The collection contains Thorpe's personal and professional correspondence between 1921 and 1959. The collection also includes some letters to his wife after Thorpe's death. Within the correspondence are materials relating to the Fred Newton Scott Anniversary Papers. Also included is A list of books in Thorpe's personal library, teaching materials and course evaluations, notes for lectures and notes and typescripts of articles on Addison, Coleridge, Hunt, Hazlitt, Keats, and other Romantic poets and critics. There are also works on other topics and figures in English literature.
Other materials relating primarily to Thorpe's literary activities are retained by the Rare Book Room of the University of Michigan Graduate Library. These include correspondence relating to John Keats: The Complete Poems and Selected Letters which Thorpe edited, and materials relating to activities of the Modern Language Association's Joint Bibliography Committee for the groups designated as General Topics II and English IX involving nationally and internationally known scholars of the Romantic movement.
Clarence De Witt Thorpe, who spent most of his life studying and teaching English literature and composition, was born in Iowa Falls, Iowa on December 14, 1887. He received his A.B. from Elsworth College in 1911 and his A.M. from the University of Arizona in 1912. He headed the English department at Northern Arizona State Teachers College from 1912 to 1918 except for a leave of absence in 1914 to 1915 at which time he completed a second masters at the University of Michigan. He then became assistant professor of English and rhetoric at the University of Arizona in 1919. In 1921 Thorpe left Arizona for the University of Oregon. In 1924 he returned to the University of Michigan where he became instructor of rhetoric and where, one year later, he received his Ph.D. Thorpe rose through the academic ranks at Michigan until he became a full professor in 1928.
Thorpe was active in several professional associations including the Michigan Academy of Sciences, the Modern Language Association of America, the Modern Humanities Research Association, and the National Council of English Teachers. Thorpe published numerous books and articles including works on public speaking, college composition and romantic poetry and criticism. In 1929, he co-edited a volume entitled, The Fred Newton Scott Anniversary Papers. Thorpe was himself a frequent public speaker and his papers contain notes for several public lectures and talks. Thorpe died on December 22, 1959.
