Olive Tilford Dargan papers
Abstract
The Olive Tilford Dargan papers (dated 1860s-1970, bulk 1900-1968; 1.5 cubic feet; 5 boxes) comprise correspondence, literary publishing, biographical materials, clippings, and financial affairs of the Appalachian novelist and poet Olive Tilford Dargan.
Descriptive Summary
- Title
- Olive Tilford Dargan papers
- Date
- 1860s-1970 (inclusive)
- 1900-1968 (bulk)
- Extent
- 1.5 Cubic Feet
- Subjects
- American poetry -- Women authors.
- Appalachian authors
- Authors, American -- 20th century.
- Authors -- Correspondence.
- Communism -- United States.
- Europe -- Description and travel.
- Muster rolls
- National socialism.
- North Carolina
- Plays.
- Novelists.
- North Carolina
- Real estate investment
- Arrangement
- Collection is arranged into three series by format: Biographical and Writing Career; Correspondence; Finances and Real Estate. Within each series the files are organized alphabetically.
- Preferred Citation
- 2012MS120: [description of item], Olive Tilford Dargan papers, 1860s-1970, bulk 1900-1968, University of Kentucky Libraries Special Collections Research Center.
- Repository
- University of Kentucky
Collection Overview
- Biography / History
- Olive Tilford Dargan was born in 1869 to parents Elisha Frances Tilford and Rebecca Day Tilford on a farm in Grayson County, Kentucky. The family later moved to Missouri where her parents founded a school. Olive attended Peabody College in Nashville, Tennessee, and later Radcliffe College, where she met her husband, the poet Pegram Dargan, who attended Harvard. They married in 1898 and settled into literary life in New York City. From 1904 to 1914, Olive published numerous plays and poems that were well reviewed. The Dargans bought property in North Carolina and also traveled extensively. In 1915, however, Pegram drowned at sea during a voyage to the West Indies. Olive dedicated a series of sonnets titled The Cycle's Rim to her husband after his death. Olive moved to North Carolina after his death and continued to write plays and poems until she turned her focus to writing novels under the pseudonym Fielding Burke. Her highly acclaimed novels Call Home the Heart and A Stone Came Rolling were written in the 1930s and focused on social issues such as poverty, race, and class, and were prominent labor novels during the Depression. She continued to write later in life, publishing her last book, Innocent Bigamy , in 1962. She continued balancing the work on her farm, assisting her Appalachian community, and writing until she physically couldn't do it any longer. She lived at her beloved Bluebonnet Farm in Asheville, North Carolina, until she needed to be moved to a care facility shortly before she died in 1968.
- Scope and Content
- The Olive Tilford Dargan papers (dated 1860s-1970, bulk 1900-1968; 1.5 cubic feet; 5 boxes) comprise correspondence, literary publishing, biographical materials, clippings, and financial affairs of the Appalachian writer and poet Olive Tilford Dargan. The collection is organized into three series that reflect Dargan's career as a writer and personal papers; correspondence; and her financial affairs. The first series contains biographical material, correspondence by Dargan, poems, photographs, book reviews, clippings, royalty statements, and copyright documents. A scrapbook contains clippings of book reviews, correspondence, and articles about her work.
- The series of correspondence contains letters Dargan received from personal friends, family members, readers admiring her work, literary organizations, and organizations related to causes she supported. Of particular interest are letters from Rose Pastor Stokes, who was a very close friend. One letter appears to be written shortly before Stokes died in Germany in 1933. Other correspondents include John F. Blair, Dorcas Carland, John P. Dalzell, Itzok Isaac Granich (pen name Mike Gold), Sylvia Latshaw, Jean Lattimer, Netha Roe, Jerome Romaine, Helen Salls, Edwin Seaver, and Don West writing as Jim Weaver. A few letters, such as from Stokes and Seaver contain notes written in the margins by Dargan. The correspondence reflects Dargan's literary interests, rental property concerns, strong connection to family, appreciation of her home and land, and interest in socialist and communist causes.
- The financial series reflects Dargan's banking and purchases of real estate, stocks, and bonds, as well as paperwork associated with settling her estate and her wills. Included in this series are stock certificates, land descriptions, land deeds, and work toward creating a water race on an adjoining property to provide Bluebonnet Lodge with electricity.
- The collection also contains two Civil War muster rolls for the Darlington Volunteers of Darlington, South Carolina, that belonged to Olive Dargan's father-in-law, E.K. Dargan.
Restrictions on Access and Use
- Conditions Governing Access
- Collection is open to researchers by appointment.
- Use Restrictions
- The physical rights to the materials in this collection are held by the University of Kentucky Libraries Special Collections Research Center.
Contents of the Collection
Biographical and writing career, 1907-1968
Biographical information, undated
Clippings about Olive Tilford Dargan, 1924-1936
Name and address book and list, undated
Olive Tilford Dargan correspondence, 1922-1963
Medical bills and correspondence, 1940-1965
Olive Tilford Dargan obituary and funeral arrangements, 1965-1968
Sketches, 1923
Printed images and ephemera, undated
Family photographs, undated
- Box 1, folder 9
Lilla Perle and Mrs. Bessonette, 1933
Olive T. Dargan looking at sculpture bust, 1961
Edna with birthday cake, undated
Mrs. Worley, undated
May and Lassie, Bourne, Texas. A cow that produces 12 gallons a day, undated
Two men holding each other while three women watch, undated
Brother John's home, undated
Florence and John at well, undated
Sunny Hollow Studio sign with woman posed, undated
Two children sitting on a fence, undated
Women and child in front of log cabin, undated
Women, child, and man in front of log cabin, undated
Pine tree, undated
River view, undated
Mountain scene, undated
Woman and child on front porch, undated
Olive Tilford Dargan portrait, undated
Olive Tilford Dargan portrait, undated
Snowy river, undated
Interior showing murals of palm trees and bird, undated
John Tilford portrait at 50 years of age, undated
Til Tilford portrait, undated
Poems, undated
List of books written by Olive T. Dargan, undated
Dreamer in the Wind copyright certificate, 1951
Thomas Wolfe Memorial Literary Award certificate, 1959
The Spotted Hawk publishing contract, 1958
Book royalty statements, 1934-1965
Book reviews, 1922-undated
Book review clippings, 1922-undated
Call Home the Heart play adaptation correspondence, undated
Izvestia newspaper request telegram, 1937
Harrison, Richard Clarence: "A Romantic Realist Among Modern American Poets" essay on Olive T. Dargan, undated
Young, Charlotte: "Who is Fielding Burke?" essay on Olive T. Dargan, undated
Clarke, George Herbert: "Ode on the Burial of King George the Fifth" essay, 1936
Scudder, Antoinette: The Masque of our Lady in Egypt play, 1933
Sinclair, Upton: The Flivver King published work, 1937
Wilberforce, Bishop: "The Oxford Puzzle", undated
Correspondence, 1900-1968
Anderson, Estes correspondence, 1941
B., B.K. correspondence, undated
Bennett, Jean correspondence, 1962
Benton, Joy Kime correspondence, 1933-1948
Bjorkman, Lucy correspondence, 1957-1963
Blackwell, Barry correspondence, 1933
Blair, John F. correspondence, 1963
Bledsoe, L. Taylor correspondence, 1951
Brasington, Virginia correspondence, 1933-1965
Bromwell, G.H. correspondence, 1930s
Bryan, John correspondence, 1933
Buttnick or Buttrick, Bill correspondence, 1933
Byrd, Z. B. (forest ranger) correspondence, 1934
Carland, Dorcas correspondence, 1933-1959
Cave, Edith correspondence, undated
Collins, Alan C. correspondence, 1941
Conant, Isabel Fiske correspondence, 1939
Coomadt, Paul correspondence, 1932
Cunningham, Bertha correspondence, 1952
Dalzell, John Percy correspondence, 1934-1963
Daniels, Jonathan correspondence, 1935
Dargan, Woods correspondence, 1924
Dargan, Caroline correspondence, 1934
Davis, William correspondence, 1933
Douglas, Clem correspondence, 1937
Druitt, Fay correspondence, 1943
Dykeman, Jerome correspondence, 1936
Edwards, G.W. correspondence, 1934
Ford, Julia Ellsworth correspondence, undated
Ford, Lauren telegram, 1950
Franklin, Hazel and Doug correspondence, 1940-1943
Franklin, Vestal correspondence, undated
Fritz, Florence correspondence, 1935
Gold, Michael (pen name of Itzok Isaac Granich) correspondence, undated
Hannah, Nancy correspondence, 1959
Harris, Robert E., Pine Forest Rest Home correspondence, 1965-1968
Himes, Jennie Mae correspondence, 1933
Hayes, Arthur correspondence, undated
Hoch, Irene Childrey correspondence, 1933
Holmes, John Haynes correspondence, undated
J., Marie A. correspondence, 1933
Jerome, V.J. (Victor Jeremy) [see also Romain, Jerome] correspondence, 1943
Jones, Fred R. correspondence, 1961
Kitchen, Sally correspondence, 1947
Knight, R.E. correspondence, undated
Kuntz, Annie correspondence, 1957
Latshaw, Sylvia correspondence, 1949-1961
Long, Willie (Shorty) correspondence, 1939
Lucas, Mary correspondence, 1905
Lyon, Florence L. correspondence, 1937
Marr, Hazel correspondence, 1952
Mason, J. correspondence, undated
May, Jessie correspondence, undated
McFalt, Agnes correspondence, 1946-1947
McLean, Margaret correspondence, 1944
McSwain, Dora correspondence, 1933
Miller, Leona Worley correspondence, 1932-1966
Munger, Joan correspondence, undated
Neal, Mary correspondence, 1930
Oliver, Cecile Worley correspondence, 1924-1967
Panton, Harrison correspondence, 1924
Pearl, Jeannette correspondence, 1946
Peele, J.C. correspondence, 1967
Peterson, Antoinette and Frederick correspondence, 1900-1954
Peterson, Mildred correspondence, 1957
Pomeroy, William J. correspondence, undated
Roberts, Holland correspondence, 1933
Roberts, Margaret correspondence, undated
Robinson, Anne correspondence, 1936
Roe, Netha correspondence, 1932
Romaine, Jerome Isaac [see also Jerome, V.J.] correspondence, 1933-1938
Russ, Phillipo correspondence, 1938
Salls, Helen correspondence, 1933-1945
Schopp, Eva correspondence, 1939-1945
Scott, Karen Gram correspondence, 1960-1963
Seaver, Edwin correspondence, undated
Shamburger, Mary correspondence, 1934
Shue, Dorothy Evans correspondence, 1952
Shuris, Sarah correspondence, 1933-undated
Smith, Jane correspondence, 1932
Strobridge, H. or N. correspondence, 1940
Thornburg, Bobbie correspondence, 1933
Townsend, John Wilson; Bluegrass Books correspondence, 1953
Verner, S.P. correspondence, undated
Watson, Blanche correspondence, 1942
Watson, Richard correspondence, 1953
Weaver, Jim correspondence, 1934
West, Hedy correspondence, 1956
Williams, Ruth correspondence, 1942-1946
Worley, Leona T. correspondence, 1935-1943
Nini (niece) correspondence, 1938-1953
Peter (nephew) correspondence, 1961
Pi (family member) correspondence, 1939
Doug correspondence, 1938
Grace correspondence, undated
Hardy correspondence, 1950
Helen correspondence, 1933
Kathleen correspondence, 1947
Marion correspondence, undated
Selma correspondence, undated
Invitations, 1934-undated
Christmas cards, undated
Easter and Mother's Day cards, undated
Unsigned or illegible signature postcards and letters, 1911-1962
The American League for Peace and Democracy, 1939
George Peabody College for Teachers, 1966
Highlander Folk School, 1932-1939
Houghton Mifflin Company, 1940
International Relief Association, 1933
John Reed Club, 1932
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), 1936-1937
National Committee for the Defense of Political Prisoners, 1933-1935
National Council of American-Soviet Friendship, Inc., 1943
National League of American Pen Women, 1939
The Neighborhood Playhouse, New York, 1927
New Masses, 1936
The Peoples Progressive Party of Georgia, 1949
Poetry Council of North Carolina, 1954
Poetry Society of America, 1949
The Southern Committee for People's Rights, 1936
The Southern Worker correspondence, undated
University correspondence, 1922-1966
Empty envelopes, 1933-1964
Blank postcards, undated
Finances and real estate, 1903-1970
Wachovia Bank statements, 1926-1966
Stocks and bond certificates, 1921-1964
Insurance statements, 1923-1963
Real estate descriptions and correspondence, 1945-undated
Land deeds and correspondence, 1921-1938
Allford mortgage correspondence, 1923-1924
Water race for electricity deed, 1926
Rental properties and loans, 1933-1934
Bryson City Bank receipts, 1925
Monongah Glass Company bond correspondence, 1935-1943
Tax receipts, 1920-1954
Bills and receipts, 1903-1962
Checks written by Olive Tilford Dargan, 1933-1936
Olive Tilford Dargan guardianship papers, 1963-1967
Olive Tilford Dargan estate, 1963-1970
Olive Tilford Dargan wills, 1915-1965
Dargan family document, 1860s
Special Collections Research Center - Closed
The Breckinridge Research Room will be closed starting May 11, 2026, and anticipates re-opening Fall semester 2026 in an alternate location for the duration of the King Library renovation.
Reproduction requests will still be available during the closure.
Contact SCRC with questions.
Table of Contents
You may come across language in UK Libraries Special Collections Research Center collections and online resources that you find harmful or offensive. SCRC collects materials from different cultures and time periods to preserve and make available the historical record. These materials document the time period when they were created and the view of their creator. As a result, some may demonstrate racist and offensive views that do not reflect the values of UK Libraries.
If you find description with problematic language that you think SCRC should review, please contact us at SCRC@uky.edu.
Special Collections Research Center - Closed
The Breckinridge Research Room will be closed starting May 11, 2026, and anticipates re-opening Fall semester 2026 in an alternate location for the duration of the King Library renovation.
Reproduction requests will still be available during the closure.
Contact SCRC with questions.
Requests
No items have been requested.
You may come across language in UK Libraries Special Collections Research Center collections and online resources that you find harmful or offensive. SCRC collects materials from different cultures and time periods to preserve and make available the historical record. These materials document the time period when they were created and the view of their creator. As a result, some may demonstrate racist and offensive views that do not reflect the values of UK Libraries.
If you find description with problematic language that you think SCRC should review, please contact us at SCRC@uky.edu.
