Kirk, Naomi Joy (1890-1958) Collection, 1929-1961 

Held by The Filson Historical Society 

Creator:  Kirk, Naomi Joy, 1890-1958 

Title:  Collection, 1929-1961 

Rights: For information regarding literary and copyright interest for these papers, contact the Collections Department. 

Size of Collection:  3 cubic feet 

Location Number:  Mss. A K59 

Scope and Content Note 

Collection includes correspondence, notes, and draft manuscripts of Kirk’s research on George Keats, brother of the English poet. George Keats emigrated to America in 1818 and settled in Louisville after a brief stay in Henderson, Ky. In Louisville he was a successful mill owner and active in civic and cultural life. The collection consists of correspondence, 1929-1961, received by Kirk during her biographical study of George Keats, with a few letters written by her to Willard B. Pope and others. Her correspondents are chiefly descendants of George Keats and literary scholars. The collection includes typescripts of correspondence of George and John Keats and members of their London circle; radio scripts on George Keats; typed articles entitled “A Colonizing War” and “A Neglected Audubon Story”; genealogical notes on the descendants of George and Georgiana Augusta Wylie Keats; and newspaper clippings on George and John Keats, Shawneetown, Ill., John James Audubon, Daniel Boone, William Cobbett, Ind. sculptor George Honig, the Breadloaf Writers’ School, Louisville newspapers at the Filson Club, and descendants of George Keats; booklets, brochures, and printed material on John Keats and his family; photographs of George Keats miniature, his home in Louisville, his tombstone in Cave Hill Cemetery, and silhouettes of George and Georgiana; a manuscript draft of Kirk’s “Life of George Keats,” undated; a typed manuscript of Kirk’s “Shared Porridge: The Life of George Keats,” plus unpaged appendices; and a photocopy of her M.A. thesis, “The Life of George Keats,” Columbia University, 1933. 

Folder List 

Box 1 

1 Correspondence, 1929.

2 Correspondence, 1931.

3 Correspondence, 1932.

4Correspondence, 1933.

 

Box 2 

5 Correspondence 1934 Jan.-Mar.

6 Correspondence 1934 Apr.-June.

7 Correspondence 1934 July.

8 Correspondence 1934 Aug.

9 Correspondence 1934 Sept.-Dec.

10 Correspondence 1935 Jan.-Apr.

11 Correspondence 1935 July-Aug.

12 Correspondence 1935 Sept.-Oct.

13 Correspondence 1935 Nov.-Dec.

 

Box 3 

14 Correspondence 1936 Jan.-Feb.

15 Correspondence, 1936 Mar.-May.

16 Correspondence, 1936 June-July.

17 Correspondence, 1936 Aug.-Sept.

18 Correspondence, 1936 Oct.-Dec.

19 Correspondence, 1937 Jan.-Feb.

20 Correspondence, 1937 Mar.-Apr.

21 Correspondence, 1937 May-July.

22 Correspondence, 1937 Aug.-Dec.

 

Box 4 

23 Correspondence, 1938 Jan.-Mar.

24 Correspondence, 1938 Apr.-Aug.

25 Correspondence, 1938 Sept.-Dec.

26 Correspondence, 1939.

27 Correspondence, 1940.

28 Correspondence, 1941.

29 Correspondence, 1942.

30 Correspondence, 1943.

31 Correspondence, 1944.

32 Correspondence, 1948.

33 Correspondence, 1949.

34 Correspondence, 1950.

35 Correspondence, 1956.

36 Correspondence, 1961.

 

Box 5 

37 Transcripts of correspondence of George and John Keats and their associates.

38 Miscellaneous notes on George Keats and others. 

39 Miscellaneous notes. 

40 Miscellaneous notes. 

41 Notes on George Keats’ finances.

42 Brief accounts of George Keats prepared for radio programs.

43 “A Colonizing War.” “A Neglected Audubon Story.”

44 Genealogical notes on the descendants of George Keats.

 

Box 6 

45 Information on relics of George Keats.

46 Newspaper clippings on John Keats.

47 Newspaper clippings on Shawneetown, Ill.

48 Newspaper clippings on John James Audubon.

49 Newspaper clippings on Daniel Boone, William Cobbett, and George Honig, sculptor from Ind. 

50 Newspaper clippings on Old Louisville, newspapers at the Filson Club, and an account of the Breadloaf Writers School mentioning Kirk. 

51 Newspaper clippings on descendants of George Keats.

52 Newspaper clippings on George Keats.

53 Keats House and Museum, Wentworth Place, Hampstead. Historical and descriptive guide. 

54 John Keats and his family: a series of portraits, 1933.

55 “John Hamilton Reynolds: the friend of Keats.”

56 “Fanny Keats and her letters.”

 

Box 7 

57 Kirk’s “George Keats.”

58 “The Family of Levi James and its Alliances.”

59Miscellaneousnotes on John Keats and his family. 

60 Facsimile of a letter to Charles Brown, 1829 Dec. 29.Facsimile of a poetry fragment in the hand of John Keats.

61 Photostat of the title page of Alexander Pope’s Rape of the Lock with the signature of John Keats. Photostat of a letter printed in the London Times about Morris Birkbeck. 

62 “Old Pigments and New Found Faces.” Article on Christ’s entry into Jerusalem. 

63 Photo of George Keats stone in Cave Hill Cemetery. Photos of silhouettes of George and Georgiana Keats.

64 “The Poet Keats.”

65 Copy of Kirk’s “George Keats: Brother of a Poet.”

66 Copy of Kirk’s “In Praise of Lady Dead and . . .”

67The American Scholar for Winter 1937. Two copies. 

68 Engraved map: A Plan of London, with its modern improvements, 1804.Engraved map: A New Map of the Countries Ten Miles round . . . London . . ., n.d. 

69Typedcriticism of Kirk’s book manuscript on Keats. 

70 Draft chapters for Kirk’s biography of Keats.

 

Box 8 

71 Typed draft of Kirk’s biography of George Keats, n.d. 

 

Box 9 

72 Typed draft of Kirk’s biography of George Keats, n.d. 

73 Photocopy of Kirk’s thesis for Columbia University on George Keats, 1933.