Family and Education

Photograph. Young HP and his sister Alice and brother David, ca. 1920.

Photograph. HP in high school, 1927.

Essay for "English A" at Trinity, January 11, 1929

The poet-to-be encounters Freshman English, and writes a paper on Wordsworth. His profesor's comments include: "Inflated. No definite consideration of the structure of any poem."

Wozzenheim (i.e., HP). "Agony Column," in The Trinity Tripod, Nov. 20, 1931.

At Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, HP served as an editor of the newspaper and contributed to the literary magazine, The Tablet.

Photograph and senior entry in The Trinity Ivy. Hartford: Junior Class of Trinity College, 1932.

Nyabongo, Akiki K. The Story of an African Chief. New York: Scribners [1935]. First edition.

At Yale, HP helped an African schoolmate, Prince Akiki Nyabongo of Uganda, in the writing and editing of a fictional memoir, The Story of an African Chief. Nyabongo's editor at Scribners was the celebrated Maxwell Perkins.

Typed letter, signed, to HP from Maxwell Perkins. One page, Jan. 2, 1935.

Typed letter, signed, to HP from H. L. Mencken. One page, March 25,1939.

Between his two stints at Yale, HP worked as a reporter for several papers—but did not win a job at Mencken's Baltimore Sun.