Biographical note

Scope and contents

Box 1 Chapbook -- Plays

Box 2 Plays coauthored with Betty Smith -- Poetry

Box 3 Short stories -- Engraving plate

Box 4 Scrapbooks (3)

Jay G. Sigmund, author, poet, naturalist, wood carver, taxidermist, and insurance company executive, was born in Waubeek, Iowa, on the eleventh of December, 1885. A graduate of Central City High School, Sigmund lived in Waubeek until the age of 19, when he moved to Cedar Rapids. A few years later, on August 9, 1910, he married Louise B. Herns of Cedar Rapids. In 1907, Sigmund began work with the Cedar Rapids Life Insurance Company and became, in 1924, vice president and agency manager. When in 1936 the insurance company in Cedar Rapids merged with Mutual of Omaha, Sigmund was offered the post of vice president of the expanded company on the condition that he move to Omaha. He refused, choosing instead to remain near his beloved Wapsipinicon Valley. Sigmund and his son, James, then became insurance company operators of the Minnesota Mutual Life Insurance Company. He died on October 19, 1937 as the result of a hunting accident near his summer home in Waubeek. He was 51.

Much of his verse describes lyrically his love for the natural beauty of the Wapsipinicon Valley northeast of Cedar Rapids. Sigmund recognized the essential kinship between nature and man, the cycle of birth, growth, death, and decay that is common both to the earth and its inhabitants. "Morning Mists on the Wapsipinicon," "Waubeek in June," and "Stone City Iowa" each reflect Sigmund's sense of wonder toward his native land. Still more verse and several one-act plays cover religious themes. Sigmund had a deep and abiding interest in the Catholic faith especially, and was a frequent visitor of New Melleray Abbey, near Dubuque, and the Sinsinawa Dominicans in southwestern Wisconsin.

He was a regional poet, though he brought the spirit of the Wapsipinicon to readers far beyond his native Iowa. Though a life-long Iowan and a regular contributor to the Cedar Rapids Gazette, he was praised by the likes of H.L. Mencken, Carl Sandburg, and Sherwood Anderson. The poet Robinson Jeffers described Sigmund as having "fine powers of imagination and imaginative sympathy, as well as musical verse." Shortly before his death, Sigmund collaborated on several works with Betty Smith, author of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. Jay Sigmund was a member of the Midland Authors' Society and the Iowa Press and Authors' Club.

The papers of Jay G. Sigmund consist of four linear feet of manuscripts dating from 1911 -- 1975. Arranged alphabetically, within larger groupings of plays, poetry, and short stories, the collection documents his literary career with subject files and correspondence. There are early drafts of his published and unpublished plays, poetry, short stories, and his final work, the novel, Purple Washboards. The collection also includes three of Jay Sigmund's scrapbooks. The correspondence includes letters from: Sherwood Anderson, Marcus Bach, Edmund Blunden, William Robert Boyd, William Braithwaite, Johnson Brigham, Witter Bynner, George Elliston, Don Farran, Arthur Davison Ficke, Charles J. Finger, Norman Foerster, John T. Frederick, James Norman Hall, John Hammill, Harry Hansen, Robinson Jeffers, Raymond Kresensky, Alfred Kreymborg, William F. Leonard, Verne Marshall, H.L. Mencken, Frank Luther Mott, Lewis Mumford, Edward J. O'Brien, Julia Peterkin, Edwin Ford Piper, Herbert Quick, Opie Read, Edward Rowan, George Russell, Carl Sandburg, Lew R. Sarett, Wilbur Schramm, Betty Smith, Henry J. Smith, George Sterling, Jesse H. Stuart, Ruth Suckow, Louis Untermeyer, and Carl Van Vechten.

Related Materials: See also the papers of William and Karlton Kelm for correspondence. http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/scua/msc/tomsc650/msc637/kelm.htm

Chapbook. Burroak & Sumac by Jay G. Sigmund. Published by the English Club of Cornell College at Mt. Vernon, Iowa. Undated.

Correspondence

1911, 1921 -- 29. Including letters from: Ruth Suckow, William Stanley Braithwaite, H.L. Mencken, W.E. Leonard, George Sterling, Arthur Davison Ficke, Opie Read, Henry Justin Smith, Edward J.O'Brien, Charles J. Finger, Carl Sandburg, Robinson Jeffers, Sherwood Anderson, Count Olya L. Tolstoy, and Edmund Blunden.

1930 -- 1931. Including letters from: Alfred Kreymborg, Lew Sarett, Witter Bynner, Edward J. O'Brien, Ruth Suckow, Norman Foerster, John T. Frederick, Johnson Brigham, and Lewis Mumford.

1932. Including letters from: George Elliston and H.L. Mencken.

1933. Including letters from: Charles J. Finger and Don Farran.

1934 -- 1935. Including letters from: Edward J. O'Brien, Wilbur L. Schramm, Charles J. Finger, Marcus L. Bach, Frank Luther Mott, and W.R. Botd.

1936. Including letters from: Carl Sandburg, Edward J. O'Brien, Betty Smith, Jesse Stuart, and Verne Marshall.

1937. Including letters from: Betty Smith, Wilbur L. Schramm, Arthur Davison Ficke, Jesse Stuart, Edward J. O'Brien, Edward B. Rowan, and Verne Marshall.

1938 -- 1941, 1975. Including letters from: Betty Smith, Raymopnd Kresensky, and Arthur Davison Ficke.

Undated. Including letters from: James Norman Hall, H.L. Mencken, Lewis Mumford, Betty Smith, and Louis Utermeyer.

Jay Sigmund's Wapsipinicon Valley, edited by Ed Ferreter, 1987. Newspaper article about Ed Ferreter.

Miscellaneous photos - woodcarving of an American Indian, unlabeled, undated.

Newspaper clippings, 1921 -- 1937, 1954 -- 1983. 2 folders.

Novel - Purple Washboards

Original draft with corrections and revisions, incomplete. 3 folders.

Final typescript draft.

Obituaries and memorials for Jay G. Sigmund. Includes photograph of a memorial stone in Waubeek, Iowa.

Park. Jay G. Sigmund Park - ceremony program, newspaper articles, copy of dedication speech.

Plays

The accusers, typeset draft

Barrabas released, early and typeset draft.

Folk stuff, early draft.

The ghoul, typeset draft

The guest of honor, early and typeset draft.

The innkeeper or The discerning man, early draft.

The inventor, early draft

The prodigal son's return, early draft.

Relief Madonna, early draft.

Saints at the board, early draft.

Stop order, early draft.

The unnatural man, early draft.

Wapsipinicon, early draft.

Plays coauthored with Betty Smith:

The bard, typeset draft.

Darkness at the window, early draft.

Eyes of a hireling, typeset draft.

Lumber for the dead or The trees of his father, typeset draft.

Memory of fruit and lute, typeset draft.

Pitchfork sceptors, early draft, typescript draft.

Things of the spirit, early draft.

Poetry. Early drafts, including:

"Abandoned"

"Abandoned boat"

"Abbey dog"

"About these giant hills"

"After heavy rain"

"After the spring equinox"

"Altar panels", carbon copy with revisions

"Altar panels", carbon copy, later draft

"The Amana community"

"Amana in a drought year"

"Amana in early summer"

"The Amanas is early summer"

"The Amanas in winter"

"Anamosa"

"Antonin Dvorak's dream"

"Arrowhead man"

"Asylum Dance"

"At a Monastery"

"Auction in November"

"Auctioneer" (two photocopies copies)

"Autumn comes to Sinsiwawa"

"Autumn comes to the abbey"

"Autumn fog on the fields"

"Autumn: Garnering at New Melleray Abbey", typeset draft.

"Autumn midnight horse"

"Autumn nears at Sinsinawa"

"Autumn night musings"

"Autumn nostalgia"

"Ballad for the husking season"

"Banter of middle age"

"Baptism of Jesus"

"Bargain day"

"Before Golgotha"

"Beggars meditation to St. Francis"

"Bells on the hills"

"Bethlehem"

"Birda of the year"

"Birds of winter"

"Bittersweet at Waubeek"

"Blacksmith"

"Blasphemer"

"Blizzard at Carmel"

"Blooming fruit trees at New Melleray Abbey", early and typeset drafts

"Body ills and midnight"

"The body of Jesus is placed in the arms of his mother"

"Bon voyage"

"Bread line"

"Bringer of beauty"

"Burned cornfield"

"Burning leaves"

"Cards on the harvest"

"Cedar Rapids at midnight"

"Cedar Rapids - night"

"Cedar River - high water"

"Chant for a frosty morning"

"Chant for any October day"

"Chant for the blessed virgin to be said before planting time", typeset

"Chant for fall festivals"

"Chant for one chained by laziness"

"Chant for the ninth month"

"Chant for sub-zero days"

"Charity at home"

"Chief Wapello's grave"

"The chimney swifts nest"

"Choir of the pines - New Melleray Abbey"

"Christ in the street", typeset draft

"Christ of the lonely road"

"Christ of the ridgeroad"

"Christ speaks on New Year's Day 1936"

"A church alter in autumn twilight"

"Church at sunset"

"Church of St. John the Baptist"

"Churches near rivers"

"A city dweller - ill in the country"

"City - locked farm lad"

"City pigeon"

"A city poet to a neighbor in spring"

"A city worker goes fieldward"

"Closed season"

"Clover killing lust"

"A club house janitor muses on a problem"

"Commission"

"Corn belt metropolis notable"

"Corn country magnifacat"

"Cornfield martyr"

"The corn ripens at New Melleray Abbey"

"Cornstalk horses"

"Council Rock song"

"County home farmer"

"Credo"

"The crop is planned at New Melleray"

"Cross for a grubber"

"A crucifix in a pawnshop"

"Cynics advice to farm pigeons"

 "The dahlias bloom at New Melleray Abbey, typeset draft

"Dance of the birches"

"Dance of the leaves"

"Dawn after a sleepless night"

"Dawn at Bethlehem"

"Dawn - midsummer"

"Dawn song"

"Dead marsh lover"

"Dead year"

"The death of Judas"

"Death rides a rubber-shod-horse"

"Death under tires"

"A decade and three years - 1918 -- 1931"

"December auction"

"Defense for mother world"

"Deserted country schoolhouse"

"Dialogue"

"Dialogue"

"Dialogue at a monastery, early and typeset drafts"

"Dialogue between God and a farmer"

"Dirge"

"Dirge for a hill Madonna"

"Dirge for the eleventh month - 1918 -- 1936"

"Discouraged one goes to early mass"

"Dollar day"

"The door of the inn"

"A dream shaped among great marks"

"Dry marsh"

"Dubuque after harvest marks"

"Dubuque after vernal equinox"

"Dubuque as spring approaches"

"Dubuque - cameo for twillight"

"Dubuque forgets winter"

"Dubuque hears spring in the bells"

"Dubuque in September"

"Dubuque on a smoky morning"

"Dubuque - Sabbath morning"

"Dubuque sees the mist people"

"Dubuque - winter thaw"

"Dubuque's morning song"

"The dulcimer player"

"Dust storm over Sinsinawa"

"Early fall evening"

"Early Lenten meditation at Sinsinawa"

"Early morning - New Melleray Abbey"

"Early morning soliliquy"

"Early morning thoughts of a husker"

"Early October"

"Early signs"

"Easter"

"End of Indian Summer"

"Eposodes of the nativity", early and typeset drafts

"Equinox"

"Equinox - midnight"

"Ether"

"Evening pastoral - New Melleray Abbey"

"Evensong"

 "Fair"

"Faith"

"Falling market"

"False forecast"

"False rain signs"

"Fantasy"

"Farwell to woods"

"Father Mazzuchelli speaks to a priest"

"Fence row queries"

"Fieldward"

"Fireside song of an old hunter"

"The first lark"

"First sabbath snowstorm"

"First song of the day"

"The first thrush comes to Sinsinawa"

"First wild geese"

"First winter sun dogs"

"First year of retirement"

"Five men at New Melleray Abbey"

"Flint spearhead"

"Flint war point"

"Folk craftsman"

"Folk stories"

"For an unbeliever"

"Foreclosed"

"Forehanded"

"The fourth month at St. Donatus"

"Frustration"

"Galena in June"

"The gamecock man"

"Gardens - New Melleray Abbey and Gethsemene"

"George Washington"

"George Washington"

"Ghost nights on the Wapsipinicon"

"God visited his garden"

"The God who owns the fall"

"Gold dream"

"Gold star mothers"

"Golgotha"

"Good Friday"

"Grave of a fiddler"

"Gray haired Pan"

"Great River's sullen mood"

"The green heron roost"

"The grotto at west bend"

"Grotto of Lourdes"

"Grotto of Lourdes at Lansing Iowa"

"Grotto of the agony"

"A group of nuns walk past a world man"

"A gull flies inland"

"Gulls on an inland lake"

"Gulls blown inland"

"Gulls come up the river""

"Halloween fantasy"

"Harvest after seventy"

"Harvest at the monastery"

"Harvest festivals"

"Harvest fields against the green"

"Harvested labor"

"Harvesting of the mushrooms"

"A Hawk soars over Sinsinawa"

"Hearth side musings"

"Hearth side song"

"Hearthside fantasy"

"Herd bells at midnight"

"Here treasure well"

"Heron at sunset", early and typeset drafts

"Highway"

"Hill church homily"

"Hill field soliloquy"

"Hill lover grown old"

"Hill of prayer"

"Hill party"

"Hill woman's dream after draught"

"Hills mill in summer"

"Hog butchering"

"Hollyhocks and trumpet flowers"

"Homecoming"

"Homily"

"Homily"

"Homily by one who remembers"

"Homily for an October Sabbath"

"Hoofbeats sound in the night"

"Horse tracks"

"Horse traders"

"Hot wind"

"How can it be?"

"Hunter blood"

"Hinuter's midwinter chant"

"Hunter's song to river road witch"

"Husker"

"Husker"

"Husking song for early November"

"Hymn for Memorial day"

"Ice bruised birches"

"Ice locked bayou"

"Impressions in a hospital at midnight"

"Improvements"

"In a chapel- Indian Summer morning"

"In a library"

"In Gethsemene"

"In the City of David"

"Indian battleground on the Wapsipinicon"

"Indian battleground on the Wapsipinicon"

"Indian rock shelter"

"Indian village field"

"Invitation to Worship- Wapsipinicon country"

"Iron Town"

"Jordan's grave"

"Journey"

"Judas"

"Judas at the last supper"

"Judas of the prarie"

"Junkyard"

"The katydid"

"Killdeers"

"Kingdoms for horses"

"Kitchen Madonna"

"Lament"

"Land locked sailor's son"

"Land of the clod and furrow"

"The landlord comes"

"Lansing Iowa"

"Lansing Iowa in late winter"

"Last blue Heron"

"Last throes of winter fear"

"Late autumn holiday"

"Late husker"

"Late migrants"

"Late morning dreams of a plowman"

"Late planting"

"Late sowing"

"Late spring at Carmel"

"Late summer storm"

"Late winter at Carmel"

"Lazy day"

"The leaf who would be a bird"

"Let us not lose this truth"

"Lie turned truth"

"Life stirs in Dubuque hills"

"Lincoln... son of the prairie

"Lip sounds and letters"

"Litany- New Melleray Abbey"

"Little dipper"

"The loam commands"

"Lost farm"

"Lost freedom"

"Machine harvest"

"Machines seize the soil"

"Madonna of the ridge road"

"Mahatma Gandhi"

"A man who learned from a monk", early and typeset drafts

"Maple sugar season"

"The maples have watched" (newspaper clipping)

"March"

"March approaches"

"March hope"

"March suns on Carmel"

"Mass in an ancient stone church"

"The master painter comes"

"Masters of old Matsell Farm"

"Mateless neighbor"

"May come to the world and New Melleray Abbey"

"May dawn - Sinsinawa"

"Meditation before a shrine of St. Therese"

"Meditation before a statue of St. Therese"

"Meloncholia"

"Memory birds"

"Men who sing at choretime"

"Menders of shattered flesh"

"Mid- Lenten season at St. Donatus"

"Mid- Lent - Sinsinawa"

"Mid- winter mood"

"Mid- winter on the Wapsipinicon"

"Middle age preaches"

"Middle western city school children"

"Midnight at Amana"

"Midnight warning"

"Midsummer comes to Dubuque"

"Mink in a trap"

"A modernist speaks to St. Therese"

"A monk dreams and awakens"

"The monks of New Melleray pray to St. Francis"

"Mood"

"Mood felt in an old house"

"Mood for a winter dream"

"Mood for an uncluttered moment"

"Morning song for February"

"Morning song to a pitiless sun"

"Motorist's midwinter song"

"Mt. Carmel as autumn approaches"

"Mount Hosmer"

"Music of the corn rows"

"Musings of a simple soul"

"My Father's hills"

"My river steals to great seas"

"Nativity glimpses", typeset draft

"Neighbor"

"New life from mold"

"New master - old farm"

"New Melleray Abbey in midwinter"

"Night Call"

"The night creeps catlike"

"Night skies at New Melleray Abbey"

"Night winds of New Melleray Abbey"

"Night without dreams"

"No death for towns"

"Nocturn - Wapsipinicon country"

"None - New Melleray"

"None - New Melleray Abbey"

"Noon rest- summer solstice"

"Nostalgia"

"Not much of marsh"

"A novice enters New Melleray Abbey", early and typeset drafts

"A nun copies a masterpiece"

"A nun enters a chapel at dusk"

"A nun selects a crucifix"

"A nun sits by a window", typeset draft

"A nun walks in a garden", typeset draft

"A nun walks in a hospital corridor"

"Nuns in a convent garden at dusk"

"A nurses prayer to St. Therese"

"Observations after a planting season"

"Octigenarian"

"October phantasy"

"Old gardeners in midwinter"

"Old gardener's winter dreams"

"Old hound's dream"

"The old house and the proud house"

"An old house has a guest"

"Old houses in spring"

"Old lady of the garden"

"An old man's hands"

"Old Matsell farm"

"Old men in gardening time"

"An old monk sees May come"

"An old monk speaks of the soil"

"An old nun says the stations"

"The old plan their gardens"

"Old river pilot"

"An old sailor dies inland"

"Old school teacher"

"The older schools"

"On relief"

"Open season"

"Open winter at New Melleray"

"Order for a Christmas tree"

"Order for a crucifix"

"An order for firewood"

"Order for a holy water font", early and typeset drafts

"Order for a rosary", early and typeset drafts

"Order sent to a woodchopper"

"Out in God's acres"

"The passerby", typeset draft

"Pastoral"

"Pastoral- Easter morning"

"Pattern for a Christmas card"

"Pearl of Christ"

"Petition after a scant harvest"

"Petition for younger sons"

"Phantasy"

"Phantom horses"

"Plaint"

"Planting time nears at New Melleray Abbey"

"Plea for an old mill"

"Plow team in Winter pasture"

"The plowman Christ", early and typeset drafts

"A plowman Christ is crucified"

"Plowman's faith"

"A plowman's way of the cross", typeset draft

"A poet contemplates a Carmellite convent"

"A poet hears nuns singing"

"A poet sees two nuns at dusk"

"A poet visits Dubuque"

"Poet's midnight prayer to Father Mazzuchelli"

"Poetry is madness"

"Prairie City grows up"

"Prairie homestead"

"Prayer at the bier of a priest's mother"

"Prayer for a lost summer"

"Prayer for a rain uttered at Carmel"

"Prayer for St. Therese after Harvest"

"Prayer to St. Bernard- New Melleray", early and typeset drafts

"Prayer to St. Francis"

"Prayer to St. Francis as summer goes"

"Prayer to St. Therese before winter"

"Prayer to St. Therese uttered at Carmel"

"Prayer to St. Veronica"

"Preachment"

"Prescription"

"Prescription"

"Prior"

"Prisoned star"

"The promise of soil"

"Promise of summer at Sinsinawa"

"The quiet monk"

"The quilting bee"

"Quaker plant from B avenue bridge - midnight"

"Rabbit hound"

"Rabbit season"

"Rabbit's nest"

"Rain at New Melleray Abbey"

"Rainsigns in drought"

"The rains give hope"

"Rainstorm on the Wapsipinicon"

"Reaffirmation"

"Retreat at New Melleray Abbey"

"Rainsigns in Drought"

"Rainstorm on the Wapsipinicon"

"Reaffirmation"

"Red sun at Sinsinawa"

"Retreat at New Melleray Abbey"

"Return"

"Return after a decade"

"Return after three decades"

"Return in the fifth month"

"Ridge road as winter nears"

"The ridge road breaks"

"Ridge road drought"

"Ridge road dust is gray"

"Ridge road mystic"

"Ridge road - past due interest"

"Ridge road winter gallery"

"Ridge road wives and prarie wives"

"Ridge road Madonna"

"River road bachelor", early and typeset drafts

"River road wedlock"

"River road woman"

"River side song for one's grandchild"

"The river thaws at the foot of carmel"

"Rivers debauched"

"Roads by the tiny schools"

"Roadside thorn tree"

"A river rests at the New Melleray Abbey"

"Rug hooker"

"Sabbath morning"

"Sabbath thoughts of a parson grown old"

"Sailors were here"

"St. Anthony walks a city street"

"St. Bernard blesses the crops at New Melleray"

"St. Bernard visits New Melleray Abbey"

"St. Dominic comes again to Sinsinawa in autumn"

"St. Dominic talks to a nun"

"St. Donatus as winter surrenders"

"St. Donatus at harvest season"

"St. Donatus in autumn moonlight", early and typeset drafts

"St. Donatus in midsummer"

"St. Donatus on Good Friday"

"St. Donatus- winter"

"St. Francis in the street"

"St. Francis looks at the world", early and typeset drafts

"St. Francis of Assisi meets a monk in a field"

"St. Francis of Assisi returns in autumn"

"St. Francis of Assisi speaks to a nun"

"St. Francis speaks to a worldling"

"St. Francis speaks to a young man"

"St. Francis visits Dubuque"

"St. Francis visits the welfare office"

"St. Joseph", early and typeset drafts

"The saint of the stable"

"St. Therese blesses the slopes at Carmel"

"St. Therese comes to country church"

"St. Therese comes to New Melleray Abbey", early and typeset drafts

"St. Therese passes Carmel in summer"

"St. Therese speaks of a church"

"St. Therese speaks to a dying priest", typeset draft

"St. Therese speaks to a nun grown weary"

"St. Therese speaks to a plowman"

"St. Therese speaks to a priest grown old", typeset draft

"St. Therese speaks to a priest in his doubting moment", typeset draft

"St. Therese speaks to a Sister of Mercy"

"St. Therese speaks to a stumbling one"

"St. Therese speaks to a young girl"

"St. Therese speaks to Carmellite nun"

"St. Therese speaks to the nuns of Carmel"

"St. Therese stops by a sick bed"

"St. Therese talks to a nun grown old", early and typeset drafts

"St. Therese visits a convent", typeset draft

"The scarlet tanager"

"Sea blood in plowman veins"

"Sea gulls follow a plow"

"Sealed river"

"Search for a craftsman", typeset draft

"Search for a rosary"

"The second month ends at New Melleray"

"Sentimental moment"

"September on the Wapsipinicon"

"Sermon for an Indian Summer Sabbath"

"Sermon for one who is winter weary"

"Sermonette for a dark mood"

"The seven last words", typeset draft

"The shade trees bloom"

"Sheep against the snow"

"Sheep grazing in late autumn"

"Shepherd roles"

"The shepherds"

"The shepherds"

"The shepherds worship", typeset draft

"Sherriff's sale"

"Short cut"

"Signs"

"Signs before the planting season"

"Simon the Cyreneian"

"Sinister signs"

"Sinsinawa after Easter"

"Sinsinawa after spring rains"

"Sinsinawa vignettes"

"Smokes of Dubuque-sub zero morning"

"Snow man's tears"

"Snow on the pines - New Malleray"

"Snow on the trees"

"The snows weaken at Sinsinawa"

"Soil chained son"

"Soldier of life"

"Sojourn at New Malleray Abbey"

"Soliliquy at havest time"

"Soliliquy by the river on New Year's Day"

"Soliliquy on a river road"

"Some characters of the passion", early and typeset drafts

"Song for a crippled river man"

"Song for a foggy morning"

"Song for a restless person"

"Song for a thresherman"

"Song for an old planet"

"Song for deaf ears"

"Song for early April"

"Song for early fall"

"Song for early Lent"

"Song for May thirtieth"

"Song for my city"

"Song for one past noonday"

"Song for the approaching year"

"Song for the first month"

"Song for the fourth month"

"Song for the infant New Year"

"Song for winter midnights"

"Song for workers"

"Song for zero weather"

"Song for a younger son"

"Song of March"

"Song of my city"

"Song to be chanted during drought"

"Song to be chanted on a great hill"

"Song to be sung in the woods"

"Song to be sung on a grey day"

"Sonnet for a discouraged person"

"Sonnet for a troubled day"

"Sonnet for a vacation"

"Sonnet for a zero night"

"Sonnet for corn planting season"

"Sonnet for midsummer"

"Sonnet for one who loves villages"

"Sonnet for the haying season"

"Sonnet for the solstice season"

"Sonnet for winter's arrival"

"Sonnet litany for three saints"

"Sonnet penned after late snowstorm"

"Sonnet sequence for a nurse"

"Sonnet to be said each autumn"

"Sonnet to the first frog"

"Sonnet written upstate"

"Sonnet by a hill woman"

"Sonnets for a lazy afternoon"

"Sonnets to a grubber"

"Sonnets to a neurotic"

"Sonnets to a nun", early and typeset drafts

"Sonnets to a priest"

"Sons of the sea"

"The sowing season"

"Spiderwort"

"The spirit of Father Mazzuchelli returns to Sinsinawa"

"The spirit of St. Bernard finds New Malleray Abbey"

"The spirit of St. Therese visits Dubuque"

"Spring approaches in Allamakee"

"Spring dreams come to a sower"

"Spring fever"

"Spring morels"

"Spring plea unheeded"

"Spring plowing on the Wapsipinicon"

"Starlings"

"Stars over Dubuque"

"Stations of the cross at Carmel"

"Stations of the cross at St. Donatus"

"The stations on the hillside-St. Donatus", typeset draft

"Stone City Iowa"

"Stop orser"

"Stove side ego"

"Stove side fictioneer"

"Stove side men"

"Stove side men wonder"

"Stove side poets"

"A stranger visits New Melleray Abbey", early and typeset drafts

"Sub zero phantasy"

"A sufferer speaks of nuns"

"Summer claims Amana"

"Summer mood- Mount Mercy"

"Summer mood- New Melleray"

"Summer reigns at Carmel"

"Summer song for lovers"

"Summer song to be sung by a dreamer"

"Summer storm at St. Donatus"

"A summer visitor speaks"

"Sun dogs"

"Sunset in a chapel", early and typeset drafts

"Supper smokes"

"Symphony of the leaves"

"Symphony of the robins- New Melleray"

"Taunts for a winter witch"

"Tavern"

"Ten a.m."

"Ten commandments", early and typeset drafts

"Theme for a holiday song"

"These older hearthstone people"

"They are shaping a cross"

"This sea of green"

"Thomas G. Masaryk"

"Thought with ego at ebb tide"

"Thoughts for a birthday"

"Three citizens of Bethlehem"

"Three pines"

"Threnody"

"Threnody for a winter sick plowman"

"Thunder is welcome"

"Times junkyards"

"To a cardinal at dawn"

"To a great oak thrice lightening struck"

"To a pastor grown old"

"To a river in a drought"

"To sleeping field creatures in autumn"

"Tracks"

"Traders in the temple"

"The Trappists of New Melleray Abbey"

"A traveller chooses a road in a snowstorm"

"Three worshiper's chant"

"Tribute to teaching nuns", typeset draft

"Two black tern"

"Two dreamers"

"The two fields"

"Two men"

"Two miniatures of Bethlehem"

"Two sonnets for my city"

"An unemployed carpenter prays"

"Unquoted after dinner speech"

"The upper room"

"Vacation trip"

"Vespers"

"Vespers"

"Vespers- New Melleray Abbey"

"Vigils"

"Vignette"

"Vignettes of the passion", early and typeset drafts

"The vineyard at New Melleray Abbey"

"Voices of night"

"Wake, plowman Christ"

"Walk on the river road"

"A wanderer returns"

"Wapsimoon"

"The Wapsipinicon", early and typeset drafts

"Wapsipinicon as spring takes leave"

"Wapsipinicon- autumn flood"

"Wapsipinicon camper's song"

"Wapsipinicon folk"

"Warning for a river trapper"

"Wasted pity"

"Water divide"

"Water scars the hills"

"Waubeek in June"

"Waubeek in June"

"Waubeek remembers"

"Waukon - Midwinter"

"Way of the cross for a world man", typeset draft

"Weather forecast"

"Weather prophesy"

"Weather prophet"

"Wee chilly song for a sub zero morning"

"The weeds come on"

"Wet year"

"Where a town once stood"

"The white wing rides on Sunday"

"Whittier Iowa"

"Why not in these times"

"The wild apple tree blooms"

"Wild asters"

"Will o'wisp"

"Winter hawk"

"Winter marriage"

"Winter pastoral"

"Winter prayer to St. Francis of Assissi"

"Winter-sick poet to a wild goose"

"Winter song for older lovers"

"Winter song to a faithful sower"

"Winter stars at New Melleray"

"Winter thaw - Wapsipinicon country"

"Winter threatens at Hill's mill"

"Winter warning to a great horned owl"

"Winter weary plowman's prayer"

"Winter whipped city"

"Wizardry of broken grain"

"Word for the last autumn leaves"

"Words uttered unthinkingly"

"Worker's sabbath"

"The worker's street"

"World man at a shrine of St. Therese"

"World man at New Melleray", early and typeset drafts

"A world man before a pieta"

"A world man finds a lost rosary"

"A world man finds St. Therese"

"A world man kneels in a convent chapel"

"A world man meditates on a crucifix", typeset draft

"A world man meditates on a picture of the good shepherd", typeset draft

"A world man meditates on a rosary", typeset draft

"A world man meditates on the stations", typeset draft

"A world man meditates on a statue of St. Francis of Assisi", typeset

"A world man meditates on a statue of St. Joseph"

"A world man meditates on a statue of St. Rita", early and typeset drafts

"A world man passes a convent"

"A world man prays at St. Therese"

"A world man prays at St. Therese"

"A world man prays at St. Therese in illness"

"A world man remembers a nun"

"A world man sees an altar", typeset draft"

"A world man senses his unworthiness"

"A world man visits a chapel by evening"

"A world man walks by a church at dusk"

"A world man watches a priest celebrate mass", early and typeset drafts

"A world man with a pain wracked body prays"

"World men at New Melleray Abbey"

"A world sick man visits a cathedral"

"Worse than a cross"

"Wounded pheasant"

"The year's way"

"Yellow fields"

"Young herdsman on the highway"

"A young herdsman on the highway"

"A young plowman talks to his father"

"A young priest gives communion to aged people"

"Yuletide- Wapsipinicon (country ?)"

"Zero mood"

Untitled and/or incomplete early drafts

Short stories

"The blasphemer," early draft.

"Devils in the bone," typeset draft

"The hawker," early and typeset drafts

"Hidden values," typeset draft

"The mystic," early draft.

"New shrines," typeset draft

"Old aches and bloody claws," typeset draft

"The old order changeth," typeset draft

"Pleased to meet you," typeset draft

"Potions from the earth," typeset draft

"The purple pearl," typeset draft

"Realist wife," early draft.

"Snake lore," typeset draft

"Strawberry mark," early and typeset drafts

"To shoot a buffalo," early draft.

"Wapsipinicon tales," introduction by Charles J. Finger. Typescript draft with corrections and revisions.

 Plates, engraving

Scrapbook. Including letters from Witter Bynner.

Scrapbook (black). Including letters from: H. L. Mencken, Ruth Suckow, Herbert Quick, Lew Sarett, Witter Bynner, Edwin F. Piper, Harry Hansen, Sherwood Anderson, Carl Sandberg, Carl Van Vechten and John Hammill.

Scrapbook (red). Including letters from: George Sterling, Julia Peterkin, Henry Justin Smith, Edwin F. Piper, Sherwood Anderson, Carl Sandberg, Alfred Kreymborg, and George William Russell (AE).

2008 Addendum

Note: This addendum is a gift of Jean Sulek Jordan, grand daughter of Charles B. Svoboda, who worked in insurance with Sigmund

Correspondence

Letter from Mrs. James (Virginia)  Sigmund to Mrs. Arthur Sulek. Contains clippings and a program for the dedication of the J. G. Sigmund Park in Waubeek

Essays

 Morley, Christopher. "Thinking back about a recent visit to Iowa. . ." Saturday Review of Literature. (n.d.) TMs

Newton, Joseph Fort. "Oh. Youth, Listen!" AMs

Unknown author. "Data on Waubeek for Clytia." TMs

Play

Darkness at the Window. With Betty Smith. Chicago: The Dramatic Publishing Company,1938

Poems by Sigmund

"Antonin Dvorak's Dream. Spillville, Iowa, 1893 - Spillville, Iowa,1931." For C.B.S. (Charles B. Svoboda?)

"Bailey's Harbor." AMsS

Cedar Rapids, A Poem. Cedar Rapids, Iowa: Prairie Press and the Torch Press, 1926. Illustration by [Britton?]. With dedications to Col. Charles Burton Robbins and Charles B. Svoboda. Bound in blue papers. 2 copies

"Day's End - Bailey's Harbor." AMsS

"Fallen Oak." TMs

Legal binder containing typescript manuscripts of the following poems:

"The Harvesting of the Mushrooms"

"Plow Team in Winter Pasture"

"Late Migrants"

"Hill Party"

"The Stove Side Seers"

"Weather Forecast"

"Gulls Blown Inland"

"Weather Prophecy"

"Nearby Beauty"

"River Road Musings"

"Panaceas"

"Early Flood"

"Lamentations of a Prophet Plowman"

"Hearth Side Musings"

"Hallowe'en Fantasy"

"The Legend of the Wapsipinicon River." TMs in legal(?) binding. Another copy is included, this one called "The Wapsipinicon" and including an explanatory note

"Movie." AMsS

Poems of New Melleray Abbey (Peosta, Dubuque County, Iowa). In legal binding

"Tavern." TMs

"Two Men. (For C.B.S) (For C.B.R.)" TMs, signed and dated by Sigmund, April 4, 1934. 2 copies

"The Workers Street." TMs

Poems by others

"At the End of the Road." Madison Cawein

"Lines to J. G. Sigmund." Jazbo of Old Dubuque

"Loss." Jewell Bothwell Tull

"Re: Moscow Art Theatre (A 100 Per Cent American Speaks)." John V.A. Weaver

Unknown author. "Jewell Bothwell Tull. Seven Ages."

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