3 – Dialog

 

DeLoss McGraw (b. 1974), artist

William De Witt (W. D.) Snodgrass (1926-2009), poet

The McGraw-Snodgrass correspondence found in the poet’s papers includes the initial fan letter from the painter DeLoss McGraw, who described the personal comfort and joyful inspiration he received from the poet. Writing cross-country, their relationship burgeoned with mutual artistic admiration and the two exchanged works in progress. Snodgrass remarked that he was getting over writing blocks, reacting quickly to McGraw’s fanciful images with new poems. The University of Delaware published their collaboration, The Death of Cock Robin, a poem cycle inspired by a macabre old English nursery rhyme, in 1989.

All items from the W. D. Snodgrass papers

  1. Snodgrass, W. D., and DeLoss McGraw. The Death of Cock Robin. University of Delaware Press, 1989. Copy 3 is from the Library of Tamara Hareven. Inscribed by the poet and inscribed with original artwork by the artist, December 1989. Copy 1, also inscribed by the poet and the artist, is open to the poem illustrated by “W.D. Creates a Device … ,” for which the original painting is included in the exhibition
  2. DeLoss McGraw to W. D. Snodgrass, autograph letter, December 17, [1981]
  3. W. D. Snodgrass to DeLoss McGraw, autograph letter, December 22, 1983
  4. “W. D. sits in Kafka’s Chair and Is Interrogated Concerning the Assumed Death of Cock Robin” (poem), undated. Typescript (copy) poem with author’s autograph annotations and correspondence
  5. W.D. Snodgrass to DeLoss NcGraw, autograph letter (copy), April 11, 1984
  6. DeLoss McGraw to W.D. and Kathy Snodgrass, typed letter, undated