MC 102
11 boxes (3.66 cu.ft.)
About Donald Babcock:
Donald Babcock, long-time University of New Hampshire philosophy professor, was born in Minneapolis in 1886. He received two degrees from the University of Minnesota and spent one year as a circuit-preacher in Washington state. He received an S.T.B. degree from the Boston University Theological School in 1912, held various pastorates around New Hampshire, and in 1918 joined the history department of New Hampshire College (as it was then known). In 1944 Professor Babcock created the UNH Philosophy Department, for which he served as chairman and sole professor for most of his remaining tenure. The 1955 edition of The Granite, the UNH yearbook, was dedicated to Babcock.
Babcock retired in 1956, on which occasion he was awarded a Doctorate of Humane Letters from the University. In 1962 he was recognized by alumni when they created their first endowed professorship, the Donald C. Babcock Chair in Philosophy. In 1968 the University’s graduate residence hall was named after him in recognition of his service to the University. He was also a long and active member of the Durham Community Church. Donald Babcock died in 1986 at the age of 100.
In addition to his teaching and scholarly work, which includes the book Man and Social Achievement: An Introduction to Social Evolution (1929), Babcock wrote a substantial amount of poetry. A number of his poems were published in The New Yorker and Atlantic magazines. His book For Those I Taught received the Durham Poetry Award at the 1947 UNH Writer’s Conference. So in the Heart, published in 1972, is a collected edition of his poems as published in his various books and chapbooks, as well as some previously uncollected work.
About the Donald Babcock papers:
The Donald Campbell Babcock papers include correspondence - mostly relating to Babcock’s poetry and his 100th. birthday, prose manuscripts of essays and theses, manuscripts and drafts of poetry, the manuscript of his autobiography, I Had Two Grandfathers, various notebooks, scrapbooks from childhood and youth, and other memorabilia, copies of his published works, and works by others, some heavily and carefully annotated by Babcock.
Folder Listing:
- Correspondence
- Manuscripts
- Prose
- Poetry
- Published Works
- Autobiographical/Biographical Material
- Notebooks, clippings, and Miscellany
- Works By Others annotated by Babcock
I. Correspondence
| f.1 | General to DCB, c. 1903-1973. |
| f.2 | Related to Poetry, 1934-1948. |
| f.3 | Related to Poetry, 1949-1950. |
| f.4 | Related to Poetry, 1951-1953. |
| f.5 | Related to Poetry, 1954-1973. |
| f.6 | To Rolfe Humphries, 1947. |
| f.7 | To Rolfe Humphries, 1948. |
| f.8 | To Rolfe Humphries, file of Babcock poems. |
| f.9 | To Rolfe Humphries, undated. |
| f.10 | 100th. Birthday Wishes, A-L, 1982-1986. |
| f.11 | 100th. Birthday Wishes, M-Y, 1982-1986. |
II. Manuscripts
A. Prose
| f.12 | Essays, c. 1899-1905. |
| f.13 | Essays, U. of Minnesota, c.1907. |
| f.14 | Thesis, U. of Minnesota, 1908, “The Origin and Development of Religious Experience,” typescript. |
| f.15 | Thesis, U. of Minnesota, 1908, manuscript copy. |
| f.16 | Thesis, Boston University School of Theology, 1912, “The Function of Environment in Religious Education,” typescript and manuscript. |
B. Poetry
| f.17-21 | “Academic Asterisks” (poems, 1907-1971 - most from 1949-1952; most with intellectual or academic-life themes). |
| f.1-4 | “Academic Asterisks,” continued. |
| f.5-36 | The Friendly Commonplace: Being a Book of Graces Before Meat, and Other Homely Devotions, and Gratuitous Observations (poems, themes as in title). |
| f.1-8 | The Friendly Commonplace, continued. |
| f.9-34 | Notebook MS (poems from four three-ring binder notebooks. Themes philosophical, with epigrams). |
| f.1-2 | “Persons and Places” (themes of persons and places). |
| f.3-6 | “Persons and Places” (second version). |
| f.7-10 | “To a Lady’s Portrait” (love poems to DCB’s first wife, Mabel Sterner Babcock, married 1909, died 1960; c. 1930s). |
| f.11-14 | “Atomic Age” (modern historical themes, c. 1950s). |
| f.15-18 | “Durham Calendar” (nature poems, in sequence by month, Jan.-Dec., c. 1950s (?)). |
| f.19-21 | “Pippin Hill” (religious and moral themes, c. 1920s (?)). |
| f.22 | “The Poo-Bah World” (satire on social world, two drafts). |
| f.23-27 | “Far Away and Long Ago” (nostalgic, c. 1950s). |
| f.28-30 | “The Finite God” (philosophical, first draft, c.1950s). |
| f.31 | “The Finite God - Philosophical Speculations” (more finished version). |
| f.32-33 | “The Finite God - Scripture Commentaries” (more finished version). |
| f.34-36 | “The Philosophic Mood” (subtitled: “Written in part to refute the notion that poetry and philosophy cannot mingle,” c.1950s(?)). |
| f.1-4 | “The Philosophic Mood” - extended versions. |
| f.5-6 | “History Lessons” (of an historical nature, in two drafts, c.1950s). |
| f.7-12 | “Spenglerian Thoughts”[sic] early draft relating to The Decline of the West by Oswald Spengler, c. 1950s). |
| f.13-14 | “The Open Road” (themes of transience, c.1950s). |
| f.15 | “Resposa Non Precaria” (philosophical, in two drafts). |
| f.16-17 | “With Tongue in Cheek” (satirical, a number of subtitles and themes). |
| f.18-21 | “Late Gleanings” (reflective, alphabetical by title, c.1950s-1970s). |
| f.24 | “The Poet’s Mind” (poems about poetry). |
| f.25 | “Poet at the Play” (poems on the theater). |
| f.26 | “Midnight of the Soul” (of sorrow). |
| f.27 | “The Mysterious of the World.” |
| f.28 | “On Ending Middle Age.” |
| f.29 | “In Retirement.” |
| f.30 | “Philosophic Alphabet.” |
| f.31-32 | “Religion Revisited.” |
| f.33 | “For Children.” |
| f.34-35 | “Limerick History of Philosophy.” |
| f.36 | “The Liberal Mind” (political). |
| f.37 | “The Long Late Evening” (evening themes). |
| f.38-39 | Worksheet drafts of poems. |
| f.1-17 | Worksheet drafts of poems. |
| f.18-25 | Loose notes, poems and jottings. |
| f.26 | Drafts of poems from notebook, [2/18/72-1/2/78]. |
| f.27 | Unidentified notebook, c. 1949-51. |
III. Published Works
| f.28 | Prose published by DCB in periodicals, c. 1904-1906: “When a Boy Becomes a Man,” The Minnesota Magazine, June 1904, v. 10 no. 9, pp.318-20. “Willis Gordon: a Chapter From His Diary,” The Minnesota Magazine, March 1905, v.11, no.6, pp.215-17. “The Valley,” The Minnesota Magazine, June 1906, v.12 no.9, pp.316-20. |
| f.29 | Poetry published in periodicals, c. 1919-1946: “The Mountain By the Sea,” The Granite Monthly, October 1919, v.51 no.10. “Sonnet,” American Poetry Magazine, January 1934, v.15 no.9, p.14. “To a Class Writing an Examination in Historical Geography,” Library Lantern, April 1941, v.16 no.7, p.1. |
| f.30 | Poems published in The New Yorker and Atlantic:
“The Little Duck,” The New Yorker, October 4, 1947, v.23 no.33, pp.38-9. “Sonnets of the Season,” Atlantic, February 1949, v.183 no.2, p.79. “To Sundry Poets,” Atlantic, March 1950, v.185 no.3, p.41. “Senex Ruminatur Historicas,” Atlantic, May 1951, v.187 no.5, p.72. |
| f.31 | Church Bulletins, most from Durham Community Church, mention of poems or poems by DCB. |
| f.32 | For Those I Taught, booklet of DCB poems published in honor of his students, Press of American Weave, Cleveland, 1947. 2 copies. |
| f.33 | Typeset of For Those I Taught. |
| f.34 | For Those I Taught and The Friendly Commonplace, American Weave Press, Cleveland, 1951. |
| f.1 | “Prayers and Meditations,” privately printed for the Community Church of Durham, 1970. |
| f.2 | “Late Harvest,” privately printed, 1967. |
| f.3 | “So In the Heart,” Garden Lane Press, Durham, 1972. |
IV. Biographical Material
| f.4-25 | I Had Two Grandfathers. |
| f.26 | Clippings about Babcock. |
| f.27 | Photographs, c.1890-1960. |
| f.28 | Miscellaneous. |
V. Notebooks, Clippings and Miscellaneous
| f.29 | “Plucked Brands,” a scrapbook. |
| f.1-3 | Black scrapbooks; predominantly writings, poems, sermons. |
| f.4 | Green notebook, titled on inside cover: “The Lyfe Poems of Donald C. Babcock (In Part)”; c. 1949, handwritten. |
| f.1 | “The Sourcebook,” c.1886-1909; clippings, photos, writings, memorabilia. |
| f.2 | “Memories”; scrapbook, c. 1910. |