Halley, Anne
Anne Halley Papers
1886-2004
MS 628
11 boxes
(7 linear ft.)
Special Collections and University Archives, W.E.B. Du Bois Library, University of Massachusetts Amherst
Writer, editor, and educator, Anne Halley was born in Bremerhaven, Germany in 1928. A child during the Holocaust, she relocated with her family to Olean, New York during the late 1930s so that her father, who was Jewish, could resume his practice of medicine. Graduating from Wellesley and the University of Minnesota, Halley married a fellow writer and educator, Jules Chametzky, in 1958. Together they raised three sons in Amherst, Massachusetts where Chametzky was a professor of English at UMass and Halley taught and wrote. It was during the late 1960s through the 1970s that she produced the first two of her three published collections of poetry. The last was published in 2003 the year before she died from complications of multiple myeloma at the age of 75.
Drafts of published and unpublished short stories and poems comprise the bulk of this collection. Letters to and from Halley, in particular those that depict her education at Wellesley and her professional life during the 1960s-1980s, make up another significant portion of her papers. Publisher's correspondence and a draft of Halley's afterward document the Chametzkys effort to release a new edition of Mary Doyle Curran's book, The Parish and the Hill, for which Halley and Chametzky oversaw the literary rights. Photographs of Halley's childhood in Germany and New York as well as later photographs thatillustrate the growth of her own family in Minnesota and Massachusetts offer a visual representation of her remarkable professional and pesonal life.
English and German
Anne Halley, ca. 1956
Anne Halley was born Ute Marianne Elisabeth Halle in Bremerhaven, Germany on November 9, 1928 to Dr. Maxwell Halle and Dr. Margarethe Kohlhepp Halle. Growing up during the Holocaust, Anne's family was briefly divided after her father, who was Jewish and forbidden to practice medicine, relocated to the U.S. with her older brother in 1936. Her mother followed a year later leaving Anne and her twin sister, Renate, under the protection of a Lutheran aunt who enrolled them in the school where she taught. In 1938, after her parents achieved certification to practice medicine in America, Anne and Renate joined the family and together they settled in Orlean, New York.
Halley graduated from Wellesley in 1949 and went on to attend the University of Minnesota Minneapolis where she earned her Masters in English in 1951 and where she also met her future husband, Jules Chametzky. The two married in 1953 and moved to Amherst, Massachusetts in 1958 after Chametzky was offered a position at the University of Massachusetts. Over the next five decades the couple traveled extensivley and returned to Germany on teaching stints, but their permanent residence remained in Amherst and it is there they raised their three sons: Matthew, Robert, and Peter.
Halley's career as a teacher and writer began at the University of Minnesota where she worked as a teaching assistant. In Massachusetts, she taught at both UMass and Smith College as a part-time instructor and visiting lecturer, as well as at Holyoke Community College as an Assistant Professor. She was first formally recognized for her writing when she received the Wing Poetry Prize at Wellesley College in 1948. Halley went on to receive various awards for both poetry and short stories, garnering the Longview Foundation Award for Distinguished Writing in 1961, the O. Henry Prize in 1976, the Massachusetts Artist Foundation Fellowship for poetry in 1980, and a National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellowship for her Story "Kaiser's Horses" in 1982.
Anne Halley published three collections of poetry:
Between Wars & Other Poems (1965), The Bearded Mother (1979) and Rumors of the Turning Wheel (2003). Her first work, Between Wars, was originally published by the Gehenna Press of Northampton and went through three editions. Halley also translated Deutschland üeber Alles by German satirist Kurt Tucholsky. From 1977 to 2002, she served as the poetry editor of The Massachusetts Review. Anne Halley died from complications of multiple myeloma in 2004 at the age of 75.
Anne Halley and Jules Chametzky
Anne Halley was widely recognized as an accomplished poet and author of short stories, and the heart of her collection centers around the numerous drafts and other materials related to her published and unpublished works. From reviews of her three collections of poems to typescript drafts of her short stories, poems, and book reviews, Halley's papers provide a complete picture of how she composed her works as well as how they were critically received.
Even though Halley was actively engaged in writing and teaching throughout her entire life, the collection also reflects the value she placed on family. Indeed, it is clear from the many letters and photographs included that Halley's life was divided between work and family, and that she placed as much emphasis on the one as the other. Family photographs extend as far back as a photograph album belonging to her mother (1917), with the bulk of the photos featuring the development of her own family from the birth of her three sons through their graduation from college.
As a noted feminist poet it is no surprise that Halley was involved with women's issues in her own community. Her work at a women's shelter in Northampton demonstrates her commitment to equality and social justice while also providing an insider's view into the functioning of a local organization.
The collection is open for research.
Cite as: Anne Halley Papers (MS 628). Special Collections and University Archives, W.E.B. Du Bois Library, University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Acquired from Jules Chametzky, 2005.
Processed by Mary Fahey, August 2009.
Chametzky, Jules.
Halley, Anne.
Curran, Mary Doyle, 1917-1981.
Women authors, American.
Poets, American--20th century.
Women poets, American.
Jews--Germany--History--1933-1945.
World War, 1939-1945.
Short stories.
Poetry.
Photographs.
Manuscripts.
For materials related to the Anne Halley Papers, see:
- Jules Chametezky Papers (FS 43)
- Mary Doyle Curran Papers (MS 435)
Series 1. Correspondence and Subject Files
1886-2004
6 boxes
Correspondence ranging from personal letters written by Halley while a student at Wellesley to professional letters from publishers and editors as well as the numerous cards of condolence sent to her husband after her death in 2004. Included among her letters are those written by her brother during his service in the U.S. Army from 1944-1945. Subject files contain school records and published papers of Max Halle, materials relating to Jules Chametzky and their sons, as well as internal memos and publications produced and used by Womanshelter/Companeros.
Series 2. Writings
1961-2004
2.5 boxes
Materials relating to all three of Halley's published collections of poems, drafts of poems and short stories, and notebooks. Halley and Jules Chametzky inherited the literary rights to the works of Mary Doyle Curran; the collection includes correspondence detailing the publication of a new edition of Curran's
The Parish and the Hill as well as the afterward that Halley wrote for it.
Series 3. Photographs
1917-2000
2.5 boxes
Halley's papers contain a rich photographic archive that documents her family from its earliest days in Bremerhaven, Germany to those days that immediately followed their relocation to Olean, New York. Halley's emphasis on family life are reflected in the numerous photographs of her three sons first as infants and later as young children. The Chamtezkys extended visit to Germany in 1961 is also heavily documented.
Series 1. Correspondence and Subject Files
1886-2004
1
1
Aczel, Tamas
"Arrivals"
1987
11
Audio cassettes
1989, undated
Includes: Leslie's Poems read for Leslie by Gordon; Steve Halley: From the Heart; untitled.
1
2
Awards and publication acceptances
1981-1986
1
3
Bibliography: Whitman, Walt
1987, 1993
1
4
Bibliography: Whitman, Walt
1994-1996
1
5
Certificate: swimming test
1937
1
6
Chametzky, Peter
1987
1
7
Chamtezky, Robert; articles
1976-1978
1
8
Chametzky, Robert: articles
1977
1
9
Chametzky, Robert: education
ca. 1964-1978
1
10
Citizenship
1981
1
11-22
Condolences: cards
2004
2
1-10
Condolences: cards
2004
2
11-14
Condolences: letters
2004
2
15-16
Correspondence
1945
2
17-18
Correspondence
1946
2
19
Correspondence
1947
2
20
Correspondence
1952
2
21
Correspondence
1961-1967
3
1
Correspondence
1970-1973
3
2
Correspondence
1974-1976
3
3
Correspondence
1977
3
4
Correspondence
1978
3
5
Correspondence
1979
3
6
Correspondence
1980
3
7
Correspondence
1981
3
8
Correspondence
1982 Jan-June
3
9
Correspondence
1982 July-Dec
3
10
Correspondence
1983 Jan-June
3
11
Correspondence
1983 July-Dec
3
12-14
Correspondence
1983
3
15
Correspondence
1984-1986
3
16
Correspondence
1987-1988
3
17
Correspondence
1989
3
18
Correspondence
1990, 1995
3
19
Correspondence
2000-2003
3
20-22
Correspondence
undated
3
23
Correspondence: Chametzky, Jules
1950-2003
4
1
Correspondence: Chametzky, Jules
1987-2004
4
2
Correspondence: Halley, Maxwell Martin
1944-1945
4
3-6
Correspondence: post cards and greeting cards
various dates
4
7
Curriculum vitae
1987, 1997
4
8
Education: Wellesley College
ca. 1949
4
9
Education: Wellesley College
2004
4
10
Education: University of Minnesota , Minneapolis
1952
4
11
Event flyers and bulletins
1945, 1982-1991
4
12
Financial
1971-1986
4
13
Germany: course catalogs
1983, 1994
4
14
Halley, Maxwell Martin
1986, undated
4
15
Halley, Maxwell
1886-1910
4
16
Halley, Maxwell
1886-1916
4
17
Halley, Maxwell
1892-1929
11
Halley, Maxwell: diplomas
1896
4
18
Halley, Maxwell and Halley, Margaret: news clipping
1975
5
1
Journal
1966
5
2
Mankin, Paul
1990
5
3
Markels, Bobby: press
1981-1997
5
4
Markels, Bobby: writings
1975-1986
5
5-8
Marx, Lucy
Rape of Dinah
1997-1998
5
9
Massachusetts Review
1969, 1980
5
10
Memorial services
1982, 1994-1996
5
11
Memorial services: Halley, Anne
2004
5
12
Memorial services: Halley, Margaret and Halley, Max
1985
5
13
Merkheft
1977
5
14
Nathan Mayhew writing seminar
1986
5
15
News clippings
1966-1979
5
16
News clippings
1974-2004
5
17
Notes
undated
6
1
Obituary
2004
6
2
Page, Alex
Writings
1959, 1990-1996
6
3
Page, Alex
Writings
1997-1998
11
Posters
1975-1998
6
4
Publications: Festschrifts
1928, 1938
6
5
Publishers catalog
1977
6
6
Rice, Nancy
ca. 1986, undated
6
7-9
Rice, Nancy
when Eve and Lilith Laughed Together
undated
Co-written with Ann Thacher.
6
10
Sander, August
1987
6
11
Translations and multilingual literature
1966-2000
6
12-13
Translations and multilingual literature
1999
Ludwig Marcuse.
6
14
Travel: Europe
ca. 1977
6
15
Van Duyn, Mona
undated
6
16
Womanshelter/Companeros
1995-1997
6
17
Womanshelter/Companeros
1998
Series 2. Writings
1961-2004
6
18
Agenda
1966
Includes three poems by Halley.
6
19
"Art of Translation"
1972
Published in
Graduate School Observer.
7
1
Bearded Mother: reviews
1979
7
2
"Berlin Story"
1980
Published in
Carolina Quarterly.
7
3
Between Wars and Other Poems: publicity
1966
7
4
Between Wars and Other Poems: reviews
1965-1966
7
5
"Clap Hands til Poppa Comes Home"
1978
Published in
Shenandoah.
7
6-7
"Death and Appearance, In Kansas": typescripts
ca. 1980
7
8
Deutschland, Deutschland Über Alles: reviews
1985
Written by Kurt Tucholsky and first published in 1929; translated from German by Halley.
7
9-10
Drafts: untitled
undated
7
11
Fatherly German: A Persistent Type in the Work of American Women Writiers
1976
7
12
"Getting Back Late"
ca. 1978
7
13
"Island Groves, Saffron Tunic"
1980
Published in
Iowa Review.
7
14
"Island Groves, Saffron Tunic": typescripts
ca. 1980
7
15
"Kaiser's Horses"
1980
Published in
Southern Review.
7
16
"Kaiser's Horses": typescripts
ca. 1980
7
17
"King of the Castle"
ca. 1980
Published in
Audience.
7
18
Lecture: gender and identity
undated
7
19
"Living and Dreaming with Genius from Cosima Wagner's Diaries, 1869-1883"
undated
7
20
"Meals-on-Wheels in the Days of Awe"
undated
7
21
"Memory on the Mother Tongue"
undated
7
22
"Modern Instance: Molly and Anita"
1980
7
23
"Moyshe Rabeyne"
1980
7
24
"Moyshe Rabeyne": typescripts
1980
7
25
Musings
1977-1978
7
26
"Nightmare Halley: A Fantasy"
ca. 1976
7
27
"North Amherst"
undated
7
28
Notebooks
undated
8
1
Notebooks
undated
8
2-3
"Pacman passing/Nautilus Rising": typescripts
ca. 1985
8
4
Parish and the Hill: afterward
1985-1986
Anne Halley and Jules Chametzky inherited the literary rights for works by Mary Doyle Curran upon her death. Halley authored the afterward for a re-printing of this novel by the Feminist Press.
8
5
Parish and the Hill: book catalog
1987-1988
8
6
Parish and the Hill: correspondence
1987, 1992
8
7
Parish and the Hill: correspondence
2001
8
8
Parish and the Hill: reviews
1988
8
9
Poems
1961, ca. 1985
8
10
Poems
ca. 2003
8
11
"Processors": typescripts
ca. 1985
8
12
"Reading the Signs": typescripts
1984
8
13
Review: "August Sander"
1978
Published in the
Massachusetts Review.
8
14
Review: "Good Life in Recent Fiction"
1961
8
15
Review: "Grandma Never Lived in America"
1988
8
16
Review: "Photographs by Lotte Jacobi"
1983
8
17
Review: "Recent American Poetry"
1968
8
18
"Rosenkavalier"
1984
8
19
"Rosenkavalier": typescripts
ca. 1984
8
20
Rumors of the Turning Wheel: review
2004
8
21-22
Rumors of the Turning Wheel: typescripts
ca. 2003
8
23
"Sisterhood"
1976
8
24
"Sisterhood": typescripts
ca. 1975
8
25
"Support and Cherish": typescripts
ca. 1980
8
26-27
"Tools and Emblems": typescripts
1982
9
1
"Woman in the House"
1978
Published in
Shenandoah.
9
2-3
"Woman in the House": typescripts
1978
Series 3. Photographs
1910-1952
9
4
Photographs
ca. 1955
9
5
Photographs
ca. 1965
9
6
Photographs: family
ca. 1880
9
7
Photographs: family
ca. 1900
9
8
Photographs: family
1920s
9
9
Photographs: family
1930s
9
10
Photographs: family
1940s
9
11-23
Photographs: family
1950s
9
24-26
Photographs: family
1960s
10
1-4
Photographs: family
1960s
10
5-7
Photographs: family
1970s
10
8
Photographs: family
1980s
10
9
Photographs: family
1990s
10
10
Photographs: family
2000s
10
11
Photographs: Halley, Anne
ca. 1985
Photograph by Jerome Liebling.
10
12
Photographs: negatives
ca. 1965
10
Photograph album
1917-1918
10
Photograph album
1930-1932
10
Photograph album
1932-1934
11
Photograph album
1930s-1950s