an assistant editor of the Golden Goose Press, where he was acquainted with Richard Wirz Emerson and Frederick Eckman (MS 775). The correspondence in this collection documents the renewal of his acquaintance with Frederick Eckman and focuses not only on contemporary life and work, but also reminiscences of writers and academics known to both men during the late 1940s and early 1950s.

Conditions Governing Access

No known access restrictions.

Conditions Governing Use

Researchers using this collection assume full responsibility for conforming to the laws of libel, privacy, and copyright, and are responsible for securing permissions necessary for publication or reproduction.