The Patrick Boland collection, 1937-1983, represents the writings and personal papers Patrick Boland collected throughout his life as a poet in Detroit, Michigan. It primarily features research and drafts of an unpublished manuscript Boland was writing about the British-American poet W.H. Auden. The collection also includes Boland's poetry drafts, including some of their inspirations in the form of newspaper clippings. Boland's personal papers in this collection consist of his saved assignments from school, postcards, letters, and some diary entries. Boland's personal notes and musings can be found throughout all of his documents in doodles, notes, financial calculations, and signatures. Native to Detroit, Patrick Boland was born on August 30, 1921. His father, Bernie, was once a pitcher for the Detroit Tigers. In 1949, Boland graduated from the University of Michigan, where he also won the Avery Hopwood award. He received $1,500 (equivalent to approx. $20,000 today) in the major poetry contest for his manuscript, "Twenty Poems." Boland was one of the first friends the Welsh poet Dylan Thomas made while visiting America in 1950. That same year, Boland's poem "Mandala" was published in Flair and later included in the 1952 anthology A Little Treasury of American Poetry. In 1953, Boland's poem "Trials of a Poet" was published in the anthology New World Writing, alongside work from acclaimed writers like Edith and Sacheverell Sitwell. In correspondence, Boland wrote of his debilitating and consuming struggle with asthma. In the few years leading up to his death on October 29, 1984, Boland was hospitalized numerous times due to cardiac arrest. He was 63 years old.
The materials show the Donnellys' diverse and far-reaching interests, primarily in the humanities. A majority of the materials are about typography and typophiles, including monographs and chap books.
