Subseries 1. Manuscripts

The Lewis M. Dabney III papers consist of manuscripts, notes, transcripts, articles, reviews, personal journals, bibliographic sources, audio cassettes, and compact discs, relating primarily to his research on the life and works of Edmund Wilson, an American writer and critic in the twentieth century. In addition to copies and transcripts of Wilson's writing journals, there is correspondence across a large network of intimate relationships, friends, and acquaintances of Wilson. The relationships of particular historical importance include F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, John Dos Passos, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Mary McCarthy, W.H. Auden, André Malraux, Vladimir Nabokov, Ignazio Stone, and Isaiah Berlin. The audiocassetes contain interviews completed by Wilson or Dabney on Wilson. (Boxes 1-17)

The collection also contains items related to a historical and literary study of William Faulkner’s treatment of the Yoknapatawpha people in Faulkners' works. (Boxes 18-20). Included is the manuscript for Dabney's book, The Indians of Yoknapatawpha.

Also included in the collection is an examination of the lifelong friendship between Dabney’s mother, Crystal Ross, and the American novelist, John Dos Passos. Most of their correspondence takes place from 1922 to 1927, during the peak of their romantic relationship. (Boxes 21-22). The letters mention Dos Passos travels in Paris, New Orleans, Florida, Key West, Mexico, Russia, as well as his life in New York City and Brooklyn. Crystal Ross, from Lockhart, Texas was educated at the University of Texas, Columbia University, and received her doctorate in comparative literature through a scholarship at the University of Strasbourg in Alsace in 1925. The couple met at the funeral of their mutual friend Wright McCormick. The letters mention well known writers such as Ernest Hemingway (with Hadley Hemingway) and F. Scott Fitzgerald (and Zelda) as well as a description of their trip to Pamplona, Spain in 1924. Dos Passos was writing Manhattan Transfer during the time of their engagement. Excerpts from their unpublished letters have been released in a new book by Lewis Dabney, Soulmates of the Lost Generation published by his family and the University of Virginia Press on October 25, 2022.