LEONIE FULLER ADAMS (TROY) - AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED 05/10/1977 - HFSID 223390

LÉONIE ADAMS
Signed autograph letter (1977), discussing her frail health and poetic achievements, and confessing, "just now I am out of fashion."
Autograph Letter signed: "Léonie Adams", 2 pages (front and verso), 6x7. New Milford, Connecticut, 1977 May 10. On personal letterhead to "Dear Mr. Todara", in full: "I am extremely sorry to be so delinquent in responding to your kind letter - especially as I was much touched by it. When it came, I was in reasonable health, but overwhelmed by the difficulties of taking care of the seasonal changes - seeing to the clearing of the grounds, & so on. I am unable to walk unassisted by two canes - one cane & an arm - a patient arm putting up with my creeping tread - or a walker! Then I got a virus. At any rate your letter did please me, and I admired the neatness of your copy as well as the lines. As to the rewards I have had a number of them, especially the Bollinger, and grants from the National Institute & the Academy of American Poets, and the latter twice, and the so-called Library of Congress Chair of Poetry back in 1948. And the Brandeis medal. The Pulitzer is always given for a book of the year & with my last book (in 1954) I had as rivals Wallace Stevens & E. E. Cummings! I am aware that just now I am 'out of fashion' with others of my time. I am hoping to embellish some long delayed poems and then get out a more complete collection - if Heaven permits - with best wishes". Léonie Adams (Troy), 1899-1988, Margaret Mead's roommate at Barnard College, published her first volume of poetry, Those Not Elect, in 1925. A longtime professor at Bennington and other colleges, she married fellow writer and teacher William Troy in 1933. As she mentions in this letter, Adams was US Poet Laureate (called by her the Library of Congress Chair, 1948-1949), and winner of the Bollinger Prize in 1954 for her Poems: a Selection. Poems by Adams are included in many anthologies. Fine condition.