Collection View
Correspondence, 1945-2005
Most of the correspondence is with Brown's close friend, Guy Davenport. Correspondence with W. S. Merwin is primarily about their collaborative translation work: Osip Mandelstam: Selected Poems (1974) and includes translations of Osip Mandelstam's poetry. Letters with Nadezhda Mandelstam relate to her memoir, Hope Against Hope.
The organization of the correspondence that existed at the time of acquisition was maintained.
Guy Davenport, 1945-2005
Guy Davenport, 1945-1950
Guy Davenport, 1949-1959
Guy Davenport, 1959-1969
Guy Davenport, 1966-1979
Guy Davenport, 1980-1989
Guy Davenport, 1990-1994
Guy Davenport, 1995-1999
Guy Davenport, 1990-1995
Guy Davenport, 1995-1999
Guy Davenport, 2000-2005
W. S. Merwin, 1971-1994
Nadezhda Mandelstam, 1970-1972
Charles Townsend, 1969-1970
Boris Filippov, 1969
Vladimir Nabokov, 1974 November 11
J. E. Malmstad, 1969 October 30
Former Students, 1991-1994
Includes Brown's travel diaries from 1962 and 1966 of visits to Russia and surrounding areas as well as an accompanying sketchbook depicting his travels in 1962. Of note is documentation of two meetings with poet Anna Akhmatova in Komarovo, St. Petersburg, July 11 and August 1, 1962.
Travel Diary, 1962 June 25-July 18
Travel Diary, 1962 July 19- August 3
Travel Sketchbook, 1962
Travel Diary, 1966
Photographs, 1907-1979
Primarily includes photographs of Osip and Nadezhda Mandelstam, both portrait and group photographs. Family members, including Osip's father, mother, and brother, Alexasndr Mandelstam, as well as friends and fellow poets, such as Marina Tsvetaeva, Anna Axmatova, and Maria Sergeyevna Petrovykh, are also represented. Some appear to be photographs that Brown took during his visits to Russia during the 1960s.
Osip Mandelstam, 1907-1936
Nadezhda Mandelstam, 1922-1979
Anna Akhmatova, 1913-1966
Marina Tsvetaeva, circa 1931-1941
Miscellaneous, circa 1940-1966
Correspondence, 1969-1979
Files concerning the acquisition, description, and gifting of Osip Mandelstam's papers to Princeton University Library.
These student translations of Nadezhda Mandelstam's first memoir Hope Against Hope served as coursework for a "secret" graduate seminar that Brown taught in spring 1969 for the Slavic Department. Brown had his students engage in this project before another copy of the memoir was published by Atheneum in 1970.
- Scope and Contents
This collection consists primarily of correspondence along with some travel diaries, photographs, and teaching materials of comparative literature professor Clarence Brown (1929-2015). Much of the content, with the exception of correspondence with Guy Davenport, relates to the principal subject of Brown's scholarship, Russian poet Osip Emilyevich Mandelstam (1891-1938), as well as Mandelstam's wife, Nadezhda Mandelstam (1899-1980). This includes documentation about Brown's collaborative publication, Osip Mandelstam: Selected Poems (1974); Nadezhda Mandelstam's memoir Hope Against Hope (1970); and Osip Mandelstam's personal papers, which Nadezhda donated to Princeton University Library in 1976; among other topics. Correspondents who are well represented include writer and illustrator, Guy Davenport (1927-2005); poet W. S. Merwin (1927-), Princeton Class of 1948, with whom Brown collaborated on Osip Mandelstam: Selected Poems; and Nadezhda Mandelstam.
- Collection Creator Biography:
Brown, Clarence, 1929-2015
A scholar of modern Russian literature and translation, Clarence Brown (1929-2015) was a professor of comparative literature at Princeton University. He started at Princeton as an instructor in 1959 and became a professor in 1969, retiring in 1999. Brown first taught courses on Russian language and literature in the Department of Romance Languages and then in the Program in Slavic Languages and Literatures, which became a formal department in 1967. In 1971, he joined the Department of Comparative Literature.
Brown was most known for his scholarship on the Russian poet Osip Mandelstam (Mandelʹshtam) (1891-1938), which was facilitated by the relationship he formed with Mandelstam's widow and fellow writer, Nadezhda Mandelstam (Mandelʹshtam) (1899-1980), who was invested in preserving her husband's work. The Prose of Osip Mandelstam (1965) was nominated for a National Book Award. Brown's 1973 book Mandelstam earned him the Christian Gauss Award in Literary Criticism. Mandelstam's papers, entrusted by Nadezhda to Brown in 1976, were donated to the Princeton University Library.
Brown earned his bachelor's degree in classics at Duke University in 1950. After graduation, he was drafted and served four years in the Army Security Agency, including a year of intensive training in Russian at the Army Language School in Monterey, California, after which he was sent to Berlin as a German translator. He earned a master's degree in linguistics in 1955 from the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor and his Ph.D. in Russian Literature from Harvard University in 1962.
A lifelong cartoonist, Brown's work appeared in several publications, including Saturday Review, where he was cartoon editor from 1977 to 1984.
- Acquisition:
Gift of Jacqueline Brown, 2017 . (AM 2018-3)
- Appraisal
No materials were separated during 2017 processing.
- Processing Information
This collection was processed by Faith Charlton in September 2017 with assistance from Julia English '19. Finding aid written by Faith Charlton in September 2017.
Some photographic negatives were treated during 2017 processing.
- Conditions Governing Access
Open for research. Student coursework is restricted until 2044 or 75 years from the date of creation (1969) (housed in box B-001080).
- Conditions Governing Use
Single copies may be made for research purposes. To cite or publish quotations that fall within Fair Use, as defined under U. S. Copyright Law, no permission is required. For instances beyond Fair Use, it is the responsibility of the researcher to determine whether any permissions related to copyright, privacy, publicity, or any other rights are necessary for their intended use of the Library's materials, and to obtain all required permissions from any existing rights holders, if they have not already done so. Princeton University Library's Special Collections does not charge any permission or use fees for the publication of images of materials from our collections, nor does it require researchers to obtain its permission for said use. The department does request that its collections be properly cited and images credited. More detailed information can be found on the Copyright, Credit and Citations Guidelines page on our website. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us through the Ask Us! form.
- Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
For preservation reasons, original analog and digital media may not be read or played back in the reading room. Users may visually inspect physical media but may not remove it from its enclosure. All analog audiovisual media must be digitized to preservation-quality standards prior to use. Audiovisual digitization requests are processed by an approved third-party vendor. Please note, the transfer time required can be as little as several weeks to as long as several months and there may be financial costs associated with the process. Requests should be directed through the Ask Us Form.
- Credit this material:
Clarence Brown Papers; Manuscripts Division, Department of Special Collections, Princeton University Library
- Permanent URL:
- http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/fx719q53d
- Location:
-
Firestone LibraryOne Washington RoadPrinceton, NJ 08544, USA
- Storage Note:
- Firestone Library (scamss): Boxes B-001076 to B-001080
- Subject Terms:
- Literature and state -- Soviet Union -- 20th century -- Sources.
Poets, Russian -- 20th century.
Princeton University -- Faculty -- 20th century -- Sources.
Russian literature -- Translations into English -- Sources.
Russian poetry -- 20th century -- Sources.
Russian prose literature -- 20th century -- Sources.
Translators in literature -- Sources. - Genre Terms:
- Correspondence -- 20th century
Manuscripts. - Names:
- Princeton University. Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures
Akhmatova, Anna Andreevna, 1889-1966
Davenport, Guy
Mandelʹshtam, Nadezhda, 1899-1980.
Mandelʹshtam, Osip, 1891-1938
Merwin, W.S. (William Stanley), 1927-2019 - Places:
- Soviet Union -- Intellectual life -- 1917-1970 -- Sources.
Soviet Union--Description and travel.
