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Collection Number: 04429

Collection Title: Clifford and Gladys Lyons Collection of Robert Frost Materials, 1929-1981.

This collection has access restrictions. For details, please see the restrictions.

This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held in the Wilson Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in our reading room, and not digitally available through the World Wide Web. See the Duplication Policy section for more information.


expand/collapse Expand/collapse Collection Overview

Size 1.0 feet of linear shelf space (approximately 700 items)
Abstract The Clifford and Gladys Lyons Collection of Robert Frost Materials includes correspondence, writings, newspaper and magazine clippings, audio tapes, photographs, and other materials documenting the life and work of Robert Frost, especially as they related to Frost's friendship with Clifford Lyons, professor of English at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Lyons's wife, Gladys.
Creator Lyons, Clifford P. (Clifford Pierson), 1904-1992.
Curatorial Unit University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection.
Language English
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expand/collapse Expand/collapse Information For Users

Restrictions to Access
1 letter from Frost to Lyons that is under seal until 1 January 2020.
This collection contains additional materials that are not available for immediate or same day access. Please contact Research and Instructional Service staff at wilsonlibrary@unc.edu to discuss options for consulting these materials.
Use of audio or moving image materials may require production of listening or viewing copies.
Copyright Notice
Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], in the Clifford and Gladys Lyons Collection of Robert Frost Materials #4429, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Acquisitions Information
Received by the Rare Book Collection from Clifford and Gladys Lyons of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, in 1981.
Transferred to the Southern Historical Collection in August 1985.
Sensitive Materials Statement
Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. § 132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assumes no responsibility.
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Processed by: Laura K. O'Keefe, December 1985

Encoded by: ByteManagers Inc., 2008

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expand/collapse Expand/collapse Subject Headings

The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.

Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.

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expand/collapse Expand/collapse Biographical Information

Clifford and Gladys Lyons met Robert Frost and his family when they were neighbors in Gainesville, Florida, in the fall of 1937. The Frosts were spending the winter there, and Clifford Lyons was teaching English at the University of Florida. During World War II, when Lyons was stationed near Boston, he and his wife frequently exchanged visits with Frost, who was living in Cambridge.

Clifford Lyons joined the faculty of the English Department of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1946; it was largely due to their friendship that Robert Frost lectured annually at U.N.C. for the next fifteen years. Frost stayed with the Lyonses at those times, and dedicated several poems in this collection to them.

Over the years, the Lyonses acquired and saved a variety of materials relating to Robert Frost: books and pamphlets by him, correspondence, tapes, photographs, and numerous clippings about him and his work. In 1981, they donated these materials to the Rare Book Collection of the Library of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In 1985, the Rare Book Collection transferred all but the published works among the Frost/Lyons materials to the Southern Historical Collection.

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expand/collapse Expand/collapse Scope and Content

These papers consist of items collected by Clifford and Gladys Lyons in the course of their friendship with Robert Frost. They include handwritten copies of poems by Frost, correspondence with him and with his daughter, Lesley Frost Ballantine, and his granddaughter, Lesley Francis Zimic.

A large portion of the material is Gladys Lyons's newspaper clipping file of articles pertaining to Frost, especially to his annual appearances at U.N.C. There are also pamphlets from Middlebury College in Vermont, relating to Frost's instructorship at its annual Bread Loaf Writers' Conference. Photographs, tape recordings of Frost lecturing, and transcripts of those tapes comprise most of the rest of the collection.

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Contents list

expand/collapse Expand/collapse Series Quick Links

expand/collapse Expand/collapse Series 1. Writings by Robert Frost, 1929-1959, and undated.

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expand/collapse Expand/collapse Series 2. Correspondence, 1937-1978, and undated.

151 items.

Correspondence of Gladys and Clifford Lyons with Elinor and Robert Frost, the Frosts' daughter, Lesley Frost Ballantine, and their granddaughter, Lesley Francis Zimic, as well as letters about Frost from various individuals, including the writer Louis Untermeyer, and Frost's biographer, Lawrance Thompson. One letter, from Frost to Clifford Lyons, is under seal until 1 January 2020 (see control file).

A folder list follows.

Folder 14

Letter from Elinor Frost to Gladys Lyons, 1937.

Folder 15

Letters and telegrams from Robert Frost to Clifford and Gladys Lyons, 1939-1953. (9 items)

Folder 16

Copies of telegrams from Robert Frost to others, 1955 and undated. (4 items)

Folder 17

Letters from Lesley Frost Ballantine to Clifford and Gladys Lyons, 1957-1976, and undated. (8 items)

Folder 18

Copies of letters from Clifford Lyons to Lesley Frost Ballantine, 1977-1978. (2 items)

Folder 19

Letters from Lesley Francis Zimic to Clifford and Gladys Lyons, 1958-1978. (22 items)

Folder 20

Letter from Louis Untermeyer to Clifford Lyons, 1938.

Folder 21

Letters from Lawrance Thompson to Clifford Lyons, 1959-1962. (7 items)

Folder 22

Letters from Kathleen Morrison to Clifford Lyons, 1951-1977, and undated. (33 items)

Folder 23

Letters from J. J. Lankes to Clifford Lyons, 1957-1959. (4 items)

Folder 24-25

Folder 24

Folder 25

Miscellaneous letters to and from Clifford Lyons about Robert Frost, 1949-1978. (44 items)

Folder 26

Correspondence and miscellany concerning Robert Frost's honorary degree from U.N.C., 1953. (4 items)

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expand/collapse Expand/collapse Series 3. Subject Files, 1937-1981, and undated.

About 325 items.

Clippings (folder 27-57), pamphlets, brochures, lists, notes, and other materials relating to Frost's life and writings. Also included in this series are the transcripts of the tape recordings in Series 4 (folders 61-66).

Folder 27-44

Folder 27

Folder 28

Folder 29

Folder 30

Folder 31

Folder 32

Folder 33

Folder 34

Folder 35

Folder 36

Folder 37

Folder 38

Folder 39

Folder 40

Folder 41

Folder 42

Folder 43

Folder 44

Biographical information on Frost, 1937-1981, and undated.

Folder 45

Obituaries and other tributes to Frost, 1963.

Folder 46-47

Folder 46

Folder 47

Reviews and notices of works by Frost.

Folder 48-54

Folder 48

Folder 49

Folder 50

Folder 51

Folder 52

Folder 53

Folder 54

Frost at Chapel Hill, 1943-1962.

Folder 55

Articles quoting or briefly referring to Frost.

Folder 56

Articles by and about Lesley Frost Ballantine, 1955-1977.

Folder 57

Articles about J. J. Lankes (illustrator of some of Frost's works).

Folder 58

Works by Lesley Francis Zimic, 1978.

Folder 59

Essay by Allen Tate (photocopy, undated).

Folder 60

Essay by Clifford Lyons on Frost - "Not Unbounded" (draft and a corrected copy).

Folder 61-66

Folder 61

Folder 62

Folder 63

Folder 64

Folder 65

Folder 66

Transcripts of Frost's Chapel Hill lectures, 1954-1961.

Folder 67

Poems about Frost, by Raymond W. Adams and Robert B. Sharpe.

Folder 68-71

Folder 68

Folder 69

Folder 70

Folder 71

Pamphlets and other materials about Frost at Bread Loaf Writers' Conferences, 1939-1957.

Folder 72

Articles, etc., about Frost at Amherst College, 1954-1963.

Folder 73-74

Folder 73

Folder 74

Materials about Frost's 85th and 88th birthdays, 1959 and 1962.

Folder 75

Caricatures by David Levine (including one of Frost).

Folder 76

Materials from rare book dealers about Frost's publications.

Folder 77

Chronology of Frost's life to 1941.

Folder 78

Sheet of Robert Frost commemorative stamps, 1974.

Folder 79

Envelopes, notes, and other material in Frost's hand.

Folder 80

Assorted notes on Frost, probably by Gladys and Clifford Lyons

Folder 81-82

Folder 81

Folder 82

Miscellaneous materials about Frost.

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expand/collapse Expand/collapse Series 4. Sound Recordings, 1954-1960.

21 items.

Sound recordings (reel-to-reel originals, most with cassette copies), mainly of Robert Frost lecturing and being interviewed at U.N.C. Locations of transcripts are noted.

Audiotape T-04429/1

Robert Frost lecturing in Hill Hall part 1, U.N.C., January 1954

1/4" Open Reel Audio

Transcript is in folder 61

Audiocassette C-04429/1

Robert Frost lecturing in Hill Hall part 1, U.N.C., January 1954

Audiocassette

dub of T-04429/1

Audiotape T-04429/2

Robert Frost lecturing in Hill Hall part 2, U.N.C., January 1954; Ogden Nash address part 1

1/4" Open Reel Audio

Second part of T-04429/1 lecture. Also includes first part of an address by Ogden Nash (undated and unrelated to Robert Frost).

Transcript is in folder 61

Audiocassette C-04429/2

Robert Frost lecturing in Hill Hall part 2, U.N.C., January 1954; Ogden Nash address part 1

Audiocassette

dub of T-04429/2

Audiotape T-04429/3

Ogden Nash address part 2

1/4" Open Reel Audio

Audiocassette C-04429/3

Ogden Nash address part 2

Audiocassette

dub of T-04429/3

Audiotape T-04429/4

Interview with Robert Frost by Clifford Lyons part 1, 3 March 1960

1/4" Open Reel Audio

Transcript is in folder 62

Audiocassette C-04429/4

Interview with Robert Frost by Clifford Lyons part 1, 3 March 1960

Audiocassette

dub of T-04429/4

Audiotape T-04429/5

Interview with Robert Frost by Clifford Lyons part 2, 3 March 1960

1/4" Open Reel Audio

Audiocassette C-04429/5

Interview with Robert Frost by Clifford Lyons part 2, 3 March 1960

Audiocassette

dub of T-04429/5

Audiotape T-04429/6

Robert Frost in Memorial Hall part 1, U.N.C., March 1960

1/4" Open Reel Audio

Transcript is in folder 63

Audiocassette C-04429/6

Robert Frost in Memorial Hall part 1, U.N.C., March 1960

Audiocassette

dub of T-04429/6

Audiotape T-04429/7

Robert Frost in Memorial Hall part 2, U.N.C., March 1960

1/4" Open Reel Audio

Transcript is in folder 63

Audiocassette C-04429/7

Robert Frost in Memorial Hall part 2, U.N.C., March 1960

Audiocassette

dub of T-04429/7

Audiotape T-04429/8

Robert Frost in Memorial Hall part 3, U.N.C., March 1960

1/4" Open Reel Audio

Transcript is in folder 63

Audiocassette C-04429/8

Robert Frost in Memorial Hall part 3, U.N.C., March 1960

Audiocassette

dub of T-04429/8

Audiotape T-04429/9

"Listen America" radio segment with Robert Frost, circa 1950-1955

1/4" Open Reel Audio

Transcript is in folder 64

Audiocassette C-04429/9

"Listen America" radio segment with Robert Frost, circa 1950-1955

Audiocassette

dub of T-04429/9

Audiotape T-04429/10

Robert Frost lecturing in Hill Hall part 1, U.N.C., January 1954

1/4" Open Reel Audio

dub of T-042429/1 made for U.N.C.'s radio station, WUNC

Audiotape T-04429/11

Robert Frost lecturing in Hill Hall part 2, U.N.C., January 1954

1/4" Open Reel Audio

dub of T-042429/2 made for U.N.C.'s radio station, WUNC

Audiotape T-04429/12

Odgen Nash address

1/4" Open Reel Audio

most likely same addresss as T-04429/2 and T-04429/3

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expand/collapse Expand/collapse Series 5. Pictures, 1943-1961, and undated.

74 items.
Image P-4429/1

Robert Frost in the Lyons's home, circa 1956-1959. Image is signed: "Gladys and Cliff - from RF."

Image P-4429/2

RF and Clifford Lyons, 1961.

Image P-4429/3-8

P-4429/3

P-4429/4

P-4429/5

P-4429/6

P-4429/7

P-4429/8

Six pictures from the Syracuse (New York) Post-Standard , of RF at his farm in Ripton, Vermont (P-4429/8 is of the farm itself), 1950-1956.

Image P-4429/9-22

P-4429/9

P-4429/10

P-4429/11

P-4429/12

P-4429/13

P-4429/14

P-4429/15

P-4429/16

P-4429/17

P-4429/18

P-4429/19

P-4429/20

P-4429/21

P-4429/22

Twelve snapshots of RF speaking to students at UNC Chapel Hill, January 1954. (Printed in March 1955) Clifford Lyons is in P-4429/15-20.

Image P-4429/23-26

P-4429/23

P-4429/24

P-4429/25

P-4429/26

RF at UNC, circa 1951-1961. Chancellor Robert B. House is at RF's right in P-4429/23; Clifford Lyons is in P-4429/23-25.

Image P-4429/27-29

P-4429/27

P-4429/28

P-4429/29

RF in Clifford Lyons's home, March 1957.

Image P-4429/30-34

P-4429/30

P-4429/31

P-4429/32

P-4429/33

P-4429/34

RF, probably in Chapel Hill, April 1957. Clifford Lyons is in P-4429/31-33.

Image P-4429/35

RF cutting a cake, with Clifford Lyons and Dr. and Mrs. Richard Thornton looking on, March 1958. Originally enclosed with letter from Richard Thornton (folder 25).

Image P-4429/36

RF in the Lyons's home, March 1958.

Image P-4429/37-62

P-4429/37

P-4429/38

P-4429/39

P-4429/40

P-4429/41

P-4429/42

P-4429/43

P-4429/44

P-4429/45

P-4429/46

P-4429/47

P-4429/48

P-4429/49

P-4429/50

P-4429/51

P-4429/52

P-4429/53

P-4429/54

P-4429/55

P-4429/56

P-4429/57

P-4429/58

P-4429/59

P-4429/60

P-4429/61

P-4429/62

RF in the Lyons's yard, March 1961. (3 copies of each print) C. Lyons is in P-4429/58-62.

Image P-4429/63

RF on the steps of Wilson Library, U.N.C., 1943.

Image P-4429/64-68

P-4429/64

P-4429/65

P-4429/66

P-4429/67

P-4429/68

Enlargements of P-4429/9, 42, 53, 60, and 63.

Image P-4429/69-70

P-4429/69

P-4429/70

Postcards of RF's homes in Derry, New Hampshire, and Ripton, Vermont. Images are reproductions of snapshots taken circa 1908. Both are identified on verso by RF's daughter, Lesley.

Image P-4429/71

Photo. of painting of RF at age 42 (1916; print made in 1957.)

Image P-4429/72

RF, circa 1956-1957.

Image P-4429/73

RF in front of stone wall, circa 1940-1960. Repro. of drawing (color). Artist: Boris Chaliapin

Oversize Image OP-P-4429/74

Enlargement of P-4429/26: RF speaking to class in Bingham Hall, U.N.C., circa 1960-1961.

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