Skip to main content

David Minter Academic Papers

 Collection
Identifier: UA 215
Finding aid note: Stored off-site at the Library Service Center. Please request this material via woodson@rice.edu or call 713-348-2586.

Scope and Contents Note

The David Minter Academic Papers contain 8 cartons of materials from Minter's academic career. The materials include handwritten and typescript lecture and other research notes; typescript copies and photocopies of papers written by Minter, students, and colleagues; and photocopies of articles on writers, philosophers, and artists influential in 20th century American literature and critical theory.

Dates

  • 1868 - 1999
  • Majority of material found within 1960 - 1999

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

Stored off-site at the Library Service Center. Please request this material via woodson@rice.edu or call 713-348-2586.

Access Restrictions

This material is open for research.

Use Restrictions

Permission to publish from the David Minter Academic Papers must be obtained from the Woodson Research Center, Fondren Library. Copyright release on articles and any other published material must be obtained from the publication.

Biographical/Historical Note

David L. Minter, Bruce and Elizabeth Dunlevie Professor Emeritus of English at Rice University and one of the foremost scholars of 20th century American literature, was born in west Texas on March 20, 1935 to a Methodist minister father and a former schoolteacher mother. Orphaned in October 1948, he lived with older siblings, and as a young man worked as a cowhand on a ranch and later as a roughneck in the oil fields. Minter began his college work at the University of Houston in 1955, then transferred to the University of North Texas, where he majored in literature and philosophy. There he became friends with Larry McMurtry, and met Caroline Sewell, who became his wife. The Minters have two children, Christopher Sewell Minter and Frances Elizabeth Minter.

After graduation he took a master’s degree at UNT. In 1958 Minter and his wife moved to New Haven, where Minter studied Christianity and Culture at the Yale Divinity School. There he won a W.R. Coe Fellowship to pursue a doctorate in American Studies at Yale. After graduating in 1965, he served as a lecturer at Hamburg University in Germany for a year on a Fulbright Travel Fellowship, returning afterward to Yale to work as a lecturer in English and American Studies for a year. (Minter has also been a visiting professor at Columbia in New York and Washington University in St. Louis). In 1967 he returned to Houston to begin a career as an Assistant Professor of English at Rice University. Minter received a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship in 1969 and the George R. Brown Award for Superior Teaching in 1974, 1976, and 1977. He also chaired the English Department at Rice from 1978-1980. Dr. Minter and his wife served as co-masters of Baker College from 1973-1979.

In 1981 Dr. Minter took the position of Asa G. Candler Professor of American Literature at Emory University, where he remained until 1990. In 1990 he returned to Rice as the Libbie Shearn Moody Professor of English. At Rice he served as the University Librarian and Interim Vice-Provost from 1995-1996; in 1999 he served as Vice-Provost for the University. He was also named the Bruce and Elizabeth Dunlevie Professor of English in 1999, a chair endowed by one of his former students. In 2002 he retired from teaching at Rice. His books include William Faulkner: His Life and Work and A Cultural History of the American Novel: Henry James to William Faulkner.

Extent

8 Linear Feet ( (8 cartons))

Language of Materials

English

Abstract

The papers of David Minter, Bruce and Elizabeth Dunlevie Professor of English at Rice University until 2002, consist of handwritten notes, typescript papers, and published articles on critical theory and cultural criticism; handwritten notes, typescript papers, and published articles on writers, philosophers, and artists influential in 20th century American literature and 20th century critical theory; and articles on the literature of American minority communities.

Arrangement Note

The papers have been arranged in 3 series:

1. Series I: Critical Theory and Cultural Criticism

2. Series II: Writers, Philosophers, and Artists

3. Series III: Literature of American Minority Communities

Acquisition Information

The collection was donated by David Minter. The materials were contributed on April 26, 2010.

Creator

Title
Guide to the David Minter Academic Papers, 1868 - 1999
Status
Completed
Date
2014
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin
Language of description note
English

Repository Details

Part of the Woodson Research Center, Rice University, Houston, Texas Repository

Contact:
Fondren Library MS-44, Rice University
6100 Main St.
Houston Texas 77005 USA