Will Allen Dromgoole literary manuscripts, ca. 1898-1914.
(Document/manuscript/pamphlet/archival material)

Arrangement: in chronological order; undated materials appear after all dated materials.

Materials housed in Special Collections Division of the Main Library, Nashville Public Library.

In library use only. Available by appointment.

Scope and content: Manuscripts, some hand-written, some typescript, of numerous works by noted female Tennessee author, Will Allen Dromgoole, dating from approximately 1898 to 1914, with much undated material. Genres include novels, plays, and short stories, as well as a number of unidentified fragments.

Cite as: Will Allen Dromgoole Literary Manuscripts, Special Collections Division, Nashville Public Library

This material may be protected by copyright law (Title 17 U.S. Code). Nashville Public Library does not have intellectual property rights to these materials.

Source of acquisition unknown;,circa 1975 or earlier.,Acc. RT-100.

Associated Materials: The Will Allen Dromgoole Papers are held by the University of Tennessee Libraries, Special Collections, in Knoxville, Tenn.

Related Materials: Orpheum Theatre Programs and Newsletters includes information about the performance of a stage play of Will Allen Dromgoole's "The Tennessean." These items are held by the Special Collections Division of the Nashville Public Library.

William Anne Dromgoole was born on Oct. 25, 1860 in Murfreesboro, Tenn., the youngest of nine children born to John Easter and Rebecca Mildred (Blanche) Dromgoole. She was given her first name by her father, who had been hoping for a boy. She later adopted the middle name Allen. She graduated from the Clarksville Female Academy in 1876 and then attended the New England School of Expression in Boston, Mass. and soon returned to Middle Tennessee. In 1886, her first novel, "The Sunny Side of the Cumberland" was published, and in the years to come many more short stories, novels, plays and poems would be published. She was widely praised for her rendering of Southern, Irish, and other dialects. In addition to her work as a writer, her career also included a stint as engrossing clerk in the state senate from 1885 to 1888, and service in the Navy as a yeoman during World War I. The bulk of her work, however, was in the newspaper business, writing for the Nashville World, the Nashville Daily American, the Sunday South, and the New Orleans Picayune. She was affiliated for the longest period with the Nashville Banner, beginning in 1902, where she began writing a regular column, "Song and Story" in 1903. She continued her work for the Banner with few interruptions, becoming literary editor in1922. She continued working until her death on September 1, 1934.

In English

Unknown provenance. Institutional memory via Carol Kaplan states these items were held by the Library circa 1975 or earlier, and may have predated the creation of the Nashville Room in 1968.

Process;,2014;,Linda Barnickel.

No further accruals are expected.