Charles Johnson papers

Collection

Identifier: MSS 0143

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

The Charles Johnson papers consist of letters and manuscripts written by American novelist and teacher Charles Johnson and sent to his former professor John Gardner. The seven manuscripts are drafts and outlines towards Johnson's publications, The Devil and Jubilee Tuthill, Oxherding Tale, and Faith and the Good Thing.

Written during the mid 1970s, Johnson's letters, some decorated with sketches and caricatures, detail Johnson's nascent ideas for several unwritten novels and stories. Other letters share personal anecdotes and describe Johnson's university classes, experiences with publishers, and employment opportunities. The letters also contain dense philosophical meditations on literature, the nature of the artist and writer, and on Black experience. With many of his letters, Johnson included manuscripts of articles and novels for Gardner to peruse and critique. The collection thus provides an intimate and revealing glance into Johnson's publications, his methodology, and beliefs.

Series I of the Charles Johnson papers contain letters sent to John Gardner from 1974 to 1976. Included in this series are the manuscripts, reviews, and articles accompanying Johnson's letters.

Series II consists of the author's manuscripts, outlines, and early versions of Oxherding Tale and Faith and the Good Thing, as well as the radio drama The Devil and Jubilee Tuthill. Several of the manuscripts in this series are accompanied by brief notes from Johnson to Gardner.

Dates

Creation: 1973-1976

Creator

Johnson, Charles, 1948- (Person)

Language of Materials

Materials entirely in English.

Conditions Governing Access

The collection is open for research.

Conditions Governing Use

Use of materials from this collection beyond the exceptions provided for in the Fair Use and Educational Use clauses of the U.S. Copyright Law may violate federal law. Permission to publish or reproduce is required from the copyright holder. Please contact Special Collections Department, University of Delaware Library, https://library.udel.edu/static/purl.php?askspec

Biographical Note

Charles Johnson is an American novelist and fiction writer, winner of the 1990 National Book Award in fiction for his work, Middle Passage, and a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Fellowship in 1998. He served as a director of the creative writing program at the University of Washington and went on to hold the S. Wilson and Grace M. Pollock Professorship for Excellence in English.

Charles Richard Johnson was born in 1948 in Evanston, Illinois. He attended Southern Illinois University at Carbondale where he received a bachelor's degree in journalism in 1971 and a master's degree in philosophy in 1973. He received his PhD from SUNY Stoneybrook in New York, in 1988, delving into the issues of phenomenology and literary aesthetics. Before committing himself to a writing career, Johnson worked as a political cartoonist and photojournalist. Prior to holding S. Wilson and Grace M. Pollock Professorship for Excellence in English at the University of Washington, he was the chair of the university's Creative Writing Department.

He has published an array of radio dramas, articles, and novels, such as Faith and the Good Thing (1974), Oxherding Tale (1982), Middle Passage (1990), and Dreamer (1998). Johnson also wrote and produced a series for PBS and is fiction editor for the Seattle Review

The letters and manuscripts contained in the collection comprise material sent to Johnson's friend and former professor John Gardner (1933-1982). Gardner taught creative writing at Southern Illinois University and was an author as well, publishing books, poems, and collections of essays.

SOURCES:

Dictionary of Literary Biography. Vol. 33, Afro-American fiction writers after 1955. Detroit, Mich.: Gale Research Co., 1984

"Charles Johnson/Biography." http://www.oxherdingtale.com (accessed October 2009).

Some biographical information is derived from material in the collection.

Extent

.3 linear foot (1 box)

Metadata Rights Declarations

License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This record is made available under an Attribution 4.0 International Creative Commons license.

Additional Description

Abstract

The Charles Johnson papers consist of the letters and manuscripts written by American novelist and teacher Charles Johnson and sent to his former professor John Gardner. The seven manuscripts are drafts and outlines towards Johnson's publications, The Devil and Jubilee Tuthill, Oxherding Tale, and Faith and the Good Thing.