The Ward M. Canaday Center

for Special Collections

The University of Toledo

Finding Aid

Karen Csengeri Papers, 1808-1997

MSS-187

Size: 7 linear feet

Provenance: Received from Karen Csengeri in June 2004

Access: Open

Collection Summary: Much of this collection refers to the research Csengeri collected when developing her PhD thesis The Life and Work of T.E. Hulme.  The materials include correspondence with various libraries and agencies in the United States, Great Britain, France, and Germany, extensive notes on T.E. Hulme’s life, work, and influences, and a 1985 bound copy of her thesis.  Additional files relate to T.S. Eliot’s readings on mysticism and notes regarding Ezra Pound’s The Cantos.

 

Subject(s): Literature; Philosophy and Religion; Politics and Government; War, Soldiers, and Veterans

 

Related Collections: Ezra Pound Papers, The Cantos, MSS-057; Mary de Rachewiltz Translation of Cantos by Ezra Pound, MSS-049; Noel Stock Papers, MSS-009

 

Processing Note: n/a    

 

Copyright: The literary rights to this collection are assumed to rest with the person(s) responsible for the production of the particular items within the collection, or with their heirs or assigns.  Researchers bear full legal responsibility for the acquisition to publish from any part of said collection per Title 17, United States Code.  The Ward M. Canaday Center for Special Collections may reserve the right to intervene as intermediary at its own discretion.

 

Completed by: Sara Mouch, May 2014

  

 

Biographical Sketch

 

            Karen Csengeri is a Toledo resident and University of Toledo graduate, where she received her B.A. in Mathematics in 1970 and M.A. in English in 1974.  She earned her Ph.D., the thesis for which generated the material in this collection, at the University of Michigan in 1985.  From graduate teaching assistant to assistant professor and adjunct instructor, Dr. Csengeri has taught English and General Studies since 1971, at multiple universities and colleges, including the University of Toledo, State University of West Georgia, Georgia Southern University, Georgia State University, University of Michigan, Kennesaw State University, and Lourdes College. 

 

            A large portion of Dr. Csengeri’s work involves Thomas Ernest Hulme (T.E.H.), a British literary figure of the early twentieth century who was an Imagist predecessor to Ezra Pound, influenced T.S. Eliot’s ideas on classicism and Original Sin, and introduced French philosopher Henri Bergson to England and the United States.  Her initial interest in Hulme developed as a result of a Proseminar on Early Twentieth Century British Literature taught by Noel Stock, who became a longtime friend.  Stock ascribed importance to Hulme, an ascription furthered by Professor Wallace Martin during his Literary Theory class.  Both professors influenced Csengeri to conduct extensive research on Hulme, who she asserts was one of the most misunderstood figures in twentieth century letters.  Arguing that previous works about Hulme did the writer a disservice through backwards chronology and a lack of context or proper background, Csengeri pursued a mission of clearing up the confusion with Hulme’s detailed life story.  This mission resulted in her Ph.D. thesis, The Life and Work of T.E. Hulme

 

            In addition to her thesis, Dr. Csengeri has published several essays and reviews, as well as edited the book The Collected Writings of T.E. Hulme in 1994 which has generated many favorable reviews for its clear, comprehensive, and chronological format.  Other publications of note to which Csengeri has contributed include English Literature in Translation, Comparative Literature, Essays in Criticism, The Old Northwest, Helix, and West Georgia College Review.

 


 

Scope and Content Note

 

            Karen Csengeri’s papers consist of correspondence, notes, photographs, research materials, and typescripts, each divided into a subseries under Series 1: Hulme, Thomas Ernest.  The correspondence predominantly includes responses from various libraries and other memory institutions to her request for any and all material on T.E.H.  Communication primarily took place in 1976, although some letters carried on into the mid-80s and throughout the 1990s.  Other correspondence were transcribed letters of T.E.H. and have been appropriated to the research material subseries.  The research materials comprise a large part of the collection in the form of photocopies of articles written by both T.E.H. and his critics, as well as books.  A small envelope of photos documenting the literary figure’s early history have been placed with microfilm under audiovisual. 

 

            Another significant portion of Dr. Csengeri’s papers include her notes.  Handwritten and thorough, they document both her research efforts (that included travel to England) and the details of T.E.H.’s life and works that comprised Csengeri’s thesis.  Other notes, filed in a separate series, Series 2: Other Literary Figures, include work on T.S. Eliot and Ezra Pound, with a subseries devoted to each writer. 

 

            Finally, typescripts and a notated manuscript of Dr. Csengeri’s 1994 edited publication The Collected Works of T.E Hulme, as well as a small collection of literary journals to which Csengeri contributed essays and reviews (all included in Series 1), round out the collection.

 

            The correspondence is arranged chronologically by postdate.  With the exception of the notes on Ezra Pound, subsequent materials are first arranged alphabetically by type or subject, then further arranged chronologically by either date of first printing, such as in the case of the photocopied publications, or of an event in T.E.H.’s life as indicated by Csengeri in her notes.  The Pound materials, as they are interpretations on his Cantos, are arranged by the number of the canto.


 

Series List

 

Series

Description

S1

Hulme, Thomas Ernest

6 linear feet

 

Subseries A: Audiovisual, 1976

 

Subseries B: Correspondence, 1975-1997

 

Subseries C: Notes, (regarding dates) 1870-1976

 

Subseries D: Publications, 1982-1990

 

Subseries E: Research Material, (regarding dates) 1884-1974

 

Subseries F: Typescripts, 1994

 

S2

Other Literary Figures

1 linear foot

 

Subseries A: Eliot, T.S., 1888-1965

 

Subseries B: Pound, Ezra, undated

 

  

Folder List

 

NOTE: In all series, the “†” denotes that items are in oversize or irregularly shaped or sized boxes.

 

 

Box

Folder

Series 1: Hulme, Thomas Ernest

Subseries A: Audiovisual

1

Microfilm from 1911 Philosophical Congress in Bologna that T.E.H. attended

1

Microfilm of Clifford Josephson’s dissertation on T.E.H. from Columbia University, 1956

1

1

Photographs of the locations and people in T.E.H.’s life, n.d.

Subseries B: Correspondence

2

1

Incoming, August 28-September 10, 1975

2

2

Incoming, September 12-30, 1975

2

3

Incoming, October, 1975

2

4

Incoming, November-December, 1975

2

5

Incoming, January, 1976

2

6

Incoming, February-April, 1976

2

7

Incoming, May-July, 1976

2

8

Incoming, August-September, 1976

2

9

Incoming, October-December, 1976

2

10

Incoming, 1977

2

11

Incoming, 1978-1984

2

12

Incoming, 1985-1997, dates unclear

2

13

Outgoing, August-October, 1975

Subseries C: Notes

2

14

Fire Fly notebook and University of Keele notebook, n.d.

2

15

Miscellaneous, (re) 1808, 1870-1871, 1884-1902

2

16

Miscellaneous, (re) 1903-1910

2

17

Miscellaneous, (re) 1911-1912

2

18

Miscellaneous, (re) 1913-1914

2

19

Miscellaneous, (re) 1915-1917, 1926, 1954, 1958, 1975-1976

3

1

Miscellaneous, n.d.

3

2

Notebooks 1 and 2, n.d.

3

3

Notebooks 3a and 3b, n.d.

3

4

Notebooks 4 and 5, n.d.

3

5

Notebooks 6 and British Museum, n.d.

3

6

T.E.H. Correspondence, n.d.

3

7

T.E.H. Critics, 1921-1976

Subseries D: Publications

3

8

Comparative Literature, Winter 1982 and Fall 1988

3

9

English Literature in Translation, 1986 and 1989; English Studies, 1990; Essays in Criticism, 1990

3

10

Helix 13/14, 1983

3

11

The Life and Work of T.E. Hulme, 1985

3

12

Notes and Queries, 1985; The Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America, 1986; Publications List, 2004; West Georgia College Review, 1990

Subseries E: Research Material

3

13

Books, Abstraction and Empathy, 1908; An Introduction to Metaphysics, 1903; Newcastle High School 1974-1974

3

14

Books, The Old Road to Endon, 1974

3

15

Books, Principles of Social Reconstruction, 1916

3

16

Books, Reflections on Violence, 1915

3

17

Books, T.E. Hulme, 1971

4

1

Books, Thomas Ernest Hulme, 1960

4

2

Books, Time and Free Will, 1910

4

3

French Sources, 1884-1900

4

4

Henri Bergson, 1889, 1903-1917, 1971

5

Henri Bergson, 1912

4

5

Ordnance Surveys for the Potteries, Stafford and Telford, and Buxton, Matlock and Dovedale, 1974

4

6

Other Sources, 1888, 1901-1914, 1942, 1947, 1959, 1962

4

7

T.E.H. Critics, 1910, 1913-1914, 1928, 1942, 1956-1958, 1967, 1974

4

8

T.E.H. Letters and Other Work, Correspondence and Memories of T.E.H. published between 1920 and 1989

4

9

T.E.H. Letters and Other Work, Essays, 1911-1916

4

10

T.E.H. Letters and Other Work, Notes on Language and Style, 1928

4

11

T.E.H. Letters and Other Work, Ogden Letters, 1911-1916, 1923-1926

4

12

T.E.H. Letters and Other Work, Saint John’s College, Cambridge, 1901-1904, 1912-1913

4

13

T.E.H. Letters and Other Work, War Notes, 1914-1916

Subseries F: Typescripts

6

Corrected typescript of The Collected Writings of T.E. Hulme, ed. by Karen Csengeri, 1994

7

Proofs of The Collected Writings of T.E. Hulme, 1994

Series 2: Other Literary Figures

Subseries A: Eliot, T.S.

8

1

Readings on Mysticism, 1891-1903

8

2

Readings on Mysticism, 1904-1906

8

3

Readings on Mysticism, 1908-1910, 1944, n.d.

8

4

Research Notes, 1888-1910

8

5

Research Notes, 1910-1919

8

6

Research Notes, 1920-1929

8

7

Research Notes, 1930-1939

8

8

Research Notes, 1940-1947

8

9

Research Notes, 1950-1965

Subseries B: Pound, Ezra

8

10

Correspondence (transcribed), 1909-1912

8

11

Research Notes, Cantos 1-9

8

12

Research Notes, Cantos 10-45

8

13

Research Notes, Cantos 52-66

8

14

Research Notes, Cantos 81-109