If you have been keeping up with “From the archives” posts you know that the largest collection in the George T. Henry College Archives is the Coe Collection, the second largest is William L. Shirer’s Papers and the third is…a bit of a toss up actually. George T. Henry’s Photograph Collection rivals Shirer’s collection in size with approximately 100,000 negatives, 60,000 proof sheets, and 9,000 images for browsing. His black and white photographs span more than 50 years of Coe History. But, since he was employed by Coe his collection could be considered part of the Coe Collection. So, if the esteemed photographer’s collection is out on a technicality whose collection gets the title third largest in the archives?
Paul Engle graduated from Coe in 1931. In 1932 he obtained his masters from the University of Iowa. His thesis, a collection of poems titled “Worn Earth”, was among the first creative pieces accepted in higher education for completion of a masters degree. It was published by Yale University Press that same year. Engle then went on to win a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford University where he studied under Edmund Blunden.
[caption id="attachment_451" align="aligncenter" width="207" caption="Paul Engle"]
[/caption]Engle returned to the University of Iowa in 1937 as a faculty member in the English department with a focus on poetry. In 1941 he took up the directorship of the Iowa Writers Workshop which he successfully ran until 1965. Two years later Engle and his wife Hualing Nieh founded the University of Iowa's International Writing Program. In 1976 Engle was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize by close friend Averell Harriman who commended the Engles for “bring[ing] peace and understanding to the world by bringing writers of every country, language and culture to their program”.
Engle wrote and edited more than 20 books, was a frequent contributor to poetry journals, scholarly journals, and popular magazines. His book reviews appeared in the New York Times.
The Paul Engle Papers, housed in the archives, consists of 18 linear feet (63 boxes) of material containing his correspondence, poetry drafts, manuscript drafts, galleys, publications and personal papers. It also has the distinction of being the third largest collection in the George T. Henry College Archives.
