Watercolor Self-portrait of A. R. Ammons

Source:

Watercolor portrait

Overcash-Wright Literary Collection: A. R. Ammons Papers, 1935, 1937, 1944-1988, 2007, East Carolina Manuscript Collection, #1096

Staff Person: Maury York

Description:

Through the generosity of Reid and Susan Overcash of Raleigh and East Carolina University’s Harriot College of Arts and Sciences, the Joyner Library acquired in 2007 an important collection of the papers of A. R. [Archie Randolph] Ammons (1926-2001). A native of Columbus County, N.C., Ammons discovered his gift for poetry as an adult. He taught poetry at Cornell University beginning in 1964 and wrote nearly thirty volumes of poetry. Ammons won many important prizes for his work, including the National Book Award and the American Poetry Society’s Robert Frost Medal. This watercolor self-portrait, painted in 1977, is one of a dozen watercolors by Ammons in the Ammons Papers.