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Lewis George Sterner correspondence
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Held at: University of Pennsylvania: Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts [Contact Us]3420 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6206
This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the University of Pennsylvania: Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in their reading room, and not digitally available through the web.
Overview and metadata sections
Born in 1894, Lewis George Sterner received his bachelor's degree at the University of Pennsylvania in 1915, after which he served as a sergeant in the U.S. Army Ambulance Corps and Medical Department in Allentown, Pennsylvania, during World War I. After the war he returned to his studies and to the University of Pennsylvania, where he completed a doctoral thesis on "The Sonnet in American Literature" (submitted 1930). His dissertation advisor was Arthur Hobson Quinn. Later he edited several anthologies of short stories and narrative poetry.
He appears to have worked as a teacher for the School District of Philadelphia for much of his career. He died on November 8, 1965, and is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
The bulk of this collection consists of letters to Lewis George Sterner from prominent poets and literary figures from 1927 to 1930, as a result of Sterner's research for his dissertation. These items discuss trends in American sonnet-writing and relate to permissions for using these writers' sonnets in Sterner's thesis, "The Sonnet in American Literature," which was submitted 1930.
There are only a few letters written by Sterner. In additions to the letters, there are also 8 items of autographs and copies of poems inscribed to Sterner, collected during a "passing craze" in 1918.
The collection origins are outlined in a letter to University of Pennsylvania professor Arthur Hobson Quinn (folder 55), to whom Sterner gave the collection in 1930.
Gift of Arthur Hobson Quinn, 1948 (originally gifted to Arthur Hobson Quinn by Lewis George Sterner, 1930).
- Publisher
- University of Pennsylvania: Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts
- Finding Aid Author
- Holly Mengel
- Finding Aid Date
- 2019 January 28
- Access Restrictions
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This collection is open for research use.
- Use Restrictions
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Copyright restrictions may exist. For most library holdings, the Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania do not hold copyright. It is the responsibility of the requester to seek permission from the holder of the copyright to reproduce material from the Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts.