| Creator | Nitchie, George W., 1921- |
| Title | George W. Nitchie papers |
| Dates | 1940-2007 (bulk 1960-1979) |
| Identification | MS 53 |
| Quantity | 4 linear feet (8 manuscript containers) |
| Collection Abstract | The collection consists chiefly of Nitchie’s writings as well as records relating to his extensive participation in committees during his tenure at Simmons College. Additional materials include personal and business correspondence and materials from the courses Nitchie taught at Simmons. |
| Historical Abstract | George Wilson Nitchie was a professor at Simmons College. Born in Chicago and raised in Vermont, Nitchie obtained a B.A. degree from Middlebury College and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in English from Columbia. In his forty-year career at Simmons, Nitchie taught courses in modern poetry, English literature, and Greek and Latin classics, among others. Nitchie’s book publications include Human Values in the Poetry of Robert Frost, Marianne Moore: An Introduction to the Poetry, and Seven Poems by George Wilson Nitchie. He also published numerous poems, book reviews, scholarly articles, and essays in various publications. |
| Language | Material in English. |
| Location | Collection may be stored offsite. Please contact Archives staff for more information. |
Collection is open.
Copyright for materials resides with the creators of the items in question, unless otherwise designated.
Please contact the College Archivist with requests to publish any material from the collection.
[Identification of item: description and date], George W. Nitchie Papers, MS 53, Simmons College Archives, Boston, MA, USA.
A portion of the records were a gift from Professor Nitchie to the Simmons College Archives in 1983. The English Department transferred records to the Simmons College Archives in 1987 and the Office of Public Information transferred additional records in 1995. Additional gifts were made by Professor Nitchie in 2010, and his daughter, Kathy Zola, after his death in 2011.
Accession numbers: 83.045; 87.056; 95.025; 2011.039; 2012.040
Processed by Richard S. Carroll, Stephanie Ward, and Claire Laprade, November 1994, April 1996, April 2012
Supervised by Megan Sniffin-Marinoff, Peter Carini, Claire Goodwin, and Jason Wood, November 1994, April 1996, April 2012
This collection guide was encoded as part of the LEADS project by Maria Gould, May 2014
Born in Chicago and raised in Vermont, George Wilson Nitchie obtained a B.A. degree from Middlebury College and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in English from Columbia. After serving in World War II, he gave up his original goal of journalism. While doing part-time teaching at New York University and Brooklyn Polytech, he learned of a position at Simmons.
Nitchie's career at Simmons covered forty years. In addition to modern poetry, his special interests were major English writers and English literature and society in the 17th century. He also taught courses on modern English poetry and Greek and Latin classics in translation.
He was the author of Human Values in the Poetry of Robert Frost, the subject of his doctoral dissertation. He also published Marianne Moore: An Introduction to the Poetry, a book of his own poetry titled Seven Poems by George Wilson Nitchie, and more than a hundred poems in leading poetry journals. Nitchie was an equally prolific reviewer of both classical and modern authors of all types of literature. He also wrote scholarly articles and essays.
Nitchie was affectionately known to his students as "Simmons' own George Bernard Shaw" because of the striking facial resemblance.(1) Nitchie retired from Simmons College in 1986 and passed away in June 2011, at the age of ninety.
The George W. Nitchie papers document the activities of a prolific critic, poet, book reviewer, and teacher at Simmons College.
The bulk of the collection dates from 1960-1979 and relates to Nitchie's writings and to his extensive participation in committee activities during his tenure at Simmons College. There is considerable material relating to the writing and research process of Nitchie's two books as well as many published and unpublished poems. There are a few articles and book reviews he wrote as well.
These and related materials may be found under the following headings in online catalogs.
Collection is arranged into 6 series:
Congratulatory correspondence and notes on Nitchie's Frost and Moore books from professional colleagues at Simmons and other institutions, including Robert Gorham Davis, Wylie Sypher, Lawrance Thompson, and Marjorie Cook.
Correspondence with Macmillan, Duke, and Columbia presses about permissions to quote from other authors cited in his dissertation and in his later books on Frost and Moore; textual corrections or changes; and publicity for the books.
Box 1
A typescript of Nitchie’s Master’s thesis in philosophy, "An Examination of Hart Crane's The Bridge", 1947. Chapter page numbers in the table of contents are ambiguous.
Also a typescript of Nitchie’s Ph.D. dissertation in philosophy, "Values in the Poetry of Robert Frost", 1958. Chapter VI, "A Momentary Stay Against Confusions", pp. 211-248, is missing.
Included is a personal collection of writings by Nitchie, originally bound. The writings consist largely of poetry, most of which has been published.
Box 2
A list of 160 sources consulted in Nitchie's research on Frost, and approximately 200 bibliography cards citing sources for his research while writing his book on Marianne Moore.
Box 3
Eleven articles on developments in teaching or poetry, and pieces on some of Nitchie's favorite poets. Also contains two personal essays.
Nitchie's more than 100 poems include "Palinode for an Unregenerate Sentimentalist", "Meditation on a Theme by Auden", and "Academic Letter: Midwinter (for Wylie Sypher)", dedicated to a distinguished colleague. The poems were published in Shenandoah, The Quarterly Review of Literature, The Southern Review, and other leading periodicals.
The collection of approximately 100 reviews ranges from the classics -- Chaucer, Ben Jonson, Byron, and the Wordsworths -- all the way to modern novels. The bulk of these reviews were published in Reprint Bulletin-Book Reviews. Also included are reviews related to Nitchie’s published books on Frost and Moore.
Box 3
Box 4
Extant materials include course outlines, reading lists, a final examination, and lists of essay topics. Also precis of specific poems or plays. Box 5 contains a large amount of lecture notes, assignments, and personal papers.
Box 5
Box 6
Proposals for different programs and committees at Simmons College, including the "Simmons Fellow Program" and "Personalized Education." Committees Nitchie was associated with include the Special Scholarship Committee, National Association of Banking Women (NABW), Honor Board, Library Advisory Committee, Sub-Committee on the Language Requirement, and Task Force on Governance, to name a few.
Contains the demands of the Black Student Organization (BSO) and also includes a decent amount of faculty reports, memoranda, and meeting minutes.
Box 7
Box 8
