MAEVE BUTLER BECK:

Mary-Aveline "Maeve" Butler Beck was a poet and school teacher from Saint Paul, Minnesota. She was the granddaughter of Pierce Butler, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, and daughter of Pierce Butler Jr. and Hilda Vallandigham Butler.

Butler Beck grew up in the Butler family residence off of Edgecumbe Road in Saint Paul. She attended Sarah Lawrence College in New York in 1937. While at Sarah Lawrence College she befriended poet Genevieve Taggard, who became a lifelong friend.

In 1941 she moved to Rochester, New York, and began work as an apprentice to a teacher at the Harley School. In the same period, she took classes at the University of Rochester, where she met her husband Dr. Robert Beck.

Soon after their marriage in 1943, Robert joined the Army, and was deployed to Europe. In late 1944, Maeve returned to St. Paul. She gave birth to their son Roger in January 1945 and taught French courses at the Summit School.

With Robert's return from service in 1946, the family briefly moved to Waterford Farm, Maeve's grandparents' property in Maryland. The family relocated once again to Kansas City, Missouri, where Robert took a position at the University of Missouri in Kansas City, and their daughter Peggy was born in January 1947.

In 1948, Robert accepted an offer for a teaching position with the Education Department at the University of Minnesota, and the family returned to St. Paul. In 1950 their son Carl was born. In 1955, the family moved to 1610 East River Terrace in Minneapolis.

The couple settled and Maeve raised children, wrote poetry, played piano, and was involved in several civic organizations, including volunteering for Planned Parenthood and the Democratic Farmer-Labor Party. Maeve also completed graduate work, and taught in the English Department at the University of Minnesota, giving lectures and seminars on writer Virginia Woolf. She also wrote book reviews for the Minneapolis Star and Tribune and published poetry for various literary and poetry journals.

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Availability:

The collection is open for research use.

Preferred Citation:

[Indicate the cited item and/or series here]. Maeve Butler Beck Papers. Minnesota Historical Society.

See the Chicago Manual of Style for additional examples.

Location of Originals:

Original correspondence between Maeve Butler Beck and Genevieve Taggard can be found in the Genevieve Taggard Papers; Manuscripts and Archives Division, New York Public Library; Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street, Third Floor, Room 328, New York, NY 10018

Original letters from Charles Trinkaus to Maeve Butler Beck can be found in the Charles Trinkaus Papers; Sarah Lawrence College Archives; 1 Mead Way, Bronxville, NY 10708

Accession Information:

Accession number: 17,838

Processing Information:

Processed by: Leif Kopietz, August 2021

Catalog ID number: 9989798240004294

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Additional papers related to Maeve Butler Beck can be found in the Pierce Butler and Family Papers available in the manuscripts collection of the Minnesota Historical Society.

The Maeve Butler Beck Virginia Woolf/Bloomsbury Collection, a compilation gathered by Maeve for her lectures, can be found in the Rare Books and Special Collections of the University of Minnesota.

Papers related to Maeve Butler Beck's husband can be found in the Robert H. Beck Papers in the University Archives at the University of Minnesota.

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This collection is indexed under the following headings in the catalog of the Minnesota Historical Society. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons or places should search the catalog using these headings.

Topics:

American poetry -- 20th century.

Poets, American -- 20th century -- Biography.

Persons:

Beck, Peggy V., author.

Beck, Robert H.

Butler, Hilda Vallandigham.

Woolf, Virginia, 1882-1941.

Butler family

Butler, Pierce, 1866-1939.

Butler, Pierce, 1893-1957, author.

Butler, Pierce, 1918- author.

Taggard, Genevieve, 1894-1948, author.

Trinkaus, Charles, author.

Document Types:

Manuscripts for publication.

Photographs.

Poems.

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