RICHARD EBERHART - AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED 03/26/1983 - HFSID 288528

RICHARD EBERHART
The poet declines an invitation to participate in an event at the Concord School of Philosophy.
Autograph Letter signed: "Richard Eberhart", 1 page, 8½x11. Hanover, New Hampshire, 1983 March 26. On letterhead of English Department, University of Florida, to John E. Chateauneuf, Concord School of Philosophy, Concord, Massachusetts. In full: "We will be on the coast of Maine in July and August. Your given dates are unavailable, so I will have to decline your kind invitation for the Conversational Series this year. I hope very much to come some time and hope you will keep me in mind for some other time. With all best wishes". Richard Eberhart (1904-2005) wrote 20 books, including 12 books of poetry, beginning with A Bravery of Earth (1930). He won the Pulitzer Prize for his Selected Poems in 1966, and the National Book Award for Collected Poems in 1977. Beginning in 1950, he taught English at over a dozen universities, including 30 years at Dartmouth. He was Poet Laureate of the Library of Congress (1959-1961). He did much to popularize the "beat" poets, especially Allen Ginsberg, in the 1950s. John Chateauneuf, a Harvard-educated English teacher known for leading literary walks in the Boston area, was active in the Thoreau Society. The invitation to which Eberhart responds here was his attempt, one of several worthy efforts, to revive the Concord School of Philosophy founded by Bronson Alcott in 1879. Normal mailing folds. Lightly creased. Otherwise, fine condition.