S. Foster Damon was born in Newton, Massachusetts, on February 12, 1893. In 1914 he graduated from Harvard, where he majored in music and was captain of the fencing team for two years. During the first World War, Damon worked in an airplane factory and gave bayonet instruction to student soldiers at Harvard. After the war he was an instructor in the English Department at Harvard and earned a master of arts degree in 1926. Two years earlier, his book,
He came to Brown in 1927, where he joined his cousin, Lindsay Todd Damon, in the English Department as assistant professor. He was promoted to associate professor in 1930 and professor in 1936. He was curator of the Harris Collection of American Poetry and Plays in the University Library, and was particularly interested in building up its extensive collection of sheet music. He built up the Collection's holdings of printings of
His talents and interests ranged far and wide. He wrote an annual Punch and Judy show for the Sea Fair at Annisquam, Massachusetts, where he spent his summers. His play,
In 1968 the University published
No citation can summarize adequately the variety of your accomplishments. Your pioneering book, published in 1925, is the foundation for all serious critical study of William Blake conducted since. Your work on Amy Lowell, Thomas Holley Chivers, James Joyce, and many other authors is distinguished. Poet, playwright, composer, pianist, choreographer, gourmet -- few men, even of the Renaissance, have shown your omnipresence in the creative arts, and your sensitivity to all of them.
Damon died on December 25, 1971, in Smithfield, Rhode Island.
There are no restrictions on access, except that the collection can only be seen by prior appointment. Some materials may be stored off-site and cannot be produced on the same day on which they are requested.
Although Brown University has physical ownership of the collection and the materials contained therein, it does not claim literary rights. Researchers should note that compliance with copyright law is their responsibility. Researchers must determine the owners of the literary rights and obtain any necessary permissions from them.
The S. Foster Damon Festival papers are divided into 4 series:
Series 1 and 4 are arranged alphabetically. Series 2 and 3 are each arranged chronologically.
S. Foster Damon Festival papers, Ms. Damon, Brown University Library.
The collection consists of approximately 50 items of correspondence relating to the 75th birthday in 1968 of S. Foster Damon and to the S. Foster Damon Festival held at Brown University during the same year. Included are original letters and carbon copies, typewritten manuscripts and telegrams, tributes in honor of Damon's 75th birthday, correspondence and selected papers of members of the Brown English Department relating to the Festival. The collection includes letters from luminaries such as John Dos Passos, Allen Ginsberg, Marianne Moore, Lincoln Kirstein, and Virgil Thomson.
The S. Foster Damon Festival papers were donated to the Brown University Library in 1969 by Alvin H. Rosenfeld, Brown University graduate (AM 1962, PhD 1967). Accession numbers: A54961; A54962.
The title page portrait of S. Foster Damon is from the Brown Portrait Collection and was painted by Louise Wheelwright Damon in 1924.
Several collections of S. Foster Damon's own papers and musical settings of poetry are held by the Brown University Library and are retrievable by the following accession/collection numbers:
Two-hundred copies of a 44-page book were also published at the time:
Brown University Library catalog record for this collection:
with Albert A. Howard and Louis G. Vagianos
Poem
Filed with this is: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. by Herbert Weinstock. Typed letter signed, with envelope, 1968, January 23.
Xerox copy of "Damon as Poet" published in "Garland," pages 37-38.