Restrictions to Access

No restrictions. Open for research.

Copyright Notice

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

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], in the Lewis Gaston Leary papers #4110, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Received from Lewis Leary of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, in November 1976 and July 1985.

Sensitive Materials Statement

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. § 132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assumes no responsibility.

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The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.

Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.

• American poetry--History and criticism.
• College teachers--United States--History--20th century.
• Columbia University--Faculty--History--20th century.
• Critics--United States--History--20th century.
• Duke University--Faculty--History--20th century.
• Leary, Lewis Gaston, 1906-1990.
• Literature--History and criticism.
• Pound, Ezra, 1885-1972.
• Trilling, Lionel, 1905-1975.
• University of Miami. Faculty--History--20th century.
• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill--Faculty--History--20th century.
• Van Doren, Mark, 1894-1972.
• Warren, Robert Penn, 1905-1989.

Lewis Gaston Leary, Jr., son of Lewis Gaston, a Presbyterian clergyman, and Beatrice Knight Leary, was born 18 April 1906 in Blauvelt, New York. In 1928, he received a B.S. in education from the University of Vermont. He received an M.A. in English in 1932 and a Ph.D. in 1941, both from Columbia University. On 7 March 1932, he married Mary Warren Hudson. They had two children, Carolyn Warren (Mrs. William Bartholet) and Martha Hudson (Mrs. Ted Allen).

Leary was an instructor in English at the American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon, from 1928 to 1931. He taught English at the University of Miami from 1935 to 1941 and at Duke University, 1941-1951. In 1951, he returned to Columbia University as a professor of English, serving as chairman of the Department of English and Comparative Literature from 1962 to 1968. He was William Rand Kenan Professor of English at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill from 1968 until his retirement in 1976. In 1976, Leary received the Jay B. Hubbell Award for distinguished service in the study of American literature, presented by the American Literature Section of the Modern Language Association.

Leary wrote or edited numerous books on American authors, including works on Philip Freneau, Nathaniel Tucker, Mark Twain, John Greenleaf Whittier, Ezra Pound, Herman Melville, Henry David Thoreau, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and William Faulkner.

Correspondence, subject files, writings, and photographs of Leary and others. Correspondence is with writers and other critics and scholars. It includes letters, 1954 and 1972(?), from Robert Penn Warren (1905- ); 1928-1964, from Marc Van Doren (1894-1972); and 1944-1968, from Lionel Trilling (1905-1975). These letters discuss academic and critical matters, and include some letters from Van Doren and Trilling to persons other than Leary. Also included are letters, 1952-1970, between Leary and poet Ezra Pound and others related to the publication of books and articles by Leary about Pound's work; and letters, 1909-1932, to A. H. Thorndike (1871-1933), professor of English at Columbia University, concerning academic and scholarly matters. Subject files deal largely with Leary's experiences as a faculty member, especially at Columbia University.

• Photographs (PF-4110/1-6)