The Garden Is Political, 1936-1942

Consists of autograph and typescript drafts of poems, of bearing extensive autograph revisions. Most of these poems were included in Brinnin's collection of poetry, The Garden Is Political (New York: The Macmillan Co., 1942). Many of these poems were originally included in three volumes of poetry which won Hopwood Prizes in Poetry at the University of Michigan between 1938-1940. A few of these poems are also in No Arch, No Triumph and The Sorrows of Cold Stone.

Folder 77 contains a set of poems with a cover sheet bearing the title "Letter to Statues." This had been Brinnin's original choice for the title of what became The Garden Is Political.

Folder 81 consists of a Typescript (carbon) titled, "Want Is Wisdom Enough." This was Brinnin's 1938 entry for a Hopwood Award in Poetry. Many of these poems were published in The Garden Is Political. Laid in is a brief note from Robert Herring and four Ts poems: "Serenade in Pulse-Beats," "Death of This Death," "At the Airport," and "The Garden Is Political."

All four folders of poems are in the original arrangement in which they were found. There are numerous drafts of some poems. Though a number of the poems are untitled, a list of the titled poems follows: