The Yale Collection of American Literature has acquired an important archive of correspondence by and about early twentieth century American writers. The archive, gathered by Eugene L. Delafield (1907-2001) , a New York book collector, centers on poets and editors, chiefly William Rose Benet and his sister Laura, Alfred Kreymborg, and Leonora Speyer. Included are letters from Conrad Aiken, Maxwell Bodenheim, Marianne Moore.

In a charming letter to his wife, Dorothy, Alfred Kreymborg writes on Poetry Magazine stationery from Chicago, giving details of book signings, probably after the 1925 publication of his memoir, Troubadour, and the possibility of joining the magazines staff. Other documents describe a Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, commemoration of Stephen Vincent Benet, a writing and painting summer school hosted by Conrad Aiken and Mary Hoover Aiken in Sussex, England, and Kreymborg’s 1949 election to the American Institute of Arts and Letters. The collection holds about 250 pieces of correspondence and printed ephemera. (PW)

A record of the collection is available online: Delafield Correspondence Collection. Related materials in the Yale Collection of American Literature include the Benet Family Correspondence Collection, Benet Family Manuscript Collection, the William Rose Benet Papers, the Dial/Scofield Thayer Papers, and the Wescott-Wheeler Collection of Marianne Moore.

Additional related materials in the Beinecke Collections may be found by searching the Finding Aid Database.