IOWA WOMEN'S ARCHIVES
UNIVERSITY OF IOWA LIBRARIES
IOWA CITY, IOWA
SUSAN BOYD (1927- )
PAPERS, 1929-2002
[bulk 1946-1963]
3 linear feet
|
ACQUISITION: |
The papers (donor no.
427) were donated by Susan Boyd in 1997. |
|
ACCESS: |
The papers are open
for research. |
|
PHOTOGRAPHS: |
In Box 11. |
|
COPYRIGHT: |
Copyright held by donor has been transferred to the University of Iowa. |
|
PROCESSED BY: |
Courtney P. Davids, 1998; Heather Stecklein, 2002. [BoydSusan.doc] |
Biography
Susan Elizabeth Kuehn was born in
Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1927 to Mr. and Mrs. Henry Kuehn. Kuehn attended Lochinvar-West High School in
Minneapolis. She continued her
education at Wellesley College in Massachusetts, majoring in English
Composition. In 1945 Kuehn was Mademoiselle’s
guest fiction editor. The following
year her short story “The Rosebush” won Mademoiselle’s
College Fiction Contest. That same
story was also selected for publication in the 1947 edition of the O. Henry Prize Story Collection and
Herschell Brickell’s Prize Stories. Kuehn graduated from Wellesley in 1947 and
began her six-year stint at the Minneapolis
Star and Tribune, first as a reporter, and later as an editor of the
Women’s Pages.
At age twenty-two, she won a $2,000 creative writing
fellowship at Stanford in Palo Alto, California. There, she published “The Hunt”, which was featured in Herschell
Brickell’s Prize Stories of 1950, and
“The Searchers,” which she wrote under the guidance of Wallace Stegner and
published in Stanford Short Stories and
Best American Short Stories. After a year, Kuehn returned home to the Minneapolis Star and Tribune. She continued to write fiction, as well as
non-fiction, and her work was published in magazines such as Redbook, The Writer, and Harpers. In addition, Kuehn performed graduate work
at the University of Minnesota.
On August 28, 1954, Kuehn married Willard “Sandy”
Boyd, Jr. The Boyds settled in Iowa
City, where Willard Boyd taught at the law school of the University of
Iowa. He became president of the
University of Iowa in 1969 and remained in that position until 1981. The Boyds lived in Iowa City for nearly
twenty-six years, where they raised their three children—Willard “Bill” Boyd
III, Elizabeth “Betsy”, and Tom. In
1981, the Boyds moved to Chicago, where Willard Boyd acted as the director of
the Field Museum. The Boyds returned to
Iowa City in 1997.
Scope and
Content Note
The Susan Boyd papers date from 1942 to 1997 and measure 10
linear inches. The papers are arranged in seven series:
Biographical material, Activities, Short Stories, Non-Fiction Articles,
Newspaper clippings, Scrapbook preservation, and Photographs. The bulk of this collection consists of
Boyd’s writing, both fiction and non-fiction.
Biographical material (1946-2002) includes the script and score from the musical
tribute to Susan Boyd, “It’s a great day”, which have been removed from their
original binder for preservation. The series also contains newspaper clippings
and magazine articles about Boyd, correspondence with friends and editors, and
programs from Minneapolis Star and
Tribune and University of Iowa functions. A magazine article featuring
Boyd’s father completes the series.
The Activities
series (1930-1997) contains materials from various activities that Boyd
participated in throughout her life. The series includes awards, a music book,
an autograph book, and invitations and programs to events in Chicago including
dinners for foreign dignitaries.
Short Stories and Non-Fiction articles (1942-1976) consist of stories and articles
written by Boyd that were published in magazines such as Mademoiselle, The Writer,
and Redbook, as well as her work for
school books in the early 1960s.
The Newspaper
clippings (1947-1961 and undated) are articles Boyd wrote while employed at
the Minneapolis Star and Tribune.
The Scrapbook series (1951-1981) contains Boyd’s scrapbooks documenting
her Wellesley college years, including photographs, programs, and notes. In
addition, it includes scrapbooks of clippings from her work as a journalist for
Mademoiselle and the Minneapolis Star and Tribune. The final
scrapbook documents her life in Iowa City as the wife of the University of Iowa
president. In the course of the preservation work, some loose items were
removed and placed in separate folders in the series. In addition, some
scrapbooks of articles were photocopied onto acid-free paper for preservation.
Photographs series
(1950-1992) contains photographs from Boyd’s work as a writer, her life at the
University of Iowa, and her activities in Chicago.
Box no. Description
Box 1
Biographical Material
Bank account book, 1929-1947
Correspondence, 1949-1999, scattered
Newspaper clippings, 1947-2002, scattered
Score and script from “It’s a great day”, 1969
Programs, 1951, 1957, and undated magazine articles
“Manhattan Girl With a Job,” Mademoiselle (1946)
“Revolution on Campus,” Flair (1950)
“A Conversation with James Hearst,” The Iowan (1979)
“The Ace of Clubs”, Minneapolis/St. Paul (1983) [article featuring Boyd’s father]
“My Odyssey”, presentation at Unitarian Universalist Society of Iowa City, May 5, 2002
Activities
Music lesson book, circa 1930s
Autograph book, circa 1930s
U.N. house tour materials, 1960-1963 [articles photocopied from scrapbook]
Awards, 1972, 1978, and undated
Clippings, 1976
Event invitations and programs
1937-1980
1981-1997
Rose Bowl materials, 1981
Truman Library opening, 1997
Box 2
Short Stories
“One-Two-Three, Trip!” Loch invar-West High School (1942)
“The Rosebush,” Mademoiselle (1946)
“Retirement,” We of Wellesley (1947)
“The Hunt,” Mademoiselle (1949)
“The Searchers,” Harpers (1951)
“Too Long To Wait,” Mademoiselle (1955)
“The Hunt,” Literary Cavalcade (1956)
“Spring Weekend,” Redbook (1957)
“Spring Weekend,” Co-ed (1959)
“Two Kinds of Games” A Teaching Program in Human Behavior and Mental Health (1960)
“The Cub’s Picnic”, “Steve’s New Books”, “Bashful Ronald”,
“The Day the Bus was Late”, “It’s Time for Dinner”, and “Going Fishing,” A Teaching Program in Human Behavior and Mental Health (1961)
“The Day the Bus was Late”, “Robert was Always Tired”, “Eco and the Sky Children”, and “Rules of the Game” A Teaching Program in Human Behavior and Mental Health (1962)
Box 3
“What Can We Talk About Now?” Redbook (1963)
“Insieme, Come Una Volta,” Grazia (1963)
“Vad Har Vi Att Saga Varandra?” Femina (1963)
“Encounter With A Stranger,” Redbook (1965)
Non-Fiction Writings
Book reviews, Wellesley News and Mademoiselle, 1945-1947
“Poliomyelitis and the Kenney Concept”, hygiene class paper, 1947
“Who Should Tell The Story?” The Writer (1953)
“Authoress In An Apron,” The Writer (1959)
“The Fortunate Failures,” The Writer (1966)
“The Dorothy and Ellie Show,” The Iowan (1976)
The ABA’s First Section: Assuring a Qualified Bar (1993)
Newspaper Clippings
Minneapolis Star and Tribune
1947-1948
1949-1951
1952
1953
1954
1961
Undated
Box 4
Scrapbooks
Wellesley College
1943-1944
Box 5
1945-1947
Box 6
1947
Box 7
Journalism
1944-1945 Mademoiselle articles
Box 8
1947-1950 Minneapolis newspaper articles
Box 9
1951 Minneapolis newspaper articles
Box 10
First Lady of the University of Iowa, 1969-1981
Box 11
Loose items removed from 1943 scrapbook
Photographs removed from 1945-1947 scrapbook
Loose newspaper clippings
from 1951 scrapbook
from 1969-1981 scrapbook
Photographs
Writing career
University of Iowa
Activities