Conditions Governing Use

The materials from Washington and Lee University Special Collections are made available for use in research, teaching, and private study, pursuant to U.S. Copyright law. The user assumes full responsibility for any use of the materials, including but not limited to, infringement of copyright and publication rights of reproduced materials. Any materials used should be fully credited with the source.

Conditions Governing Access

This collection is open for research use but must be accessed in person in the Special Collections and Archives reading room. The majority of the collection falls under various copyright and intellectual property rights laws. To ensure compliance with literary estates and federal law, we will not digitize items from this collection without the expressed written permission by the appropriate entities. Special Collections and Archives staff will not serve as the intermediary between researchers and literary estates or living contributors. That responsibility falls solely to the researcher.

This site can help determine copyright holders: https://norman.hrc.utexas.edu/watch/.

Restrictions - Letters of Agreement

Researchers are restricted from viewing letters of agreement because they include personal privacy information. These documents are restricted for 75 years plus one day from year of creation.

Restrictions - Reproductions

While Washington and Lee University may own the physical documents contained within this collection, the content of the correspondence from contributors and their submitted manuscripts fall under copyright. The manuscripts in this collection, both prose and poetry, were published in the journal.

Several individuals whose letters and/or manuscripts are included in this colleague have estates which manage their intellectual property rights. The Special Collections and Archives staff will not reproduce material by these individuals which would result in copyright violation. Access will only be allowed in the Special Collections and Archives reading room.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], Record Group 29: Shenandoah Records, Special Collections and Archives, James G. Leyburn Library, Washington and Lee University, Lexington, VA

Historical Note

From https://shenandoahliterary.org/about/

Shenandoah was founded in 1950 by a group of Washington and Lee University faculty members and undergraduates, Tom Wolfe among them. For a brief time it was primarily an undergraduate magazine, but under the leadership of student editor Tom Carter, Shenandoah became a quarterly, publishing a cast of international writers including e e cummings, Dylan Thomas, W. H. Auden, James Merrill, Ezra Pound, William Faulkner, and Flannery O'Connor. From the 1960s to the 1980s, Washington and Lee faculty member James Boatwright expanded the journal and published occasional theme issues, including a thirty-fifth anniversary anthology. After Boatwright's death in 1988, Dabney Stuart took over as editor. In 1995, R. T. Smith was selected as the magazine's first full-time editor. In 2011, Shenandoah moved online, and is now a web magazine that publishes semiannually. In August 2018, after the retirement of R. T. Smith, Beth Staples took over as editor. Shenandoah is now part of W&L's English Department and, under Beth's direction, is supported by a class of undergraduate interns studying editing and publishing.

Former editors include Tom Wolfe, Tom Carter, James Boatwright, Dabney Stuart, and R. T. Smith.

Chronology of Editors

Spring 1950-Summer 1950: J. J. Donovan, D. C. G. Kerr, Thomas K. Wolfe, Jr.

Winter 1950-Spring 1951: W. H. Adams, Thomas K. Wolfe, Jr., J. A. F. Hall, Jr.

Summer 1951-Autumn 1953: Thomas Carter

Winter 1953-Summer 1954: Raymond D. Smith, Jr.

Winter 1954-Summer 1956: Edward M. Hood

Winter 1956-Summer 1958: M. Maxwell Caskie, III

Autumn 1958: Marshall W. Fishwick

Winter 1959: Paxton Davis

Spring 1959: James G. Leyburn

Autumn 1959: Marvin B. Perry, Jr.

Winter 1960: Lynwood D. Zinn

Spring 1960: Randolph M. Bulgin

Autumn 1960: William W. Pusey, III

Winter 1961: Bond Johnson, III

Spring 1961: Edward B. Hamer

Autumn 1961: Marshall W. Fishwick

Winter 1962: Douglas Day

Spring 1962: Cecil D. Eby, Jr.

Summer 1962: B. S. Stephenson

Autumn 1962-1988: James Boatwright

1988-1995: Dabney Stuart

1995-2018: R. T. Smith

2018- : Beth Staples

Scope and Contents

This collection record material of the Washington and Lee University's literary magazine Shenandoah . The records include correspondence created by and sent to editors of the publication, financial records, its constitution, reprint permissions, galley proofs, manuscripts, copyright assignments, and subject files.

The bulk of the collection is from the tenure of editor James Boatwright. The subject matter of the correspondence varies but is primarily from contributors. Correspondents include Langston Hughes, James Baldwin, J. R. R. Tolkien, E. E. Cummings, Eudora Welty, Joyce Carol Oates, James McCourt, George Plimpton, Tom Wolfe, and Flannery O'Connor. The correspondence creating during both Boatwright and Dabney Stuart's tenure may also include letters written or received by Shenandoah staff including Helen Schuyler, Sue Stewart, and Lynn Williams.

Researchers are expected to review the access retrictions associated with this collection prior to a virtual inquiry and/or in-person visit.

Collection Arrangement

This collection has been arranged in six series. Series 1 contains the correspondence of past editors with the majority created during the tenure of James Boatwright. The files are arranged by surname. In his correspondence files, Boatwright sometimes included letters by, to, and about specific contributors into one file. Series 2 includes both prose and poetry that was submitted and accepted for publication. They are arranged by the volume/number they were published in. Series 3 contains galley proofs. Series 4 includes permission requests for reprints and requests for copyright assignments. Series 5 contains subject files that do not fit within other series. Series 6 contains letters of agreement. This series is restricted because the agreements include contributor social security numbers.

Related Material

Thomas H. Carter Papers (WLU-Coll-0004)

Dabney Stuart Papers (WLU-Coll-0364)

Subjects and Indexing Terms

• American prose literature
• Poetry