The Donald Sutherland Collection was donated to the Auraria Library Special Collections Department in January of 1979 by Donald Sutherland through the aid of Professor Lynn C. Martin; property rights are held by the Auraria Library Special Collections Department.
Donald Sutherland was born on September 27, 1915 in Seattle, Washington. At the time his father, Daniel Sutherland, was serving the first of four sessions he would spend as a representative in the Alaskan legislature, to which he had first been elected in 1912. Originally from New England, Daniel Sutherland came to Alaska in 1900 at the height of the Yukon Gold Rush, and in 1912 married Donald's mother, Hilda Evanson, a native of Wisconsin. From 1923 to 1932 he was a delegate and territorial senator for Alaska in Washington, D.C., where he established his family's residence. Here Donald spent the better part of his early years, attending Sidwell Friends School through the high school level. He also spent portions of his youth during his fathers politically active years with an aunt, Abby Sutherland Brown, who was head Mistress of the Ogontz School camp for girls in Pennsylvania. Donald's father would eventually retire to this area.
Donald attended Princeton University, where he took the B.A. and Ph.D. in classics in 1936 and 1941, respectively. At Princeton Donald studied with the Spanish poet and scholar Augusto Centeno y Rilova, who was then a professor of classics in residence at the university. After a brief period of teaching at the College of Charleston in Charleston, South Carolina, Donald joined the University of Colorado classics faculty in 1940, where he remained a professor of classics and humanities until 1965. His teaching activity at the university was interrupted only by a brief period of infantry service in Europe during World War two. During his tenure at the University of Colorado Donald wrote extensively and came to know numerous contemporary literary figures such as Gertrude Stein, Alice B. Toklas, Karl Shapiro, Virgil Thomson, and Laura (Riding) Jackson, to name but a few. The researcher should consult Box 1 of this collection for correspondence to Donald from these and other people.
Donald, who wrote prodigiously, became an established literary figure himself in the contemporary literary scene early in his career. He produced numerous articles, essays and reviews on a wide range of topics in addition to several books, plays and librettos for opera. Among his major works are translations of Aristophanes' Lysistrata (1959 for stage, 1961 book), Aeschylus' Agamemnon (1953), and Euripides' Bacchae (1968) and Hippolytus (1957). Some of these translations have been anthologized in volumes of world literature and drawn; Donald himself adapted others for stage or musical setting. He maintained a strong interest in dramatic productions throughout his life. Donald's best-known dramatic production is My Sister, My Spouse (or Abimelech Fed) (1959), a full-length verse play about the biblical characters Abraham and Sarah. Music and settings for the lyrics of this play were composed for its Denver production by George Lynn, one of several composers for whom Donald produced written work. Others in this category were Cecil Effinger, for whom Donald wrote librettos for the opera Cyrano de Bergerac (1965) and his own The Gentleman Desperado and Miss Bird, and Normand Lockwood, who set to music Donald's libretto for the one-act opera Requiem for a Rich Young Man, first presented in Denver in 1964. Jay Huff, another composer for whom Donald wrote, set to music the chorus in Donald's Orestia.
Sutherland's chef d'oeuvre, however, is not one of his many essays, translations, plays and librettos, but a book: On, Romanticism, published in 1971 by New York University Press. This work--particularly the chapter entitled "A Critical Vocabulary"--reflects Donald's characteristically expansive breadth of knowledge coupled with a keen sense for detail. The chapter on Pompeiian painting first appeared in the Arts magazine. On, Romanticism was nominated for the National Book Award in 1971 along with The Blue Clown, another of Donald's works printed in the same year. This latter work, written in collaboration with Centeno's widow, Elizabeth, reflects Donald's growing interest in Latin-American poetry. Donald's other major literary accomplishment, Gertrude Stein: A Biography of Her Works (1951), was the first--and is still the basic--full--length study of Stein's several styles (not the woman). Donald's interest in and friendship with this monumental literary figure stems from Stein's praise of Child With a Knife (1937), Donald's first (privately) published book. The researcher should consult Lynn Martin's article entitled "Donald Sutherland: Notes Toward a Bibliography" (Denver Quarterly, Fall 1978), to date the most comprehensive annotated bibliographical sketch of Donald's work available. A copy of this article is retained in the vertical file of the Archivist and may be used upon request.
After his retirement from the University of Colorado classics faculty and until his death on November 17, 1978 in Boulder, Donald devoted much of his time to writing and traveling. He cultivated an ever-increasing interest in Latin-American poets, particularly Antonio Machado, Ruben Dario, Octivio Paz and in so doing rendered numerous works from Spanish and Portuguese into English. Most of the writings Donald produced during the last three years of his life consisted of critical reviews and articles submitted to various literary and poetic journals for publication. He continued to take an active role as consultant on interpretation of classical drama for various theatrical productions at the University of Colorado and throughout the Denver area. At the time of his death, Donald was working on a piece about the French writer Max Jacob.
Donald is survived by his wife, Camille Gilberte de Save Sutherland, whom he met while she was an instructor in languages at the Ogontz Gilberte School. For a number of years prior to her position at Ogontz, Gilberte taught languages throughout Europe. She married Donald in New York City on September 16, 1937. Gilberte shared her husband's interest in literature and drama, and attempted a translation into French of Donald's biography on Gertrude Stein's works, though it was not accepted for publication.
Gilberte is the daughter of prominent French historian, painter, musician and literary critic Gaston Gilbert Daniel Save. A native of the Lorraine village of Saint-Die-des- Vosges, where he was born on August 22, 1844, Save achieved recognition in his time as an illustrator and contributor to La Lorraine, a local journal devoted to the study of art, music, literature and culture of the Lorraine region. The son of Louis Etienne Onesime Save, a regional overseer of lakes and forests, and Sophie Julie Amelie Zetter, Gaston Save grew up in the Alsace region and as a young man went to study art in the ateliers of Paris. A supporter of the Paris Commune of 1871, he took refuge in Switzerland for several years before returning to France via Strasbourg, and from there resettled in his native village among relatives. He consequently became heavily involved in the study and preservation of the region's art and architecture, and wrote many articles in connection with the publication of the Societe' philomatique vosgienne, the local historical society of the Vosges region. Among the most notable accomplishments of Gaston Save were the redecoration of the ballroom of a local hotel, the restoration of the north transept of the cathedral of Saint-Die-Des-Vosges, and the redecoration of numerous buildings in the city of Nancy. In 1897 he completed the restoration of medieval frescoes in the Church of Saint Clement in this city. It was also in Nancy in 1891 that Save exhibited over 300 pieces of his art work in the Exposition des Beaux-Arts. During his lifetime Save made over 3,000 drawings and etchings of subjects related to the Vosges region and wrote articles of importance on the antiquity of Neufchateau, the historical veracity of the shrine venerated as the home of St. Joan of Arc, and the Franco-roman era of France's history. An editor as well as a writer, Gaston Save founded the Patriote vosgien: journal republicain progressiste in 1881.
Save suffered from a heart disease and died on July 20, 1901. An entire edition of La Lorraine was devoted to articles on his life and work, which was hailed as a major contribution to the preservation of Lorraine culture. A copy of this edition of La Lorraine is retained in the verticle file of the Archivist and may be used upon request. For other materials pertaining to Gaston Save the researcher should consult Box 12 of this collection.
The papers of Donald Sutherland comprise a large part of a collection which also includes several books, periodicals, and art objects belonging to the prominent literary figure and University of Colorado-Boulder professor. The bulk of the manuscript material was produced during the years when Sutherland was most active in the teaching and writing professions (ca. 1940-1975), up to the time of his death in 1978. Because there are several materials that relate to and were created by some of his older relatives, the earliest papers date back to the late 19th century.
The materials are arranged in series groups titled "correspondence", "personal", "photographs", "art work", and "memorabilia." The correspondence includes both outgoing and primarily, incoming letters involving professional colleagues, friends, and family members. Among Sutherland's more notable correspondents were writers Gertrude Stein, Alice B. Toklas, Eudora Welty, Thornton Wilder, and Katherine Ann Porter; and composers Virgil Thomson and Normand Lockwood. Also included is a significant number of letters written, mainly in French, by Sutherland to his wife, Gilberte, during World War II.
The professional material consists of working papers, idea notes, clippings, and unpublished writing which Sutherland used or generated during the course of his writing and teaching. It also includes typescripts and reprints of many of his published works.
Significant portions of the personal photographs sections contain material concerning Sutherland's family members, especially his father, Dan, territorial senator from Alaska in the 1920's, 30's, and 40's. Also, a final separate series is devoted to the papers of Gaston de Save. Sutherland's father-in-law and prominent French critic. This material has yet to be fully identified and processed; however, a general content list does exist (see series description).
As a supplement to this inventory, there are the annotated content descriptions and publications listing submitted with the collection by Sutherland's friend and estate executor, Lynn Martin. A folder containing this material is kept in the files of the University Archivist and my be examined upon request. The researcher may also notice a number of brief notes within the collection, usually written in brown or blue ink by Mr. Martin. These "commentaries: provide some personal insight into Sutherland and give valuable clarifications in some instances.
The material described in this inventory amounts to approximately 9.5 linear feet and is in excellent physical condition generally. Restrictions have been placed by the donor on all items relating to Laura Riding Jackson. The details of these restrictions may be obtained by consulting the University Archivist.