Finding Aid for the Peter H. Taylor Collection
(MUM00442)
Questions? Contact us!
The Peter H. Taylor Collection is open for research. The audiovisual portion of this
collection is stored at an off-site facility. Researchers
interested in using this part of the collection must contact Archives and Special
Collections at least two business days in
advance of their planned visit.
Finding Aid for the Peter H. Taylor Collection
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Descriptive Summary
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| PURL: |
http://purl.oclc.org/umarchives/MUM00442/ |
| Title: |
Peter H. Taylor Collection |
| Dates: |
1943-1995 |
| Collector: |
McAlexander, Hubert Horton |
| Physical Extent: |
24 boxes (12.0 linear feet) |
| Repository: |
University of Mississippi. Department of Archives and Special Collections. University, MS 38677, USA |
| Identification: |
MUM00442 |
| Location: |
General Special Collections; Visual Collections
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| Language of Material: |
English |
| Abstract: |
The collection contains papers, photographs, and audio recordings related to the life
and work of author Peter H. Taylor.
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Administrative Information
Acquisition Information
Received from Hubert H. McAlexander, 2005
Processing Information
Collection processed by Audrey M. Uffner, April 2009. Finding aid encoded by Kathryn
Michaelis, January 2012.
Additions
No further additions are expected to this collection.
Subject Terms
Taylor, Peter, 1917-1994
Taylor, Eleanor Ross, 1920-2011
McAlexander, Hubert Horton
Authors, American -- 20th century -- Biography
Tennessee -- Fiction
Formats
correspondence
research notes
clippings (information artifacts)
photographs
audiocassettes
Biographical Note
Peter H. Taylor was born in Trenton, Tennessee, on January 8, 1917. He attended Southwestern
University and Vanderbilt University. He entered Kenyon College in 1938 to study under
John Crowe Ransom, graduating in 1940. After briefly enrolling in the Louisiana State
University for graduate work under Robert Penn Warren and Cleanth Brooks, he entered
the U.S. Army in 1941. He served stateside at Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia, and overseas
at Tidworth Camp in England before being discharged from the Army in 1945.
Taylor married poet Eleanor Ross in 1943. The couple’s first child Katherine Baird
Taylor was born in 1948, and their son, Peter Ross Taylor, was born in 1955.
Beginning his teaching career at the Women’s College of the University of North Carolina
at Greensboro in 1946, he served a year as assistant professor at Indiana University
in 1948 before returning to Greensboro in 1949. In 1952, he taught at the University
of Chicago in the spring and began an associate professorship at Kenyon College in
the fall. In 1957 he also served as an associate professor at the Ohio State University,
and in 1963, he rejoined the University of North Carolina. In 1964 and 1968, he served
as a visiting professor at Harvard in the fall semesters. He became a Professor of
English at the University of Virginia in 1967 and retired from the university in 1983.
His book publications include: A Long Fourth (1948); A Woman of Means (1950); The Widows of Thornton (1954); Happy Families Are All Alike (1959); Miss Leonora When Last Seen (1964); Randall Jarrell, 1914-1965 (co-editor 1967); A Stand in the Mountains (1968); Collected Stories (1969); Presences: Seven Dramatic Pieces (1973); In the Miro District (1977); The Old Forest (1985); and A Summons to Memphis (1986).
Taylor received the Pulitzer Prize for A Summons to Memphis (1987) as well as the
O. Henry first prize (1959), Gold Medal for Literature of the American Academy and
Institute of Arts and Letters (1978), a Senior Fellowship from the National Endowment
for the Humanities (1984), the PEN/Faulkner Award (1986) and the Ritz Hemingway Prize
for fiction (1987). Over the course of his career he also received a Guggenheim Fellowship
(1950-1) a Fulbright grant, Ford Foundation Fellowship at London’s Royal Court Theatre
(1960-1), and a Rockefeller Foundation grant (1966).
Scope and Content Note
The Peter H. Taylor Collection is a gift from Hubert H. McAlexander, who authored
a book on Taylor’s life. The collection closely mirrors the format of the book, but
also includes material that McAlexander chose to cut from the final project. Materials
found in the collection include personal correspondence between McAlexander and Eleanor
Ross Taylor and personal friends of Taylor, research notes and photocopied materials
from various holdings of Peter Taylor material, and newspaper clippings/reviews concerning
Peter Taylor’s life and work. Also included are photographs and oral histories on
cassette tapes.
User Information
Preferred Citation
Peter H. Taylor Collection, Archives and Special Collections, J.D. Williams Library,
The
University of Mississippi
Access Restrictions
The Peter H. Taylor Collection is open for research. The audiovisual portion of this collection is stored at an off-site facility. Researchers
interested in using this part of the collection must contact Archives and Special Collections at least two business days in
advance of their planned visit.
Copyright Restrictions
The copyright law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code) governs the
making of photocopies or other reproductions of copyrighted material. Under
certain conditions specified in the law, libraries and archives are authorized
to furnish a photocopy or other reproduction. One of these specified conditions
is that the photocopy or reproduction is not to be "used for any purpose other
than private study, scholarship or research." If a user makes a request for,
or
later uses, a photocopy or reproduction for purposes in excess of "fair use,"
that user may be liable for copyright infringement.
Related Material
Resources at the University of Mississippi
McAlexander, Hubert H., Peter Taylor: A Writer’s Life, Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2001
Separated Material
The following items have been removed from the collection and cataloged:
Books:
Bishop, John Peale et al, eds. The Fugitives, The Agrarians and Other Twentieth Century Southern Writers. Charlottesville: University of Virginia, 1985.
Casey, John. Spartina. New York: Knopf, 1989.
Casey, John. Testimony and Demeanor. New York: Shoreline Books, 1979.
Griffith, Albert J. Peter Taylor. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1990.
Netherton, John., ed. Tennessee: A Homecoming. Third National Corporation, 1985.
Robison, James Curry. Peter Taylor: A Study of the Short Fiction. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1988.
Taylor, Eleanor Ross. Days Going Days Coming Back. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1991.
Taylor, Eleanor Ross. New and Selected Poems. Stuart Wright, 1983.
Taylor, Eleanor Ross. Welcome Eumenides. New York: George Braziller, 1972.
Williamson, Alan. Eloquence and Mere Life: Essays on the Art of Poetry. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 1997.
Wright, Stuart. Peter Taylor: A Descriptive Biography, 1934-1987. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1988.
Journals:
The Chattahoochee Review, Fall 1985 and Fall 2000
The Greensboro Review, Summer 1992, No. 52
Journal of the Short Story in English, No. 9, Autumn 1987
The Kenyon Review, New Series, Vol. XII, No. 3
Key West Review, Fall 1988
New Virginia Review, Vol. 9, Number 2
Shenandoah, Winter 1977 (2 copies)
The Southern Quarterly, Winter 2000
The Southwestern Journal, 1939
Arrangement
This collection is arranged roughly in the order in which it was received, which reflects
the structure of Hubert H. McAlexander's Peter Taylor: A Writer's Life.
Container List
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Papers |
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Folder 1.1
| Christopher Metress Bibliography |
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Folder 1.2
| Taylor Chronology |
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Folder 1.3
| Taylor Family – East |
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Folder 1.4
| Carter, Taylor and Haynes |
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Folder 1.5
| Senator Taylor |
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Folder 1.6
| Watauga and the State of Franklin |
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Folder 1.7
| Letters – the family dynamic |
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Folder 1.8
| Taylor Family – West |
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Folder 1.9
| Trenton |
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Folder 1.10
| The Family |
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Folder 1.11
| Louise Manly, "The Manly Family: An Account of the Descendants of Capt. Basil Manly" |
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Folder 1.12
| Chapter One |
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Folder 1.13
| Rogers Caldwell |
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Folder 1.14
| Nashville |
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Folder 2.1
| Chapter Two |
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Folder 2.2
| St. Louis Debut and Veiled Prophet Ball |
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Folder 2.3
| St. Louis |
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Folder 2.4
| Susie Thompson |
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Folder 2.5
| Eleanor Ross Taylor |
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Folder 2.6
| Taylor Addresses |
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Folder 2.7
| Conversations – Original |
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Folder 2.8
| Interview after Conversation |
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Folder 2.9
| Interview with Eleanor Taylor |
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Folder 2.10
| Katie |
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Folder 2.11
| Ross |
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Folder 2.12
| Rosses |
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Folder 3.1
| Hillsman Taylor |
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Folder 3.2
| ERT – Career, Review |
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Folder 3.3
| Memphis Group |
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Folder 3.4
| Allen Tate |
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Folder 3.5
| Tom White |
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Folder 3.6
| Central High School |
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Folder 3.7
| Chapter Three |
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Folder 3.8
| River |
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Folder 3.9
| Memphis |
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Folder 3.10
| Europe |
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Folder 4.1
| Southwestern |
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Folder 4.2
| Virginia Jett |
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Folder 4.3
| Chapter Four |
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Folder 4.4
| The Entity |
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Folder 4.5
| Vanderbilt |
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Folder 4.6
| 1938 |
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Folder 4.7
| Taylors HIKA contributions (1) |
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Folder 4.8
| Taylors HIKA contributions (2) |
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Folder 4.9
| Randall Jarrell |
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Folder 4.10
| Robert Lowell, 1977 |
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Folder 5.1
| Robert Lowell |
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Folder 5.2
| Jack Thompson and Robie |
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Folder 5.3
| Jean Stafford |
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Folder 5.4
| Chapter Six |
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Folder 5.5
| HIKA and Kenyon Transcript |
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Folder 5.6
| Kenyon Group |
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Folder 5.7
| 1939 |
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Folder 5.8
| LSU |
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Folder 5.9
| 1940 |
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Folder 5.10
| 1941 |
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Folder 6.1
| 1942 |
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Folder 6.2
| Army |
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Folder 6.3
| The Young Eleanor |
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Folder 6.4
| Meeting ERT and the Marriage |
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Folder 6.5
| The Marriage |
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Folder 6.6
| 1943 |
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Folder 6.7
| 1943 (2) |
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Folder 6.8
| Parker clippings |
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Folder 6.9
| Loose material - Interview, 1985-1994 |
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Folder 7.1
| Barbara Thompson (Davis), Paris Review |
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Folder 7.2
| Interview with Peter Taylor, Gainesville, Fla., 15 February 1985 |
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Folder 7.3
| Introduction to "A Conversation with Peter Taylor" by J. William Broadway |
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Folder 7.4
| 1950-1957 |
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Folder 7.5
| 1939-1947 |
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Folder 7.6
| 1948-1949 |
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Folder 8.1
| Chapter Seven |
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Folder 8.2
| 1944 (1) |
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Folder 8.3
| 1944 (2) |
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Folder 8.4
| 1945 |
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Folder 8.5
| 1945 Rejects |
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Folder 8.6
| 1947 (1) |
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Folder 8.7
| 1947 (2) |
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Folder 8.8
| 1946 |
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Folder 8.9
| New York |
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Folder 9.1
| 1948 |
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Folder 9.2
| Greensboro |
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Folder 9.3
| Indiana University, 1943-1949 |
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Folder 9.4
| Chapter Eight |
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Folder 9.5
| Hillsboro |
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Folder 9.6
| Hillsboro floor plans |
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Folder 9.7
| Chapter Nine |
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Folder 9.8
| Chapter Nine Rejects |
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Folder 9.9
| A Woman of Means |
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Folder 9.10
| Guggenheim |
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Folder 10.1
| A Long Fourth, 1948
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Folder 10.2
| A Woman of Means, 1950
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Folder 10.3
| Rejects, 1950-1952 |
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Folder 10.4
| Peter Taylor – brief treatment |
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Folder 10.5
| Folder – Margaret Mitchell House |
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Folder 10.6
| Growing Population |
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Folder 10.7
| Taylor Bibliography |
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Folder 10.8
| Add to Chapter Nine |
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Folder 11.1
| Kenyon |
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Folder 11.2
| John Crowe Ransom |
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Folder 11.3
| Chapter Ten (2) |
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Folder 11.4
| Chapter Ten |
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Folder 11.5
| Chapter Ten Rejects (1) |
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Folder 11.6
| Chapter Ten Rejects (2) |
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Folder 11.7
| Kenyon, 1952-1953 |
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Folder 11.8
| The Widows of Thornton |
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Folder 11.9
| Fulbright, 1954-1955 |
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Folder 11.10
| Chapter Eleven |
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Folder 11.11
| Chapter Eleven (2) |
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Folder 12.1
| Eleven Rejects |
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Folder 12.2
| "1939" story |
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Folder 12.3
| Widows of Thornton and Harcourt, Brace
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Folder 12.4
| Changing publishers, Random House, 1956 |
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Folder 12.5
| Harcourt, Brace & Company, 1949-1963 |
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Folder 12.6
| TN Day |
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Folder 12.7
| Drama at Kenyon |
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Folder 12.8
| Job offers, 1953 |
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Folder 12.9
| Happy Families |
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Folder 12.10
| Ford Foundation, 1958-1959 |
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Folder 12.11
| Chapter Twelve |
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Folder 12.12
| Chapter Twelve (2) |
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Folder 12.13
| Twelve Rejects |
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Folder 12.14
| London |
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Folder 12.15
| Columbus, Ohio |
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Folder 12.16
| Chapter Thirteen |
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Folder 13.1
| Chapter Thirteen Rejects |
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Folder 13.2
| Harvard, 1964 |
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Folder 13.3
| Chapter Thirteen (2) |
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Folder 13.4
| Miss Leonora Review, 1964
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Folder 13.5
| Academic Positions, 1960-1976 |
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Folder 13.6
| Fitzgeralds |
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Folder 13.7
| Works of Thomas W. Molyneux |
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Folder 13.8
| Fizhugh |
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Folder 13.9
| Greensboro, colleagues and students |
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Folder 13.10
| Chapter Fourteen |
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Folder 13.11
| Chapter Fourteen (2) |
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Folder 13.12
| Fourteen Rejects |
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Folder 13.13
| Albemarle Monthly, February/March 1979
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Folder 14.1
| Charlottesville Life |
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Folder 14.2
| Collected Stories review, 1969
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Folder 14.3
| Charlottesville Houses |
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Folder 14.4
| Chapter Fifteen (1) |
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Folder 14.5
| Chapter Fifteen (2) |
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Folder 14.6
| Fifteen Rejects |
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Folder 14.7
| The Players |
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Folder 14.8
| Presences review, 1973
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Folder 14.9
| On the Theatre |
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Folder 14.10
| Richard Howard |
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Folder 15.1
| Harvard, 1973 |
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Folder 15.2
| Harvard Decision |
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Folder 15.3
| Harvard, January-June 1975 |
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Folder 15.4
| Ploughshares |
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Folder 15.5
| McDowell, Obolensky – Farrar, Strauss, 1965-1972 |
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Folder 15.6
| Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, [?]-1976 |
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Folder 15.7
| Publishing Change, 1976 |
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Folder 15.8
| 1976 |
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Folder 15.9
| In the Miro District Review, 1977 |
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Folder 15.10
| Welty – Porter |
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Folder 15.11
| Key West |
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Folder 15.12
| Chapter Sixteen |
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Folder 15.13
| Chapter Sixteen (2) |
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Folder 15.14
| Students, 1975-1983 |
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Folder 16.1
| Chapter Sixteen Rejects |
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Folder 16.2
| Athens, 1985 |
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Folder 16.3
| The Old Forest review, 1985
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Folder 16.4
| The Old Forest movie
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Folder 16.5
| Chapter Seventeen |
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Folder 16.6
| Farrar, Strauss, 1985 |
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Folder 16.7
| A Summons to Memphis reviews, 1986-1987
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Folder 16.8
| A Stand in the Mountains |
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Folder 16.9
| A Summons to Memphis - Updike
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Folder 16.10
| Receptions of Summons |
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Folder 17.1
| American Book Award |
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Folder 17.2
| Summons – origins, thoughts
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Folder 17.3
| Pulitzer and Ritz-Hemingway |
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Folder 17.4
| Chapter Seventeen (2) |
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Folder 17.5
| Seventeen Rejects |
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Folder 17.6
| Chapter Eighteen |
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Folder 17.7
| Eighteen Rejects |
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Folder 17.8
| Chapter Eighteen (2) |
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Folder 17.9
| Witch of Owl Mountain |
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Folder 18.1
| The Oracle, 1992 |
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Folder 18.2
| Chapter Eighteen (3) |
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Folder 18.3
| Chapter Eighteen (4) |
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Folder 18.4
| Eighteen Rejects (2) |
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Folder 18.5
| In the Tennessee Country |
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Folder 18.6
| Obituaries |
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Folder 18.7
| In the Tennessee Country |
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Folder 18.8
| Taylor Awards |
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Folder 18.9
| The Institute |
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Folder 18.10
| Stuart Wright |
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Folder 18.11
| Sewanee |
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Folder 18.12
| Contracts – SW |
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Folder 19.1
| John Casey |
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Folder 19.2
| Reynolds Freeman |
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Folder 19.3
| Thackera |
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Folder 19.4
| Marls Trainer – Brian Griffin |
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Folder 19.5
| Knopf, 1980-1994 |
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Folder 19.6
| Later Charlottesville |
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Folder 19.7
| Alison Lurie – James Merrill |
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Folder 19.8
| Key West |
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Folder 19.9
| Gainesville |
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Folder 19.10
| Goodwin – Wilson |
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Folder 19.11
| Alan Williamson – Theroux |
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Folder 19.12
| James Alan McPhereson – Ann Beattie |
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Folder 19.13
| Russell and Vokening, Inc., 1976-1994 |
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Folder 20.1
| Taylor Manuscripts |
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Folder 20.2
| University of Memphis |
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Folder 20.3
| Colorado Jean Stafford Papers |
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Folder 20.4
| Texas |
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Folder 20.5
| New York – Peter |
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Folder 20.6
| Virginia – Taylor Papers |
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Folder 20.7
| Yale |
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Folder 20.8
| Jarrell Papers – New York Public |
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Folder 20.9
| Princeton |
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Folder 20.10
| Lowell Papers – Harvard |
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Folder 20.11
| Taylor Papers - Vanderbilt |
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Folder 20.12
| Pictures - Peter Taylor Rejects |
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Folder 20.13
| Illustrations – Peter Taylor biography |
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Folder 20.14
| Photographs – Peter Taylor biography |
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Folder 20.15
| Illustrations – Peter Taylor biography |
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Folder 20.16
| Cynthia Brumbach |
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Folder 20.17
| Illustrations of Charlottesville CD |
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Folder 20.18
| Illustrations - permissions |
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Folder 21.1
| Taylor criticism since Critical Essays |
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Folder 21.2
| Critical Essays – Rejects
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Folder 21.3
| Critical Essays, 1948-1959
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Folder 21.4
| Critical Essays, 1960-1969
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Folder 21.5
| Taylor Critical Essays, 1970-1976
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Folder 21.6
| Taylor Critical Essays, 1977-1978
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Folder 21.7
| Critical Essays, 1979-1985
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Folder 22.1
| Taylor Critical Essays, 1986-1990
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Folder 22.2
| Reviews of Peter Taylor |
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Folder 22.3
| Peter Taylor reviews (2) |
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Folder 22.4
| Peter Taylor reviews (journals) |
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Folder 22.5
| Local Articles Peter Taylor |
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Folder 22.6
| Copies of Robert Penn Warren Letters at Yale |
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Folder 22.7
| Copies of Taylor articles in Shenandoah |
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Folder 22.8
| A Composite Conversation with Peter Taylor |
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Folder 22.9
| List/CDs of illustrations for Peter Taylor biography |
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Folder 22.10
| Card removed from Peter Taylor by Albert J. Griffith, note and signed by Albert J. Griffith
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Photographs |
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CPB51.F1
| Unmarked photos of homes (Trenton, TN) from Folder 1.9 (manuscript) |
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Scope: 20 items
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CPB51.F2
| Two photos and two negatives, unmarked, from Folder 4.4 (manuscript) |
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Scope: 4 items
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CPB51.F3
| Photograph of Peter H. Taylor WWII from Folder 8.1 (manuscript) |
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CPB51.F4
| Unmarked photos of homes (Hillsborough, NC) from Folder 9.5 (manuscript) |
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Scope: 12 items
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CPB51.F5
| Photos from movie The Old Forest from Folder 16.4 (manuscript)
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Scope: 3 items
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CPB51.F6
| Baltimore photos – Yoshiko Kayano from Folder 18.2 (manuscript) |
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Scope: 4 items
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CPB51.F7
| Peter Taylor Photos from Folder 20.12 (manuscript) |
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Scope: 2 items
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CPB51.F8
| Two negatives, one photo, one contact sheet from Peter Taylor biography from Folder
20.12 (manuscript)
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Scope: 4 items
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CPB51.F9
| One negative and one contact sheet from Folder 20.18 |
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Scope: 2 items
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CPB51.F10
| Photos from Peter Taylor biography from Folder 22.9 |
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Scope: 8 items
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Cassette Tapes |
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CPB52
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| Charles Dean talk on Yellow Fever, 1970 |
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| Marshall County History Society, recorded by Elizabeth G. McAlexander |
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| Peter Taylor at the Cosmos Club, 9 April 1981 |
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| Peter Taylor – NYC (a.m.), 21 May 1981 |
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| Peter Taylor at the Russian Tea Room |
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| Gossip mostly about Tate and KAD (separated) no transcript, 21 May 1981 |
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| Peter Taylor after [illegible] at the Osborne, 21 May 1981 |
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| Peter Taylor at [illegible], 21 May 1981 |
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| Peter Taylor Charlottesville Tape 1, 10 December 1981 |
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| Peter Taylor Charlottesville Tape 2, 10 December 1981 |
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| Peter Taylor Charlottesville Tape 3, 10 December 1981 |
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| Interview with Peter Taylor (by Bob Edwards) for National Public Radio, 6 March 1985 |
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| Peter Taylor [illegible] Memphis – N.Y.C., 25 March 1982 |
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| Peter Taylor [illegible] Apt – 72nd W, 25 March 1982 |
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| A Day with Peter Taylor, 20 June 1987 |
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Scope: Bill Broadway’s recollections of conversations and moments with Peter Taylor. Dictated
in car on the way home to Arlington from Charlottesville. Topics include new novel,
depression, Dickey, Warren, American Book Awards, Taylors’ houses and many other subjects.
Tape copied October 26, 1994.
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| Jack Thompson, November 1994 |
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| Peter Taylor – "All Things Considered," 10 March 1995 |
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| "All Things Considered: All Things Considered Comes to Nashville," 1995 |
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| Alan Williamson, 10 May 1995 |
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| Tommy Mitchell, 18 July 1995 |
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| Joan Williams, 19 July 1995 |
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| The Fultons, October 1995 |
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| McAlexander – English – USA |
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| The Fulton, October 1995 |
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| Wyatt [Prenty] |
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| Watson Robert |
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| Thackera 1st Day A Rick Howard/Thackera B Thackera |
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| Thackera Second Day |
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| Thackera Second Day Final Tape |
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| Sally Fitzgerald |
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| Jarrell/Bishop |
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| Chappell |
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| McAlexander, Peter Taylor essay for The Kenyon Review (floppy disc) |
