Howard Nemerov Papers
Howard Nemerov (1920-1991) was a widely published poet recognized with numerous prizes, awards, grants, and fellowships. He was born and raised in New York City, graduated from Harvard in 1941, and enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force that same year, before the United States entered the war. Nemerov flew for the Canadian forces in Europe until 1944, when he joined the US Army Air Forces and flew combat missions until 1945.
In 1946, Nemerov became an associate editor of Furioso and began teaching at Hamilton College. He worked on Furioso until 1951 and taught at several other schools—Bennington College, the University of Minnesota, Brandeis University, and Hollins College—until 1963, when he received a one-year appointment as Poetry Consultant to the Library of Congress. In 1969, Nemerov joined the English faculty at Washington University in St. Louis, where he was a highly visible and popular teacher, holding the Edward Mallinckrodt Distinguished Professor of English Chair.
Nemerov is known for a diverse body of poetry praised for its technical excellence, intelligence, and wit. Writing verse in a variety of forms and styles—including lyrical, narrative, and meditative—Nemerov examined religious, philosophical, scientific, and existential concerns. He had a firm grounding in formal verse and often incorporated a moralistic tone, but he frequently incorporated irony, satire, and colloquial language into his works.
Although best known as a poet, Nemerov wrote novels, short stories, essays, and criticism. His first book, The Image and the Law, was published in 1947, and Nemerov went on to produce over 20 books. Nemerov received nearly every award or prize available to poets, including the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award in 1978 for Collected Poems, and the Bollingen Prize for Poetry in 1981. He was inducted into the Academy of American Poets in 1971 and was elected a member of the American Institute of Arts and Letters in 1977.
Howard Nemerov Papers
The Howard Nemerov Papers include a great number of worksheets, drafts, and notes towards Nemerov’s poems, essays, lectures, stories, collections, and novels. Nemerov corresponded with numerous important literary figures—for example, there are over 800 letters from longtime correspondents Kenneth Burke, Maxine Kumin, Kay Boyle, and Reed Whittemore—and their letters are housed in the Nemerov Papers. The Howard Nemerov Papers also contain extensive business correspondence, photographs, faculty papers, journals, audio, video, realia, and more.
The accompanying photo is from the Howard Nemerov Papers.
Related Collections in the Modern Literature Collection
Carol Sklenicka Collection of Howard Nemerov Papers
This collection includes six items of correspondence from Nemerov to Sklenicka, 1986-1990, and one VHS tape of the Nemerov lecture, “Language, Nonsense, and Poetry; In Other Words…,” 1990.
Joan Coale Collection of Howard Nemerov Correspondence
This collection includes 461 letters and additional ephemeral items such as drafts of Nemerov’s poems, clippings, and invitations from Nemerov to Coale. From 1972 to 1990, Coale maintained an intimate relationship with Nemerov, exchanging frequent letters. Almost all letters are typed on WashU letterhead and envelopes.
Also included are 25 digital photographs and three audio recordings of the donation of Howard Nemerov’s correspondence to Joan Coale by her son, Howard Coale, on February 13, 2025. You can read more about the acquisition in the Related Articles.
Access these Materials
Search the Howard Nemerov Papers on ArchivesSpace
Explore the Howard Nemerov Research Guide
Explore digitized materials from the Howard Nemerov Papers in the Modern Literature Collection’s 50th Anniversary Digital Exhibition
Plan Your Visit
Contact
- Department
- Special Collections, Special Collections, Preservation, and Digital Strategies
- Name
- Joel Minor
- Job Title
- Curator of Modern Lit Collection/Manuscripts
- Email Address
- joelminor@wustl.edu
- Phone Number
- (314) 935-5413
Header Image Credit: Photograph from Howard Nemerov’s World War II scrapbook.
