E.A. Toeman Collection

Collection

Identifier: PCMS-0066

Staff Only

Edward Armand Toeman, known professionally as E.A. Toeman, was born in England in 1925. He graduated from Cambridge in 1946 and afterwards was employed by the Lord Chancellor's Department as a district judge. He had a lifelong interest in literature and poetry, serving as the editor of Prospect: The Voice of the Younger Generation of Poets, which was published between 1945 and 1950 and featured writers such as Kathleen Raine and Muriel Spark.

This collection contains literary notebooks and a manuscript by the poet Walter Roberts, who was an acquaintance of Toeman's.

Dates

1945-1986

Language of Materials

Collection material is in English.

Conditions Governing Access

The E.A. Toeman Collection is open for research.

Conditions Governing Use

Copyright of papers in the collection may be held by their authors, or the authors' heirs or assigns. Researchers must obtain the written permission of the holder(s) of copyright and the Poetry Collection before requesting photocopies and/or publishing quotations from materials in the collection. Once permission is obtained, most papers may be copied in accordance with the library's usual procedures unless otherwise specified.

Extent

.5 Linear Feet (1 full manuscript box)

10 Folder(s)

Additional Description

Biographical Note

Edward Armand Toeman was born in England on June 10, 1925. As a young adult he attended the Sherborne School from 1939-1943, a prestigious independent boarding school located near Dorset, England. While in attendance he won several of the school's literary and historical prizes, including the James Rhoades Prize for English Literature and the Bowen History Prize. In the last year of schooling he was invited to be a member of the literary society, The Duffers, which was composed of students chosen for their merit in literary scholarship. The students read papers on topics of literary or social subjects; Toeman read on the eighteenth-century poet Thomas Gray.

Following his time at the Sherborne School, Toeman attended St. Catharine’s College at the University of Cambridge on a scholarship. He graduated in 1946 and was later employed by the Lord Chancellor’s Department as a district judge. He married June Alexandra Rosenbaum in 1953, and the couple had two daughters and five grandchildren at the time of Toeman’s death in February 2005.

Between 1945 and 1950 Toeman was the primary editor of Prospect: The Voice of the Younger Generation of Poets, which included 13 volumes. The place of publication varied, including Birmingham (issues 2-6) and Worcester (issues 7-12). Other editors included Barry Keogan, James Welch, F. S. Round, David West, and husband and wife Harold F. Bradley and Gladys Keighley. The magazine’s contributors included Kathleen Raine, Muriel Spark, John Atkins, and Donald Davie, among others.