Collection Title: Jesse Stuart Papers
Series Number: MS14-01
Processed and Cataloged by: Processed by Jerry A. Herdon in 1982-1983.
Date Listed: January 20, 2014
Date Span: 1930-1982
Size of Collection: 300.0 linear feet.
Number of Boxes: 200 legal size document cases; 1 legal half size document case; 70 records center boxes and 40 oversized boxes.
Type of Material: Correspondence, manuscripts, scrapbooks, photographs, audio tapes and ephemera.
Condition of Material: Good.
Arrangement: Organized by alphabetically by title of file folder; Arrangement by type of format.
Biographical / Historical Information: Jesse Hilton Stuart was born on August 8, 1906 in Greenup County, Kentucky. He attended public schools and graduated from Greenup High School in 1926. Afterwards, he attended Lincoln Memorial University and in 1929 received a Bachelor of Arts degree. He returned to Greenup County and served as principal at Warnock High School from 1929 to l931. He became Superintendent of Greenup County Schools in 1932 and later as principal of McKell High School from 1933 to 1937. Stuart published his first book in 1930, Harvest of Youth, and four years later his first major book of poetry, Man with a Bull-Tongue Plow. During the late 1930s he wrote two collections of short stories and an autobiography. He served in the United States Navy in 1944 and 1945. After the war, he returned to writing and in 1954 was made poet laureate of Kentucky. Later that same year, he suffered a heart attack in Murray, Kentucky not long after speaking before a meeting of public school teachers. He became principal of McKell High School for the second time in 1956. From 1960 and 1963, Stuart taught at the American University of Cairo in Egypt and traveled through the Middle East and Far East on a good-will tour sponsored by the United States State Department. During the 1960’s and 1970’s he published novels, short stories, essays and poems. Prior to his death on February 17, 1984, he published over fifty books, over 400 short stories and more than 2,000 poems.
Scope and Content: Collection consists of correspondence, manuscripts, typescripts, proofs and related documents and materials related to Kentucky author, essayist and poet Jesse Stuart. Collection also contains drafts of short stories, essays, lectures and poems written by Stuart. Included with the papers are scrapbooks of literary reviews, paintings, photographs, illustrations, posters, audio tapes, braille editions of his books, memorabilia and ephemera retained by Stuart from the 1930s to the 1970s.
Subject Headings / Descriptors:
Stuart, Jesse Hilton, 1906-1984.
Authors, American – Kentucky.
Poets, American – Kentucky.
Additional Sources: See The Jesse Stuart Collection: A Register of the Manuscripts and Related Materials in the Forrest C. Pogue Library Special Collections, Murray State University.
Research Notes: The manuscripts and related materials in the Jesse Stuart Collection were first placed in the care of Murray State University in 1960, on a long-term loan basis, by Jesse Stuart. Through the years, additional materials have been placed in the collection. In 1977, Stuart converted the loan arrangement to a permanent gift. The materials in the collection (including the correspondence) are thus the property of Murray State University. Permission must be obtained from the appropriate authorities for any use of the materials in this collection. Literary rights in both the published and the unpublished writings of Jesse Stuart are vested in The Jesse Stuart Foundation, Inc. The researcher must therefore secure permission from both Murray State University and The Jesse Stuart Foundation for publication - in whole or in part - of any of the materials.
