Special Collections Department
Rudi Holzapfel
Letters to
Ellen Shannon-Mangan
1978 - 2000
Manuscript Collection Number: 491
Accessioned: Purchase, February
2003
Extent: 1 linear ft. (229 items)
Content: Letters, greeting cards,
postcards, photographs
Access: The collection is open for research.
Processed: June 2004 by Gerald
Cloud
Special Collections, University of Delaware Library
Newark, Delaware 19717-5267
(302) 831-2229
Table of Contents
Biographical Note
Rudi Hozapfel
The Irish poet Rudolf Patrick (Rudi) Holzapfel was born in Paris, France, on December 11, 1938. His father, Rudolf Melander Holzapfel (1900-1982), was a Shakespeare scholar, expert on Old Master paintings, and art dealer. His mother, Mona Trew Holzapfel, was an original member of the renowned "Bluebell Girls," the Parisian dance troupe founded in 1932 that continues to perform elaborate shows at the Lido de Paris. The family relocated to America, living in California between 1946 to 1956, where Rudi Holzapfel was graduated from Santa Barbara Catholic High School. From 1956 to 1970, Holzapfel worked various jobs in England and Ireland, and studied at Trinity College in Dublin. It was during these years that Holzapfel began to identify with Ireland and the cause of Irish nationalism; he has said he would like to be considered "a true inheritor of the spiritual legacy of the Gaelic Bards." He began a lifelong study and appreciation of James Clarence Mangan (1803-1849), "the greatest Irish poet before Yeats." In 1969, Holzapfel published James Clarence Mangan: A Checklist of Printed and Other Sources (Dublin: Scepter).
From 1970 to the late 1980s, Holzapfel lived in Germany, teaching English and
literature. Holzapfel has published more than twenty-five books of poetry, some
under his own imprint, Sunburst Press (Blackrock, County Dublin). An early book
of poetry, Cast a Cold Eye, was written with Brendan Kennelly (Dolmen
Press, 1959). Holzapfel has published with other Irish authors, including Oliver
Snoddy and John Farrell, and his work has been anthologized in the Penguin
Book of Irish Verse and Modern Irish Poets. With a circle of other
Mangan scholars, including Jacques Chuto, Peter Van de Kamp, Peter MacMahon,
and Ellen Shannon-Mangan, Holzapfel has edited selections of Mangan's prose
and poems for the Irish Academic Press.
Ellen Shannon-Mangan
Ellen Shannon-Mangan (Mary Ellen Carmichael Shannon) was married to Richard
Shannon (now deceased), a descendent of the Irish poet James Clarence Mangan.
Ellen Shannon-Mangan obtained her BA from the University of Illinois and her
master's degree in English from the University of Delaware (1954). She taught
writing and literature at Clatsop Community College in Astoria, Oregon. In the
course of pursuing her own studies and preparing a biography of Mangan, she
was referred by Brendan Kennelly, Professor of Modern Literature at Trinity
College, Dublin, to his old friend, fellow poet and Mangan admirer Rudi Holzapfel.
Shannon-Mangan first met Holzapfel in the early 1980s when she and her husband traveled
from their home in Oregon to Bonn, West Germany, where Holzapfel was living.
Through correspondence and visits, Shannon-Mangan and Holzapfel shared interests
and developed editorial projects related to Mangan.
In addition, Shannon-Mangan edited a collection of Holzapfel's poetry, Ask
Silence Why: Selected Poems (1961-1982) and represented his work with American
publishers. She is the author of James Clarence Mangan: a Biography (1996)
and co-editor, with Holzapfel, Jacques Chuto, Peter Van de Kamp, and Peter MacMahon,
of the Irish Academic Press Series The Collected Works of James Clarence
Mangan, including Prose, 1832-1882; Poems, 1818-1912; and
Selected Poems.
Sources:
Holzapfel, Rudi. Ask Silence Why: Selected Poems, 1961-1982 / edited by Ellen Shannon-Mangan. Dublin: Beaver Row Press, 1987.
Holzapfel, Rudolf Melander. The autobiography of Rudolf Melander Holzapfel / edited by his son. [Dublin]: Sunburst Press, c1992.
Shannon-Mangan, Ellen. James Clarence Mangan: A Biography. Dublin and
Portland, Oregon: Irish Academic Press, 1996.
Scope and Content Note
The Rudi Holzapfel Letters to Ellen Shannon-Mangan comprises one linear foot of correspondence, including 175 letters and greeting cards, and 54 postcards, spanning the dates 1978 - 2000. The correspondence began when Brendan Kennelly introduced Shannon-Mangan to Holzapfel for assistance with her biography of the poet of James Clarence Mangan. Holzapfel's letters were written from Bonn, West Germany, where he lived through the 1980s, and Tipperary, Ireland, where he moved in 1990, as well as during travels. Shannon-Mangan lived in Astoria, Oregon. Beyond the discussion of Clarence Mangan's life, work, and critical reception, the primary subject of the letters is literature, particularly poetry, including Holzapfel's writing and Shannon-Mangan's own work. Additionally, the families of both writers became friends, and the letters contain personal and family news. The postcards in the collection were sent from various European locations where Holzapfel traveled and vacationed. The tone of Holzafpel's commentary on life as a poet and the work of other writers is frank, humorous, and outspoken. Holzafpel's letters, whether handwritten or typed, frequently bear his supplemental holograph annotations, revisions, commentary, and postscripts -- reflecting great engagement in his correspondence with Shannon-Mangan.
The collection is arranged chronologically. Most of the letters include original
mailing envelopes, which often bear Shannon-Mangan's autograph notes concerning
the contents of the letter or her responses to the letter, as well as the date
she replied to the letters. In many cases the letters are annotated with autograph
notes relating to Shannon-Mangan's editorial work on Holzapfel's Selected
Poems and her biography of James Clarence Mangan. Holzapfel read at least
portions of Shannon-Mangan's work-in-progress and comments on her writing and
research in detail.
Two photographs are included in the collection, one of Rudi Holzapfel, dated
1994 (F13), and another of his father, Rudolf Melander Holzapfel (F3), included
with a memorial card (1982).
Related Collections:
Ms 244 Rudi Holzapfel Poetry Manuscripts
Ms 245 Rudi Holzapfel Papers
Contents List
Box -- Folder -- Contents
Letters from Rudi Holzapfel to Ellen Shannon-Mangan
1978
- 1980
1 F1 7
items
1981
F2
18 items
1982
F3
15 items,
including portrait of Rudolf Melander Holzapfel
1983
F4
16 items
1984
F5
11 items
1985
F6
20 items
1986
2 F7 16
items
1987
F8
23 items
1988
F9
17 items
1989
F10
15 items
1990
- 1991
F11
21 items
1992
- 1993
3 F12 14
items
1994
- 1996
F13
14 items, including photograph
of Rudi Hozapfel
1997
- 1998
F14
13 items
1999
- 2000
F15
9 items
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Last modified: 01/19/11
