An Inventory of His Art Collection in the Art Collection at the Harry
Ransom Center
Creator:
Goyen, William, 1915-1983
Title:
William Goyen Art
Collection
Dates:
1929-1954, most undated
Extent:
1 box, 3 framed works, 2 ceramics (18 items)
Abstract:
The William Goyen Art Collection
comprises eighteen works from Goyen’s archive. These include works by his Taos
associates, Frieda Lawrence, Dorothy Brett, and Frieda Lawrence's second husband,
Angelo Ravagli, as well as portrait drawings of Goyen by Don Bachardy and Joseph
Glasco.
Call Number:
Art Collection AR-00311
Language:
English
Access:
Open for research. A minimum of twenty-four hours is required to pull art materials
to the Reading Room.
Administrative Information
Acquisition:
Purchases (R6315, R10755) 1974, 1985, and Gift, 1974
Charles William Goyen was born on 24 April 1915 in Trinity, Texas, to Charles Provine
Goyen and Mary Inez (Trow) Goyen. When he was eight, the family moved to Houston,
where Goyen attended public schools. He graduated from Sam Houston High School
and
received his B.A. and M.A. degrees in Comparative Literature from Rice University
in
1927 and 1939.
Goyen taught at the University of Houston for one year. He served in the U.S. Navy
during World War II aboard an aircraft carrier, where he began work on his first
and
most celebrated novel, The House of Breath. After the
war he returned briefly to Texas before leaving to pursue a writing career. From
1945 to 1952 he lived for periods in New Mexico, California, and New York City.
In
Taos, New Mexico, he built a tiny adobe house on land provided by Frieda Lawrence;
here he was close friends with Lawrence, Mabel Dodge Luhan, and Dorothy Brett.
After the success of The House of Breath (1950) and
his first collection of stories, Ghost and Flesh: Stories and
Tales (1952), he was awarded Guggenheim fellowships in 1952 and 1954,
which allowed him to spend time in Rome in 1954 and 1955. After he returned from
Europe,
Goyen stayed in New York City for several years. He started writing plays and
stage
adaptations of his own fiction; six of his plays were produced, and he won a Ford
Foundation Grant for Theater Writing. His theater work also brought him into contact
with Doris Roberts, a stage, motion-picture, and television actress, and they
married in November 1963. From 1966 to 1971 Goyen worked as an editor at McGraw-Hill.
Over the years he taught as a visiting lecturer at various universities,
including Brown, Columbia, Princeton, and the University of Southern California.
The
Goyens moved to Los Angeles in 1975, and he died there of lymphoma on August 29,
1983.
Sources:
Gibbons, Reginald. "William Goyen". Dictionary of Literary
Biography. Vol. 218, American Short-Story Writers Since World War II, 2nd
ser., ed. Patrick Meanor. Detroit: Gale Research, 1999.
"Goyen, Charles William."The Handbook of Texas
Online.
http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/view/GG/fgo32.html (accessed
31
October 2002).
Goyen, William. Three Women: a Memoir. Austin, Tex.:
Harry Ransom Center, 1999.
Scope and Contents
The William Goyen Art Collection comprises eighteen works from Goyen’s archive. These
include works by his Taos associates -- two works by Frieda Lawrence, a collage
by
Dorothy Brett, and two ceramic works by Frieda Lawrence's second husband, Angelo
Ravagli. There are two portrait drawings of Goyen -- one attributed to Don Bachardy
and one by Joseph Glasco. The works are listed alphabetically by artist. Titles
are
transcribed from the items. Cataloger’s titles appear in brackets.
Related Material
The Ransom Center also has materials from Goyen's archives in its Manuscripts
Collection, Library, and Photography Collection.
