Gail Godwin Papers, 1913-2017

Has Online Content

Some materials from this collection are available online.
Show only online content

Access restrictions

Some materials from this collection have restrictions.
See restrictions

Summary

Creator:
Godwin, Gail.
Abstract:

Gail Godwin, a white author, was born in Birmingham, Ala.; grew up in Asheville, N.C.; was graduated in 1959 from the University of North Carolina with a B.A. in journalism; and studied at the Iowa Writers' Workshop, earning an M.A. in creative writing and Ph.D. in English literature. She has published widely in fiction and non-fiction and taught in various colleges and universities. Godwin lives in Woodstock, N.Y. The Gail Godwin Papers consist of literary material related to her published and unpublished books, book reviews, essays, excerpts, libretti, novellas, and short stories. There are also publicity materials that document appearances, speaking engagements, honors, awards, interviews, book reviews, and articles about Godwin and her work. Personal materials include correspondence with family members, friends, fans, and other literary figures. Family correspondence and related materials pertain to members of the Cole, Godwin, Krahenbuhl, Rogers, and Zeigler families, but the bulk documents Godwin's relationships with her mother, Kathleen Cole, and with her grandmother, Edna Rogers Krahenbuhl. Other materials include Godwin's writings on writing and teaching, photographs, scholarly writing about Godwin, drawings, materials related to St. Hilda's Press, writings by others, dream diaries, and journals.

Extent:
15,000 items (62.0 linear feet)
Language:
Materials in English
Library Catalog Link:
View UNC library catalog record for this item

Background

Biographical / historical:

Gail Godwin (1937- ) was born in Birmingham, Ala., to Mose W. Godwin and Kathleen Krahenbuhl Godwin (later Cole). Her parents divorced when she was a child and she was raised by her mother and maternal grandmother, Edna Rogers Krahenbuhl. Kathleen was both parent and friend to Gail, and the close relationship between mother and daughter would be lifelong.

Kathleen (1912-1989) grew up in western North Carolina with her parents, Tom Krahenbuhl and Edna Rogers Krahenbuhl. She attended Greenville Womans College and then transferred to Furman University to finish her B.A. In 1935 she earned an M.A. in English from the University of North Carolina. Kathleen married Mose W. Godwin in 1936 and gave birth to Gail the following year. The marriage was shortlived. After the divorce, Kathleen supported her daughter and mother by teaching college English, reporting for the Asheville Citizen Times, and writing romance fictions under the names Kathleen Godwin and Charlotte Ashe. In 1948, she married Frank Cole and with him had three more children: Franchelle Cole, Tommy Cole, and Rebel Cole. Kathleen returned to creative writing after her children were grown, although not for financial gain. She also divorced Frank Cole and became active in local Episcopal churches and in the volunteer community of Asheville, N.C. Kathleen Cole died in 1989.

Kathleen's influence in her daughter's life is particularly evident in Gail's educational training and career path as a writer. As a child, Gail attended St. Genevieve-of-the-Pines Academy, a school run by Roman Catholic nuns in Asheville, N.C. She graduated from high school in 1955 in Portsmouth, Va., and enrolled in Peace Junior College in Raleigh, N.C. She continued her studies at the University of North Carolina, where she graduated in 1959 with a B.A. in journalism. While at the University of North Carolina, Gail wrote columns and feature articles for the student newspaper, the Daily Tar Heel.

After college, Gail moved to Florida to take a job as a reporter for the Miami Herald. A year later, she was fired by the bureau chief, who felt they had both failed to develop Gail's writing ability into good reporting. Frustrated by this setback in her writing career, she married Miami Herald photographer Doug Kennedy. The union, which lasted only three months, is described in her unpublished first novel, "Gull Key." Upon dissolution of her marriage, Gail returned briefly to western North Carolina, then embarked on an open-ended trip to Europe. She stayed six years. For most of that time, she worked for the U.S. Travel Service at the American Embassy in London and wrote novels and short stories in her spare time. In 1965, she married Ian Marshall, an English psychiatrist she met in a creative writing class. This marriage also proved to be brief, though it provided her with material for her first published novel, The Perfectionists.

After six years abroad, Godwin returned to the United States and enrolled in the Iowa Writers' Workshop, where she earned an M.A. in creative writing and a Ph.D. in English literature. The Perfectionists (1970) would serve as her dissertation. While at the Writers' Workshop, Gail studied creative writing under Kurt Vonnegut and with John Irving. Both would remain good friends of Godwin's, and the latter a regular correspondent and friendly critic.

After leaving Iowa City, Godwin accepted a fellowship at the University of Illinois, spent time at the Yaddo artist community in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., and occasionally taught writing courses at various New York schools, including Vassar College and Columbia University. In 1976, Godwin settled in Woodstock, N.Y., with composer Robert Starer, her companion until his death in April 2001.

In the course of several decades of full-time writing, Godwin has published extensively, including an number of bestselling and award-nominated books, dozens of short stories and essays, and ten musical works in collaboration with Starer. Godwin's body of work has garnered many honors, including three National Book Award nominations, a Guggenheim Fellowship, National Endowment for the Arts grants for both fiction and libretto writing, and the Award in Literature from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. Five of her novels have been on the New York Times best seller list.

Godwin lives and writes in Woodstock, N.Y.

Scope and content:

The collection consists of published and unpublished literary materials, correspondence, and other materials documenting the writing life of Gail Godwin, a white author with ties to North Carolina, Iowa City, Ia., and Woodstock, N.Y. The collection remains largely in the order as received.

Series 1 includes fiction and non-fiction books, book reviews, essays, excerpts, libretti, novellas, short stories, and other materials related to writing and publishing. For some published materials, there is only one draft; for others, there are several versions, which may range from typescript rough drafts to page proofs. In addition, for many of the published books, there are dust jackets; correspondence with publishers, editors, and other literary figures; plot, character, and theme notes; background research materials; draft folders with illustrations and writing timelines; reviews; and marketing and financial materials. The unpublished and abandoned writings often include partial drafts, but sometimes constitute no more than background research.

Other materials related to writing and publishing are located in Series 2. Included are writing notebooks; notes on writing and teaching; and research files with background material for "Mountain City," a fictional town created by the author that appears in some of her writings. Also included in this series are publicity files and scrapbooks that document appearances, speaking engagements, awards, honors, and newspaper clippings of interviews and feature articles about the author and her writing. Texts for some of the speeches given at appearances and speaking engagements are available. In addition, some of the appearances, speaking engagements, and interviews are also documented in the audio-visual materials series. A few of the publicity-related audio-visual materials are in Swedish. Separate subseries exist for scholarly writing about the author and for book reviews, some of which duplicate those collected in the scrapbooks. There is some material related to the establishment of St. Hilda's Press, formed by the Episcopal diocese of western North Carolina and interested individuals and funded by Gail Godwin. Miscellaneous materials in the projects series include drawings that may be related to the author's writing and photograph albums documenting the construction of her home in Woodstock, N.Y.

Many of the writing- and publishing-related series and subseries contain correspondence, but the vast majority of letters can be found in Series 3 and 4.1. The bulk of the correspondence in Series 3 consists of incoming letters from literary figures, including John Irving, Joyce Carol Oates, and Kurt Vonnegut; Godwin's agent, John Hawkins; her spiritual mentor, Gale Webbe; fans; family members; and friends. Topics include both personal and professional concerns. Friendships, family, the creative life, writing, and life events are often discussed. Family correspondence in Series 4.1 documents in great detail Godwin's relationships with her mother, Kathleen Cole, and with her grandmother, Edna Rogers Krahenbuhl, and the relationship between her mother and grandmother. Letters discuss home and school life, family news, money, love, and writing. There is some miscellaneous correspondence of Cole, Godwin, Krahenbuhl, and Zeigler family members, and some early correspondence of Gail Godwin.

Other materials in the family series include writing and research materials of Kathleen Cole; early writing of Gail Godwin, from childhood through her time at the Iowa Writers' Workshop; a small amount of family history materials; photographs; and miscellaneous personal items belonging to Gail Godwin, Kathleen Cole, Tommy Cole, and Edna Rogers Krahenbuhl, including calendars, school mementos, teenage scrapbooks, notebooks, drawings, a yearbook, diary, address book, and some financial materials. Materials created by non-family members, including Godwin's second husband, Ian Marshall, and her companion, Robert Starer, are located in the miscellaneous materials series.

Writings by others are collected in Series 6. Gail Godwin often served as critic to other writers with whom she had long friendships, including Robb Forman Dew, John Irving, and Gale Webbe.

With the Addition of 2006, Series 8 and Series 9 were created for Godwin's dream diaries and journals.

The additions of 2006-2018 are intellectually integrated with similar materials from the original deposit but are physically separated.

As there is considerable overlap among series, researchers are advised to check all possible locations for materials of interest. Researchers should also note that various surnames are associated with the author, including Godwin, Cole, Kennedy, and Marshall. Likewise, there are several surnames associated with her mother Kathleen, including Krahenbuhl, Godwin, and Cole.

Acquisition information:

Purchased from Gail Godwin in April 2001 (Acc. 98921). Additions received in June 2006 (Acc. 100438), October 2009 (Acc. 101178), February 2014 (Acc. 102000), April 2017 (Acc. 103051), and July 2018 (Acc. 103383).

Processing information:

Processed by: Nancy Kaiser, December 2001

Encoded by: Nancy Kaiser, December 2001

Finding aid updated because of additions in January 2007 and August 2012 by Nancy Kaiser; in May 2017 by Mary Oliva; August 2018 by Nancy Kaiser and Anne Wells; August 2021 by Dawne Howard Lucas.

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.

Access and use

Restrictions to access:

Use of audio or moving images may require production of listening or viewing copies.

For reasons of security or confidentiality, some materials in folder 1222 are CLOSED to researchers until the author's death.

This collection contains additional materials that are not processed and are currently not available to researchers. For information about access to these materials, contact Research and Instructional Services staff. Please be advised that preparing unprocessed materials for access can be a lengthy process.

Restrictions to use:

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 Gail Godwin Papers #5055, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Special Collections Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Location of this collection:
Louis Round Wilson Library
200 South Road
Chapel Hill, NC 27515
Contact:
(919) 962-3765
wilsonlibrary@unc.edu