Gwendolyn Brooks Collection, 1909-2003 | Rare Book & Manuscript Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Title: Gwendolyn Brooks Collection, 1909-2003

Predominant Dates:bulk 1960-2000

ID: 01/01/MSS00086

Primary Creator: Brooks, Gwendolyn (1917-2000)

Extent: 200.0 Linear Feet

Date Acquired: 09/19/2013

Subjects: Poets, American - 20th century

Languages: English

Gwendolyn Brooks (1917-2000) was an American poet and educator born in Topeka, Kansas and raised on the South Side of Chicago. In 1950, Brooks was the first Black person to win a Pulitzer Prize in any category, receiving the award in Poetry for Annie Allen (1949). Brooks was a beloved mentor to many poets and artists from the Black Arts movement, and started the Illinois Poet Laureate Awards to encourage poetry writing amongst young people. During her life, Brooks received numerous accolades for her work, including her appointment as Poet Laureate of Illinois in 1968 and Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress (now the Poet Laureate of the United States) in 1985.

This collection contains materials that were collected by Gwendolyn Brooks throughout her life and professional career. Formats include correspondence; poetry and prose drafts; interview transcripts; notebooks and loose notes and jottings; photos and scrapbooks; drawings; calendars and diet books; public engagements files and teaching materials; awards, honorary degrees, and doctoral hoods; newspapers and news clippings; A/V media; realia; and ephemera. The collection also contains volumes, pamphlets, and periodicals from Brooks's personal library, as well as related materials collected by RBML ("Supplementary Material").

This record does not contain collection content for the first series of the Gwendolyn Brooks Collection. Series 1, which contains alphabetical correspondence and correspondence files, was separated from the rest of the collection in an attempt to improve load times. Click here to view series 1 (temporarily MS00086a).

Poet Gwendolyn Brooks was born to parents David Anderson and Keziah Wims Brooks on June 7, 1917 in Topeka, Kansas. A few weeks later, her family moved to Chicago where she would live for the rest of her life. Brooks began writing at an early age and was encouraged by her mother saying, "You are going to be the lady Paul Laurence Dunbar." When she was 13, her poem "Evening" was published in the children's magazine American Childhood [1]. By the time she graduated high school, Brooks had published over one hundred poems in the "Lights and Shadows" poetry column of the Chicago Defender [2]. After high school, Brooks graduated from a two-year program at Wilson Junior College [3]. In 1939, she married Henry Blakely, Jr. whom she met after joining the Chicago NAACP Youth Council. They soon had their first child, Henry III, and later their daughter, Nora.

Early in her career, Brooks was encouraged by poet James Weldon Johnson and Harlem Renaissance writers Langston Hughes and Richard Wright [4]. In her work, Brooks drew inspiration from her life and surroundings in Chicago. Her first book of poetry, A Street in Bronzeville (1945), received praise for its authentic portraits of the Bronzeville neighborhood of Chicago. Her second collection of poems, Annie Allen (1949), chronicles the life of a young Black Bronzeville girl. It was for this book that Brooks won the 1950 Pulitzer Prize for poetry, making her the first Black person to win the award in any category [5].

In the 1960s, Brooks work became more overtly political as she became close with activists and writers involved in the Black Arts Movement, a group of artists whose work reflected the cultural side of the growing Black Power movement [6]. She became especially close with Haki Madhubuti, to whom she became both a mentor and a mother figure. Soon Brooks began working exclusively with Black publishers, especially Broadside Press, founded by her close friend Dudley Randall, and Third World Press, founded by Madhubuti. In the 1980s, Brooks also established her own imprint called The David Company.

Throughout her long career, Brooks published more than twenty books of poetry, including The Bean Eaters (1960), Selected Poems (1963), In the Mecca (1968), Riot (1969), Family Pictures (1970), Aloneness (1971), Beckonings (1975), To Disembark (1981), Black Love (1982), The Near-Johannesburg Boy and Other Poems (1986), Blacks (1987), Gottschalk and the Grand Tarantelle (1988), Winnie (1988), and Children Coming Home (1991). She also published one novel, Maud Martha (1953), as well as children's literature such as Bronzeville Boys and Girls (1956) and The Tiger Who Wore White Gloves (1974). Brooks also published two autobiographies, Report from Part One (1972), and Report from Part Two (1995).

In addition to her writing, Brooks taught poetry and creative writing at numerous colleges and universities. In 1990, the Gwendolyn Brooks Center for Black Literature and Creative Writing was founded at Chicago State University, where Brooks served as distinguished professor and writer-in-residence [7]. Brooks influenced generations of writers, not only with her words, but with her actions. For most of the year, she traveled the country to perform her poetry for children of all ages as well as at universities, public libraries, hospitals, and prisons. As she especially encouraged young poets, Brooks sponsored youth poetry awards for over thirty years. Renowned for her generosity, Brooks dedicated her life to promoting the value of poetry and inspiring young writers.

Brooks was the recipient of more than seventy-five honorary doctorates and countless accolades [8]. In 1968, she was appointed Poet Laureate of Illinois, a position which she held until her death in 2000 [9]. In 1985, Brooks was selected for an honorary one-year term as the Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress [10]. She received lifetime achievement awards from both the National Endowment for the Arts in 1989 and the National Book Foundation in 1994. Brooks then received the National Endowment for the Humanities' highest honor when she was named the 1994 Jefferson Lecturer. The next year, Brooks received the National Medal of Arts.

Today, Gwendolyn Brooks' legacy persists as one of the most significant poets of the twentieth century, because of both her contribution to American literature and her kindness and generosity, especially toward young poets and authors of color.

Poets, American - 20th century

Repository: Rare Book & Manuscript Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Acquisition Source: Nora Brooks Blakely

Related Materials:

Celebrating Brooks @ 100

Gwendolyn Brooks Supplementary Materials

Gwendolyn Brooks Collection (Sc MG 271) | New York Public Library

Gwendolyn Brooks Papers (BANC MSS 2001/83 z) | University of California, Berkeley

Dudley Randall Papers (2017014 Aa 2) | University of Michigan

Sterling Plumpp Collection (MUM00368) | University of Mississippi

Useni Eugene Perkins Papers (2014/01) | Chicago Public Library

Finding Aid Revision History: This finding aid is experiencing ongoing revision, beginning in June 2023.

Box and Folder Listing

Series 17: Audiovisual Materials

Sub-series 1: Cassettes and VHS Tapes

Box 384

Item 1-17: Cassette tapes

Item 1: The Courage to Write: Katherine Mansfield, 1998?

DS Tape 1. University of Wisconsin Board of Regents.

Item 2: Herrin Massacre, 1997

DS Tape 2. WBEZ Chicago.

Item 3: Brockport Writers Forum “Interview w/ Gwendolyn Brooks”, 1978 May 9

DS Tape 10.

Item 4: Keynote: Gwen Brooks, 1988 May 25

DS Tape 11.

Item 5: The Academy of American Poets, 1983?

DS Tape 12. Audiotape Archives. Includes “Lucille Clifton” (A) and “Gwendolyn Brooks” (B).

Item 6: An Interview with Gwendolyn Brooks, 1988 May 5

DS Tape 13. Also labeled “For Gwen, with deep appreciation!”

Item 7: An Interview with Gwendolyn Brooks, 1988

DS Tape 14. Side C.

Item 8: New Letters on the Air, 1984 April

DS Tape 15. New Letters magazine (University of Missouri, Kansas City). Includes “Gwendolyn Brooks.”

Item 9: Michigan City Library, 1990

DS Tape 16. Includes “Gwendolyn Brooks – Audio Pt. 1” (A) and “Gwendolyn Brooks Pt. 2” (B).

Item 10: Poets in Person, 1991?

DS Tape 17. Includes “W.S. Merwin” and “Gwendolyn Brooks.”

Item 11: Gwendolyn Brooks on Ill. Public Radio, 1993

DS Tape 18. WSSU-FM.

Item 12: G. Brooks at Bowen H.S. – Hip hop Mama, 1991 May 21

DS Tape 19.

Item 13: Gwendolyn Brooks Reading. Buffalo State College, 1990 November 1

DS Tape 20.

Item 14: “Two Poets in Conversation”: Gwendolyn Brooks and Stephen Caldwell Wright, 1992 February 28

DS Tape 21. Seminole Community College.

Item 15: Gwendolyn Brooks 1st Workshop, 1992 October 15

DS Tape 22. Ball State University.

Item 16: Gwendolyn Brooks 2nd Workshop, 1992 October 15

DS Tape 23. Ball State University.

Item 17: Gwendolyn Brooks. “A Poetry Reading”, 1992 October 15

DS Tape 24. Ball State University.

Box 385

Item 1-11: Cassette tapes

Item 1: The Poet’s Voice: Gwendolyn Brooks, undated

DS Tape 25. WNYC New York. The Unterberg Poetry Center (The 92nd Street Y).

Item 2: Mrs. Brooks, undated

DS Tape 26.

Item 3: MD Smith, “Sight & Insight: Poet as Social Historian”, undated

DS Tape 27. Includes “Paul Dunbar & Sterling Brown” (A) and “Sterling Brown (Part II) & Gwendolyn Brooks” (B).

Item 4: Poets: Gwen & Steph, undated

DS Tape 28.

Item 5: MAMA – reading wks on Studs Terkel 3/23, undated

DS Tape 29. B side labeled “MAMA (cont) WRMT 98.7 Wilson.”

Item 6: Martin Luther King – Words by Gwendolyn Brooks – Music by David Welsh, undated

DS Tape 30.

Item 7: Personality Profile (dub) - Portrait of Gwendolyn Brooks, undated

DS Tape 31.

Item 8: Poems recited by L.A. Thomas CCH. children, undated

DS Tape 32. Includes poetry from Bronzeville Boys and Girls.

Item 9: Nelson Algren – Remembrance, 1981 June 29

DS Tape 33. Second City (Chicago).

Item 10: Unlabeled gray cassette tape, undated

DS Tape 34. Contains “Swing Low” (A).

Item 11: Unlabeled black cassette tape, 1991 August 8

DS Tape 35. Contains “All About Anna.”

Box 386

Item 1-3: Cassette tape sets

Item 1: Black Biography, 1981?

DS Tapes 3-4. Tape 3 includes “Dr. Benjamin E. Mays: Born to Rebel” (A) and “Rev. Richard Allen and the Birth of the A.M.E. Church” (B). Tape 4 includes “The Invention of Benjamin Banneker” (A) and “The Spirit of Sojourner Truth” (B).

Item 2: Black Biography, 1981?

DS Tapes 5-6. Tape 5 includes “Hank Aaron: The Legend of the Hammer” (A) and “Jim Beckwourth: Mountain Man” (B). Tape 6 includes “Gwendolyn Brooks: Madonna of the Poets” (A) and “Tony Brown: Media Man” (B).

Item 3: The Junior Great Books Read-Aloud Program, 1998?

DS Tapes 7-9. Dragon series. Tape 7 includes “The Frog Prince” (A) and “Guinea Fowl and Rabbit Get Justice” (B). Tape 8 includes “Feraj and the Magic Lute” (A) and “The Tale of Johnny Town-Mouse.” Tape 9 includes “Buya Marries the Tortoise” (A) and “The Huckabuck Family…” (B).

Item 4-14: VHS tapes

Item 4: From Whence We Came Awards Show Media Highlights, 1999

DS Tape 36. Edelman Video Productions.

Item 5: Chicago Arts Tribute to Sandra H. Royster (draft copy), 2000

DS Tape 37. Chicago Cultural Center.

Item 6: G. Brooks Honored at the Statehouse, 1990?

DS Tape 38. WIBW-TV (Topeka, KS). Includes “Bill Drummond” and “Video footage at Kansas Senate Chambers” notes.

Item 7: A Medley in Black History, undated

DS Tape 39.

Item 8: United States of Poetry, undated

DS Tape 40.

Item 9: Show # 95 (Essence Awards), undated

DS Tape 41.

Item 10: Flash News: A Beloit College Campus News Program, undated

DS Tape 42. Includes “Men’s Soccer, Jen Davis, Gwendolyn Brooks, [and] The Women’s Exhibit.”

Item 11: Computer North Dallas Forty, undated

DS Tape 43.

Item 12: Many Thousand Gone: Lost Black History, undated

DS Tape 44.

Item 13: Battle Creek Symphony Interview: Clarence Small, undated

DS Tape 45.

Item 14: People to People–Featuring Ella Mae Clark–‘Oral Interpreter’, 1985

DS Tape 46. Also labeled “Hamlet. To Have…”

Sub-series 2: Vinyl LPs

Box 567

Folder 1: Neapolitan Trio (Victor), 1912(?)

DS Disc 1. Includes “Schubert’s Serenade” by Franz Schubert (A) and “Serenade” by A.E. Titl (B).

Folder 2: Charles Schuetze (Columbia), 1909(?)

DS Disc 2. Includes “Song without Words” (A) and “Love’s Old Sweet Song” (B) by Charles Schuetze.

Folder 3: Nightingale of Herr Reich, Bremen (Victor), undated

DS Disc 3. Includes “Song of a Nightingale” (A).

Folder 4: Columbia Quintette / Grace Kerns (Columbia), 1909(?)

DS Disc 4. Includes “The Rosary” by Ethelbert Nevin (A) and “The Last Rose of Summer” by Old Irish Air (B).

Folder 5: Nathan Glantz (Gennett), 1923

DS Disc 5. Includes “Valse La La” (A) and “Gladioli” (B).

Folder 6: Carpenter and Ingram (Gennett), undated

DS Disc 6. Includes “London Bridge Is Falling Down (On the Isle of Childhood Dreams)” by Harry I. Robinson and Louis Robinson (A) and “In Fair Hawaiia” by Melba Wirth (B).

Folder 7: Prince’s Orchestra (Columbia), 1915

DS Disc 7. Includes “Danse Macabre” by Camille Saint-Saëns (A) and “Dance of the Goblins” by William Loraine and Robert Recker (B).

Folder 8: Foy Willing (Varsity), undated

DS Disc 8. Includes “I Couldn’t Believe It Was True” (A) and “Sometimes” (B).

Folder 9: Vienna Quartette / Victor Sorlin (Victor), 1913(?)

DS Disc 9. Includes “Serenade” by Gabriel Pierné (A) and “Cradle Song” by Miska Hauser (B).

Folder 10: Conway’s Band (Okeh), undated

DS Disc 10. Includes “Coppélia Ballet No. 2 (Waltz of the Hours)” (A) and “Coppélia Ballet No. 7 (Czardas)” (B) by Léo Delibes.

Folder 11: Natzy and His Biltmore Orchestra (Gennett), 1921

DS Disc 11. Includes “Moonlight” by Con Conrad (A) and “Sunshine” by George A. Little, Jack Stanley, and Otto Motzan (B).

Folder 12: Criterion Quartette (Gennett), 1921

DS Disc 12. Includes “In the Sweet Bye and Bye” by Joseph P. Webster and Sanford Fillmore Bennett (A) and “The Church in the Wildwood” by William Pitts (B).

Folder 13: Jerry Wald and His Orchestra (Decca), 1944

DS Disc 13. Includes “Poinciana (Song of the Tree)” by Nat Simon and Buddy Bernier (A) and “Mississippi Dream Boat” by Sammy Fain, Lew Brown, and Ralph Freed (B).

Folder 14: Taylor Trio (Gennett), 1922

DS Disc 14. Includes “The Herd Girl’s Dream” by August Labitzky (A) and “Sweet Genevieve” by George Cooper and Henry Tucker (B).

Folder 15: Sergei Rachmaninoff (RCA Victor), 1928(?)

DS Disc 15. Includes “Prelude in C Sharp Minor (Op. 3, No. 2)” (A) and “Spinning Song (Song Without Words, No. 34” by Felix Mendelssohn (B).

Folder 16: Arthur Gramm (Columbia), 1909(?)

DS Disc 16. Includes “Prelude to the Deluge” by Camille Saint-Saëns (A) and “Spanish Dance (Spanischer Tanz)” by Fabian Rehfeld.

Folder 17: Learn-A-Language Record Course (Crown Publishers), 1955(?)

DS Disc 17. Record 1. Includes French lessons 1-5 (A) and 6-10 (B).

Folder 18: Learn-A-Language Record Course (Crown Publishers), 1955(?)

DS Disc 18. Record 2. Includes French lessons 11-15 (A) and 16-20 (B).

Folder 19: Learn-A-Language Record Course (Crown Publishers), 1955(?)

DS Disc 19. Record 3. Includes French lessons 21-25 (A) and 26-30 (B).

Folder 20: Learn-A-Language Record Course (Crown Publishers), 1955(?)

DS Disc 20. Record 4. Includes French lessons 31-35 (A) and 36-40 (B).

Box 568

Folder 1: Kaufman Brothers / Arthur Fields (Gennett), 1922

DS Disc 21. Includes “Mister Gallagher and Mister Shean” by Ed Gallagher and Al Shean (A) and “All Over Nothing At All” by J. Keirn Brennan, James S. Rule, and Paul Cunningham (B).

Folder 2: Merle Tillotson / Inez Barbour (Columbia), 1914

DS Disc 22. Includes “Good Bye Sweet Day” by Kate Vannah (A) and “Lullaby, from Erminie” by Edward Jakobowski (B).

Folder 3: “Sweet Hawaiian Moonlight” (A) / “Meet Me in the Moonlight” (B), undated

DS Disc 23. Handwritten label on side A; no label on side B.

Folder 4: The Four Vagabonds (Bluebird), 1943

DS Disc 24. Includes “Rose Ann of Charing Cross” by Kermit Goell and Mabel Wayne (A) and “Ten Little Soldiers (On a Ten Day Leave)” by Abner Silver, Kay Werner, and Sue Werner (B).

Folder 5: Buck Basseys Royal Yorkers (SBW), undated

DS Disc 25. Includes “In the Good Old Summer Time” by Ren Shields and George Evans (A) and “Summer Morning” by Fred Bruland (B).

Folder 6: Victor Opera Trio (Victor), 1912(?)

DS Disc 26. Includes “Faust – Trio from “Prison Scene” (Act V)” by Charles Francois Gounod (A).

Folder 7: Joseph Moskowitz (Victor), 1916

DS Disc 27. Includes “Hungarian Dance, No. 5” by Johannes Brahms (A) and “Hungarian Czardas” (B).

Folder 8: Lieut. Matt’s Orchestra (Gennett), 1922

DS Disc 28. Includes “Say Persianna Say (Oriental Fox Trot)” by Willy White (A) and “Swanee River Moon (Waltz)” by H. Pitman Clark (B).

Folder 9: Florence Hinkle (Victor), 1912

DS Disc 29. Includes “From the Land of the Sky Blue Water” from American Indian Songs by Nelle Richmond Eberhart and Charles Wakefield Cadman (A).

Folder 10: Scipione Guidi (Gennett), 1922

DS Disc 30. Includes “Schon Rosmarin” (A) and “Liebesfreud” (B) by Fritz Kreisler.

Box 569

Item 1: Mahalia Jackson, What the World Needs Now (Columbia), 1969

DS Disc 31. Includes original sleeve.

Item 2: Diana Ross and The Supremes with The Temptations, (The Original Soundtrack from) TCB (Motown), 1968

DS Disc 32. Includes original jacket.

Item 3: Bing Crosby, Crosby Classics (Harmony Records. Columbia), 1971

DS Disc 33. Includes original jacket.

Item 4: Ed Brown and Martin Plissner, John Fitzgerald Kennedy: A Memorial Album (Premier), 1963

DS Disc 34. Includes original jacket and sleeve.

Folder 5: Michael Gielen / Hans Swarowsky (Classic Platten Club), undated

DS Disc 35. Music Treasures of the World series. Includes “Symphony No. 41 in C Major, K. 551 (The “Jupiter”)” by Mozart (A) and “Symphony No. 4 in A Major, Op. 90 (The “Italian”)” by Mendelssohn (B).

Folder 6: State Orchestra of the U.S.S.R. (Classic Platten Club), undated

DS Disc 36. Music Treasures of the World series. Includes “Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 53” by Dvorak (A) and “Concerto No. 1 in E-flat Major” by Liszt (B).

Folder 7: American Recording Society Orchestra / The Vienna Festival Orchestra (Classic Platten Club), undated

DS Disc 37. Music Treasures of the World series. Includes “Symphonic Suite” by Richard Rodgers (A) and “Bouffes Parisiens” by Richard Mohaupt (B).

Folder 8: Music Treasures Philharmonic Symphony (Classic Platten Club), undated

DS Disc 38. Music Treasures of the World series. Includes “Symphony No. 5 in C Minor, Op. 67” by Beethoven (A) and “Symphony No. 8 in B Minor (The “Unfinished”)” by Schubert (B).

Folder 9: Music Treasures of the World series sleeve, undated

Folder 10: Reference Recording Instantaneous (NBC), 1957

DS Disc 39. Includes “Carnival of Books Part 1” (A) and “Carnival of Books Part 3” (B).

Folder 11: Reference Recording Instantaneous (NBC), 1957

DS Disc 40. Includes “Carnival of Books Part 2” (A).

Item 12-14: Theme from Love Story and 30 More Great Hits (Columbia House), undated

DS Disc 41-43. Includes three records in original box set. Each record has five songs on each side.

Item 15: Linton Kwesi Johnson, Forces of Victory (Island), 1979(?)

DS Disc 44. Includes original jacket and sleeve.

Item 16: Linton Kwesi Johnson, Bass Culture (Island), 1980(?)

DS Disc 45. Includes original jacket and sleeve.

Item 17: “Linton Kwesi Johnson” mailer, 1982

Item 18: Michael Smith, “Mi C-YaăN beLiēVe iT” (Island), 1982(?)

DS Disc 46. Includes original jacket and sleeve.

Item 19-20: Delta Sigma Theta Members ft. Aretha Franklin and Roscoe Lee Browne, Roses & Revolutions (D.S.T. Telecommunications, Inc.), 1975

DS Disc 47-48. Two-record set. Includes original jacket and sleeves.

Item 21-22: Gwendolyn Brooks Reading Her Poetry, 1968

DS Disc 49-50. Two copies. Each includes original jacket and sleeve.

Item 23: Billy Taylor, Jazz Alive (Monmouth/Evergreen), 1977

DS Disc 51. Includes original jacket and sleeves. Artist’s inscription on the back of the jacket.

Item 24-25: Diana Ross and the Supremes, Greatest Hits (Motown), 1967(?)

DS Disc 52-53. Two-record set. Includes original jacket.

Box 569a

Item 1: Vinyl LP record storage album, undated

Brown leather. Chicago Album & Specialty Co. Housed DS Disc 1-2 and 12-16.

Item 2: Vinyl LP record storage album, undated

Brown leather. Chicago Album & Specialty Co. Housed DS Disc 3. Includes owner’s manual for a Motorola AM-FM Radio and Phonograph.

Item 3: Vinyl LP record storage album, undated

Brown leather. Chicago Album & Specialty Co. Housed DS Disc 4-11. Owner’s manual for a Motorola TV set is attached to the front cover.

Box 569b

Item 1: Vinyl LP record storage album, undated

Brown leather. Chicago Album & Specialty Co. Housed DS Disc 21-27. Page from an owner’s manual for a Motorola TV set attached to the back cover.

Item 2: Vinyl LP record storage album, undated

Brown leather. Chicago Album & Specialty Co. Housed DS Disc 28-30. Includes an inscription on the front cover recto.