Ogden Nash:

An Inventory of His Collection at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center

Biographical Sketch

Ogden Nash (1902-1971) was raised in Savannah, Georgia, and other East Coast cities. His father's import-export business made it necessary for the family to move frequently. After completing his secondary education at St. George's School in Newport, Rhode Island, Nash attended Harvard for one year (1920-21). Dropping out of college for financial reasons, Nash took various positions teaching, selling bonds, and writing streetcar advertisements. In 1925, Nash took a position with Doubleday Page Publishers as an editor and a publicist, and published his first children's story, written with Joseph Alger, The Cricket of Carador (1925).

Still working at Doubleday, Nash collaborated with Christopher Morley to publish the comical Born in a Beer Garden or, She Troupes to Conquer: Sunday Ejaculations by Christopher Morley, Cleon Throckmorton, Ogden Nash and Certain of the Hoboken Ads, with a Commentary by Earnest Elmo Calkins (1930). Also in 1930, Nash published his first humorous poem "Spring Comes to Murray Hill" in The New Yorker.

After the Murray Hill poem, Nash's work began to appear in other periodicals and he was able to publish a collection of verse in 1931 with immense success. Hard Lines (1931) sold out seven printings in its first year and secured Nash in his role as a master of light and whimsical verse.

In 1932 he left Doubleday to work on staff at The New Yorker, but he soon quit the job to devote himself full-time to his writing. He went on to publish more than two dozen volumes of verse, as well as screenplays (none successfully produced), lyrics and scripts for theater, children's stories and various essays. Some of his better known titles include The Bad Parent's Garden of Verse (1936), I'm a Stranger Here Myself (1938), The Face Is Familiar: the Selected Verses of Ogden Nash (1940), Parents Keep Out: Elderly Poems for Young Readers (1951), Custard the Dragon (1959), and Marriage Lines: Notes of a Student Husband (1963). His Broadway play, One Touch of Venus (1943), written with Kurt Weill and S.J. Perelman was a smashing success.

When he wasn't writing poems, Nash took time to appear on various radio game and comedy shows in the 1940s and to write scores for TV shows in the 1950s. He also engaged in extensive lecture tours around the United States and England.

In his personal life, he married Frances Rider Leonard in June of 1931 and had two daughters, Linell Chenault (Mrs. J. Marshall Smith), and Isabel Jackson (Mrs. Frederick Eberstadt). His marriage and his children proved to be a strong influence on his work. He received honorary degrees from New England College (1967), Adelphi (1961), and Franklin and Marshall (1962) and was elected to membership in many societies, including the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1965), American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (1943), and the National Institute of Arts and Letters (1950).

Ogden Nash continued to write, publish, tour, and lecture until very close to the end of his life on May 19, 1971.

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Scope and Contents

Manuscripts of poems, short stories, collections of verse, and other writings, correspondence, and miscellany trace the writing career and personal life of Ogden Nash, 1882-1969 (bulk 1928-1969). The collection is organized into four series which are generally arranged alphabetically by author or title: I. Works, 1927-1969 (3.5 boxes), II. Letters, 1928-1969 (5.5 boxes), III. Recipient, 1928-1969 (1.5 boxes) and IV. Miscellaneous, 1882-1969 (1.5 boxes). This collection was previously accessible through a card catalog, but has been re-cataloged as part of a retrospective conversion project.

The Works series contains drafts of over 350 of Nash's poems and published collections, many of them holographs, as well as typed and copied versions with edits, printer's marks, and notes, arranged alphabetically by title. Unidentified and untitled poems are arranged alphabetically by first line. In addition, an untitled and unpublished novel, lyrics, scripts, and a few essays and speeches are scattered through the series. Specific manuscripts can be found using the Index of Works at the end of this finding aid.

The Letters series consists almost entirely of 577 letters, telegrams, and flower cards from Nash to his wife, Frances Leonard Nash. Additionally, there are letters to publishers, friends, and in-laws. The Recipient series is composed of letters and telegrams from friends, fans, editors, and publishers. These include Larry Adler, Spiro Agnew, Nicolas Bentley, Gelett Burgess, Curtis Brown, Ltd., Walt Disney, Corey Ford, Eugene McCarthy, Groucho Marx, Marianne Moore, Christopher Morley, staff at The New Yorker, Charles G. Norris, J.B. Priestley, John Pudney, John Updike, E. B. White, and P.G. Wodehouse. Additional correspondents can be identified using the Index of Correspondents in this finding aid.

The Miscellaneous series contains a wide variety of material ranging from honorary degrees awarded to Nash, a journal of publishing information for all of Nash's published poems, certificates of membership in various societies, wedding license and program, biographical essays about several of Nash's antecedents (Edmund Strudwick Nash, Gen. Francis Nash, Abner Nash, and Frederick Nash) as well as obituary notices for other family members. A series of letters from Edmund Strudwick Nash, Ogden's father, span 1882-1924. Also included in this series are galley proofs for E.B. White's collection of verses "The Fox of Peapack and other Poems," letters from Frances L. Nash to her mother, and minutes from the Nassau and Suffolk County Deviled Ham and Lake Ronkonkoma Club meetings.

Elsewhere in the Ransom Center is a large collection of newspaper clippings covering the publication and criticism of Nash's work (23 Vertical File folders and four Scrapbooks). Also, located in the Art Collection, are 84 images. About two-thirds of these are sketches by Ogden Nash, along with his captions for them. The remaining images are interpretations of the drawings by an artist. In the Literary Files of the Photography Collection there are about 90 photographs and negatives, spanning Nash's life. There are a few childhood pictures of Nash, several photos from Nash's time at St. George's School, and a number of family snapshots of Nash's wife and children. Also included are photos of Nash speaking, writing, and posing.

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Restrictions

Access

Open for research

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Administrative Information

Acquisition

Purchases and gifts, 1970-1991 (R5207, R5892, R6625, G2815, R12087, G8976)

Processed by

Chelsea S. Jones, 1998

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Sources

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Ogden Nash Collection--Folder List

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 Ogden Nash Collection--Index of Correspondents 

Index entries followed by the notation [from Nash, O] indicate that the person is the recipient of correspondence from Nash. Box and folder numbers followed by a number in parenthesis indicate the number of items by (or to) that person. Where there is no number in parenthesis, there is only one letter. So in the example Agnew, Spiro T., 1918- --4.8 [from Nash, O.], 10.1(2) there is one item from Nash to Agnew in box 4, folder 8 and two items, from Agnew to Nash, in box 10, folder 1.

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 Ogden Nash Collection--Index of Works 

Unidentified/Untitled Works

• "From the middle of April until October..."--1.1
• "Hello everybody, do you want me to laugh in your face?"--1.1
• "I'd rather, if I dared or dast, conceal my academic past..."1.1
• "I'm at sixes and sevens, yea, at sevens and eights, I'm on the wrong side of the United States..."--1.1
• "I tip my hat, I unwind my turban, saluting Christmases suburban..."--1.1
• "I wish I were an erudite Oxonian, a cultured Eli, or a smooth Princetonian..."--1.1
• "Mr. Arthur Brisbane..."--1.1
• "My opinion of banquets is prejudicial..."--1.1
• "Oh city I find it difficult..."--1.1
• "Once there was a man named Mr. Todhunter Furpiper..."--1.1
• "The parish we love in summer..."--1.1
• "People who frequent the races certainly have unhappy faces..."--1.1
• "Remember...remember...oh, that's the sum of it now..."--1.1
• "Some five and thirty years ago..."--1.1
• "To Marcia, and Anne, and Mary Anne..."--1.1
• "Twinkle, Marjorie Morningstar..."--1.1
• "We all deplore people who are uncouth..."--1.1
• Untitled essay on speaking to women's clubs--1.1
• Untitled novel--1.2

Identified Works

• Alias and Melisande--1.3
• All Good Americans go to Larousse, or, I don't pretend to be Moliere than thou--1.3
• All of the pleasure and none of the responsibility--1.3
• All's Brillig at the Brill--1.3
• All's Brillig at the Brill: Niobe at the calliope--1.3
• And don't forget weight lifting, shot putting, and the ladies' junior backstroke championship--1.3
• And perhaps there are two Eugenie Grandets, two Father Goriets--1.3
• And so Manhattan became an isle of joy--1.3
• And that's why I always take the Oakland ferry to Beverly Hills--1.3
• The Animal Garden--1.4
• Anybody else hate nickynames?--1.3
• Are we there yet, Daddy? or Songs for the front seat, songs for the back seat--1.3
• Armchair Golfer--1.3
• As Gauguin said to Sadie Thompson, You pronounce it, I'll paint it--1.3
• As I was saying to Saint Paul just the other day...--1.3
• At least I'm not the kind of fool who sobs, what kind of fool am I--1.3
• Avanti, Fourmetti: Italo-American menu--1.3
• The back of mine hand to mine host--1.5
• Backward, turn backward, O commentator in thy flight--1.5
• The bargain--1.5
• Bet you a nickel my unhappiness can lick your unhappiness--1.5
• Beware of Easter Monday, or, A meal that can't be eaten won't be eaten--1.5
• Birthday verse for Jean Lincoln--1.5
• Birthday verse for Senator McCarthy--1.5
• A bogey for Yogi, or, Sticks and stones may break their bones, but names will lose a sponsor--1.5
• Born 1792, still going strong--1.5
• Botanist, anoint thee! or, Henbane by any other name--1.5
• A boy and his room--1.5
• The boy and the pig--1.5
• The boy with the dirty face--1.5
• Bread and butter letter for a conflagration that enlivened the last day of a pleasant vacation--1.5
• Brief lives in not so brief--1.5
• The buses headed for Scranton--1.5
• Butterfly found slain--1.5
• Caesar knifed again, or, culture biz gets hep, boffs prof--1.6
• California - a sun kissed self portrait--oversize folder
• Can I get you a glass of water? or, Please close the glottis after you--1.6
• Capercaillie, ave atque vaillie--1.6
• The champions and the chimpions: variations on a team--1.6
• Chant at the end of a beginningless summer--1.6
• Children under 12 no charge, and that's too much--1.6
• Co-efficients of expansion--1.6
• The collector--1.6
• Come one, come all!--1.6
• The comic spirit, or, never say die, say kick the bucket--1.6
• The cricket--1.6
• The crown that wouldn't fit--1.6
• The cruise of the Aardvark--1.6, galley folder
• Custard the dragon and the wicked knight--1.6
• Dad, poor dad, there's nothing in your closet and we're feeling sad--1.7
• The darkest half-hour or, Are you sure it was this Saturday we asked them for?--1.7
• The day of the locust or, Whose wedding is this anyway?--1.7
• A day on a cruise or, What a day! What a cruise!--1.7
• Detroit, spare the wheel--1.7
• The disappearance--1.7
• Do you plan to speak Bantu? or, Abbreviation is the thief of sanity--1.7
• Don't be cross Amanda--1.7
• Don't bite the hand that puts its foot in your mouth--1.7
• Don't dissipate that scowl, or, Two can boil quicker than one--1.7
• Don't look now, but there's something behind the curtain--1.7
• Don't sit under the family tree-1.7
• Doorman, call me a taxi, please! Okay, Mac, you're a taxi--1.7
• A dream of innocent orgies, or, The most unforgettable character I never met--1.7
• Edouard--1.7
• The education of Anthony Jones, or, Are there more radios in hacks than hacks in radio?--1.7
• The emancipation of Mr. Poplin, or, Skoal to the skimmerless--1.7
• An enthusiast is a devotee is a rooter--1.7
• The entrapment of John Alden, or, We paint the lily, we beard Mr. Longfellow--1.7
• Everyone but Thee and Me--1.8, galley folder
• Excuse me dear, but it doesn't go this way, it goes that way--1.7
• Exit, pursued by a bear--1.7
• Fables Bullfinch forgot: Narcissus, the undoing of his wooing--2.1
• Family Album: scene 1--2.1
• Fee, fi, ho, hum, no wonder baby sucks her thumb--2.1
• Fellow creatures, tray and outré--2.1
• The firefly--2.1
• Flying Dutchman--2.1
• For any improbable she--galley folder
• For Rudolph Friml on his ninetieth birthday--2.1
• Foreword to On Your Marks by Richard Armour--2.1
• Forward to Selected Verse--3.7
• Frances--2.1
• From an antique land--2.1
• Go ahead, it will do you good, or, her eyes are bigger than his stomach--2.1
• Go home Santa; a case history for parents--2.1
• God bless the Gideons, or, There's always the King James version--2.1
• Gone with the wind: musical adaptation: act 1--2.1
• Goodbye now, or, Pardon my gauntlet--galley folder
• Great gin passage: authentic text--2.1
• The Greeks had a void for it, so why speak English?--2.1
• The happy Christmas hop of Mr. Leaper--2.2
• Hark, hark, the larks do bark--2.2
• H'ave Caesar, or, Boadaicea's revenge--2.2
• Have you read any good books tomorrow?--2.2
• He and She--2.3
• He didn't dare look, or, The puzzling uniqueness of Mr. Saltbody's meekness--2.2
• He never told me--2.2
• Heil, heilage nacht; Christmas, 1940--2.2
• Here I foreclose, ready or not, or, Bankers are just great big overgrown boys--2.2
• Hey, hey for the A.B.A.--2.2
• Ho Vartlet! My two cents worth of penny post card--2.2
• Home is the golfer; being extracts from the diary of the other cheek--2.2
• Hook, line and ennui--2.2
• How can an echo answer what echo cannot hear?--2.2
• How many miles to the dead letter office? part I--2.2
• Hush, here they come--2.2
• I always say there's no place like New York in the summer, or, that cottage small by a waterfall was snapped up last September--2.4
• I can do without - I can't do without--2.4
• I can hardly wait for the sandman--2.4
• I can't have a martini, dear, but you take one, or, are you going to be guzzling all night?--2.4
• I don't understand women, and I'm glad of it--2.4
• I know exactly who dropped the overalls in Mrs. Murphy's chowder--2.4
• I suppose the Greeks have a commercial for it, or, Hail Solon! How's thy colon?--2.4
• If a Boder meet a boder, need a boder cry?--2.4
• If ethyl vanillin be the food of love, drink on--2.4
• If fun is fun, isn't that enough--2.4
• If he were a live today, mayhap Mr. Morgan would sit on the midget's lap--2.4
• If I had the wings of a heliocopter, or, Hall's Mills that ends mills--2.4
• If there were no England, Country Life could invent it--2.4
• Ill-met by fluorescence, or, Everybody's doing it who'd rather be eschewing it--2.4
• I'm no Saint, but I have my doubts about Valentine, too--2.4
• In one ear and out of this world--2.4
• The indignant owl: Addressee unknown, return to sender--2.4
• Introduction to Anthology of Suspense Stories, edited by John Kahn--2.4
• Introduction to The Hanging Book by Bob Nilson--2.4
• The invitation says between 5 to 7, or, Silly invitation--2.4
• Is there a Dr. Johnson in the house?--2.4
• Is there an oculist in the house?--2.4
• Is this any way to advertise an airline? Is this any way to run a campaign? You bet it is!--2.4
• It walks, it talks--2.4
• Jenny kissed me, but she called me sir--2.5
• John Peel, shake hands with 37 mamas--2.5
• Joyous Malingerer: A tale of two husbands--2.5
• Laments for dying language--2.5
• The latter years of Achilles Helios--2.5
• Lecturer at large--2.5
• Let's have a look at your license: Hip, hip, hooray?--2.5
• Limericks--2.5
• Lines fraught with naught but thought--2.5
• Lines to be engraved on a wedding gift--galley folder
• The literary scene--2.5
• The little booklet--2.5
• Little pretty penny, let's squander thee--2.5
• Littlest Review--2.6
• Lord of the drones! P.G. Woodhouse, Esq.--2.5
• Madam, your Achilles tendon is showing--3.1
• The madcap zoologist--3.1
• The man on the shelf--3.1
• The man who frustrated Madison Avenue--3.1
• A map for St. Valentine--3.1
• Marriage Lines--3.2, galley folder
• Me, I play the harp, it's just one syllable--3.1
• Menu macabre--3.1
• Merrill Lynch we roll along without the comma--3.1
• Mets win East--3.1
• A mint of phrases, or, A team is as strong as its bench--3.1
• The miraculous countdown--3.1
• Mr. Burgess; meet Mr. Barmecide--3.1
• Mr. Judd and his snail, a sorry tale, or, Never underestimate the wisdom of a sage of the ages--3.1
• Mr. Minikins darkest hour, or, What will be won't be--3.1
• Modest meditations on the here, the heretofore and the hereafter--3.1
• Moose on the beach--3.1
• Mother Goose Suite--3.3
• The mother tongue--3.1
• The museum of Natural History--3.1
• My dear Santa Claus, had I but known--3.1
• My evensong--3.1
• My eye and Betty Martin--3.1
• My my my--3.1
• The mysterious Ouphe--3.1
• The name is legion, or, No bouquets for the sobriquets--3.4
• Never mind that overcoat, button up that lip--3.4
• Never was I born to set them right--3.4
• The new Eden--3.4
• No love but yours--3.4
• No trouble at all, it's as easy as falling off a loggerhead--3.4
• The non-biography of a nobody--3.4
• Notes for the chart in 306--3.4
• The nymph and the shepherd, or, She went that way--3.4
• O. N.--3.4
• O tempora, o, oh!--3.4
• Old is for Books--3.4
• Old men--3.4
• On learning that Louisville, Ky., has two neighbors, Pee Wee Valley and Pleasure Ridge--3.4
• Once more my Valentine--3.4
• One evening near the sea--3.4
• One man's cigarettes or, the Kinsey Report didn't upset me either--3.4
• The other mind reader--3.4
• Our own medical department--3.4
• Over my shoulder--3.4
• The panda--3.6
• The panther--3.6
• Paper-back, who made thee? Dost thou know who made thee?--3.6
• The parsnip--3.6
• Pavane for a dead doll, or, The pain in Grandfather's neck--3.6
• People--3.6
• Period. Period.--3.6
• Permissive pictures presents "Happy Halloween, everybody"; an Alfred Hitchcock Production--3.6
• Phi Beta kickoff--3.6
• Philology, etymology, you own me an apology--3.6
• Pimlico Preakness--3.6
• Please remind me before I forget--3.6
• A poem in praise of practically John J. Hessian--3.6
• The Portable Nash; in Speeches of the Year, 1962--3.6
• Poseys from a second childhood, or, Hark how gaffer do chaffer--3.6
• Preface to the past--3.6
• Prognostications are for the birds; lay off me, please, while I eat my words--3.6
• The purist--3.6
• The question box--3.6
• Recitatifs never to be recited at Lincoln Center--3.6
• Reflection poems--3.6
• Reindeer scallopini is off--3.6
• The rejected portrait: Recommended for mature audiences: what the artist saw--3.6
• Reprise--3.6
• Roll on thou deep dark blue syllable roll on; Ill met by Zenith--3.6
• S. J. Perelman--3.7
• Scrooge rides again--3.7
• Santa go home--3.7, galley folder
• The self-effacement of Electra Thorne--3.7
• Sexual politics farewell: What would I most likely say to women, or, Speak gently to your little man--3.7
• Shall we dance? Being the confessions of a Balletramus--3.7
• Sing a song of taste buds--3.7
• The snark was a boojum was a prawn--3.7
• The sniffle--3.7
• So, I resigned from the Churchin' Chowder and Marching Club--3.7
• The solitary huntsman--3.7
• Songland revisited, or, There's no purity like immaturity--3.7
• Splinters from the festive board--3.7
• The spoon ran away with the dish?--3.7
• Stamp too big for letter, must be for album--3.8
• Stars and stripes--3.8
• Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will break my ears--3.8
• The stilly night: a soporific reflection--3.8
• The strange case of Mrs. Moodus's second honeymoon, or, How to unobstreperize a husband--3.8
• The strange case of Mr. Artesian's conscientiousness--3.8
• The strange case of Mr. Ormantude's bride: It's smart to be wrong--3.8
• The strange case of Mr. Twombley's ultimate triumph--3.8
• The strange case of Mr. Wood's frustration, or, a team that won't be beaten better stay off the field--3.8
• The strange case of the missing cocktail hour, or, It's either the maid, wife, or on the town--3.8
• The strange case of the clashing cultures--3.8
• The strange case of the poetic apothecary--3.8
• Stranger in the house--3.8
• Susie and the bear--3.8
• Sweet bye and bye--3.8
• Sweet land of capitals--3.8
• Table talk--4.1
• Tale of the thirteenth floor--4.1
• Taste bud, en garde! --4.1
• Telephone company verses--4.1
• Tell me no fiblets, where are the giblets?--4.1
• The termite revisited--4.1
• Thank you verse for Henry Large--4.1
• That stupid woman--4.1
• There's Always Another Windmill--4.2
• This Christmas will continue after a brief message of importance--4.1
• Thoughts thought while resting comfortably in Phillips House, Massachusetts General Hospital, overlooking the Charles River--4.1
• Three strikes, you're elected--4.1
• Through a glass, temporarily--4.1
• Time-traveler beware, or, Here comes 1953--4.1
• Tin wedding whistle--4.1
• To ee is human--4.1
• To my Valentine--4.1
• Toast for the golden wedding anniversary of Mr. and Mrs. W.W. Leonard--4.1
• The tortoise--4.1
• The toucan--4.1
• Try it Suns. and Hols., it's closed then--4.1
• The twelve days of Christmas--4.1
• Two minute warning--4.1
• Two's Company--4.3-4.4
• Unfortunately, it's the only game in town--4.5
• The uniqueness of Mr. Onatavia--4.5
• The unwonted silence of Miss Sniffen--4.5
• Up from the egg: the confessions of a nuthatch avoider--4.5
• Vernacular lines for a spectacular anniversary--4.5
• Verse...for our friend Peter Fuller...--4.5
• Very nice, Rembrandt, but how about a little more color--4.5
• A visitor from Porlock, but alas, no Xanadu--4.5
• The voice of experience--4.5
• We have met the Sassenachs and they are ours, even the year is now McMLXIX--4.5
• We're fine, just fine, or, You'll be astonished when I'm gone, you rascal, you--4.5
• Westward the course of chlorine--4.5
• What, no sheep--4.5
• What's Hecuba to him? A one-minute close up, or, Some noses for news are for tweaking--4.5
• What's in a name? Here's what's in a name, or, I wonder what became of John and Mary--4.5
• What's it like outside, or, There's no weather until somebody says there is--4.5
• What's sauce pour l'oie is sauce pour l'etat c'est moi--4.5
• While Homer nodded: A footnote to the Iliad--4.5
• Who called that pie-billed grebe a podilymbus podiceps podiceps--4.6
• Who put that spokesman in my wheel?--4.6
• Who says it's so nice to have a man around the house?--4.6
• Who, Sir? Me, Sir? No, Sir. The Times, Sir!--4.6
• Who wants to travel all over Europe and see nothing but a lot of American tourists? I do--4.6
• Who'll buy my lingual, or, You pronounce pluie, Louie--4.6
• Why don't couples in Cincy read Thomas de Quincy?--4.6
• Why need history to be a mystery?--4.6
• The wild jackass--4.6
• Will the real St. Nicholas please stand up? And indeed he did--4.6
• Women and Elephants & With all my heart--4.6
• The Wrongs of Spring--4.6
• The Year there was no Christmas--4.7
• You are old Father Bertram, or, He only does for Hanoi--4.6
• Your friends are my friends; being further extracts from the diary of the other cheek--4.6
• Your lead, partner, I hope we've read the same book--4.6
• Yum yum, take it away--4.6
• Ziegfield hits evils of pulpit--4.6

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