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Papers and Photographs, 1948 - 1986

Manuscript Collection 722

• Information about Lida W. Pyles
• Information about the Collection
• Contents of the Collection

INFORMATION ABOUT LIDA W. PYLES

Born in Eagle Rock, Barry County, Missouri, in 1906, Lida [Lydia] Wilson Pyles wrote about unusual people and events of the Ozarks of northern Arkansas and southern Missouri.  Pyles was the author of several books, including the novel Stranger at the Gate, Tall Tales from the Hills, It Happened in the Ozarks, and Sense and Nonsense in Verse, a publication in book form of her newspaper column, a regular feature of the Mountain View Herald of Mountain View, Arkansas.  She recorded Ozark folk tales of the Ozarks and wrote "local color" newspaper articles,  published in The Joplin Globe, The Oklahoma Farm World, The Sunday News and Leader of Springfield, Missouri, The Carthage Press, Country World, the Times-Echo of Eureka Springs, Arkansas, and The Tulsa World, among others, from the nineteen-fifties to the nineteen-seventies.  She also was a charter member in the Ozark Writers and Artists Guild and in the Ozark Creative Writers, Inc., of which she was one of the founders.

INFORMATION ABOUT THE COLLECTION

In addition to a photocopy of Sense and Nonsense in Verse and her newspaper articles, the collection also contains two newspaper items pertaining to Pyles, an article about her husband, Elba Pyles, papers concerning the Ozark Writers and Artists Guild, materials about the Ozark Creative Writers, Inc., and a collection of photographs of Pyles, Cora Pinkley Call of Eureka Springs, Carroll County, Arkansas, the Ozark Writers and Artists Guild, in which both women were active members, and the Ozark Creative Writers, Inc.

Lida Wilson Pyles of Carthage, Jasper County, Missouri, donated her papers and photographs to Special Collections on September 10, 1987.

Prepared by Janet G. Tucker, Special Collections Division, University of Arkansas Libraries, Fayetteville, Arkansas, in February 1988.

CONTENTS OF THE COLLECTION
One container
(c. 47 items)

Box 1

Folder 1.  Sense and Nonsense in Verse (Pineville, Missouri: Pineville Democrat, 1950), unpaged, photocopy.
Folder 2.  "Gentle Jim Cummings," Frontier Times (Vol. 36, No. 4, New Series No. 20, Fall, 1962), pp. 16-17.
Folder 3.  Newspaper articles, July 20, 1958 - Mar 9, 1980.
Folder 4.  David E. Bryant, "Observing Bird and Animal Behavior, He Predicts the Weather," Today's Farmer (Aug, 1970), pp. 32-33.  Magazine article about Elba Pyles, husband of Pyles, photocopy.
Folder 5.  The Ozark Writers and Artists Guild, 1947-57.
Folder 6.  Ozark Creative Writers, Inc., 1973-84.
 

Photographs.  Pyles, Cora Pinkley Carr, the Ozark Writers and Artists Guild, and Ozark Creative Writers, Inc.  All photographs are black and white unless otherwise noted.  The dimensions of the photographs are given height first.

Folder 7:  Individuals.

1.  Mrs. Mary Flenniken of Joplin, Missouri, 1958, 10 x 8. Stamped on verso:  "Baird Studios, 2nd Floor, Keystone Hotel, Joplin, Missouri."  Handwritten notation on verso:  "Mrs. Mary Flenniken, Harold Cragin's aunt. (Story by Mrs. Pyles).  Sunday for Cochran, 2 col., 58."  A copy of this photograph, in a 5 1/4 x
3 1/2  reduction, was published in the Joplin Globe, Sunday, Nov 23, 1958, illustrating a Pyles article, "Joplin Woman at 98 Keeps Unique Scrap Book."
2.  Formal color portrait of Pyles, 1986, 5 x 3 1/2.  Handwritten notation on verso: "Lida Pyles, 1986."
3.  Formal portrait of Pyles.  n.d., 7 x 5 photocopy on 8 1/2 x 11 paper.  As used for frontispiece from one of  her books (not identified).
4.  Pyles holding the jawbone of a large animal, n.d., 7 x 5.
5.  Formal portrait of Cora Pinkley Call, a founder, with Pyles, of the Ozark Writers and Artists Guild, n.d., 3 3/4 x 2 1/2, cut down from a  larger picture.
6.  Photograph of Cora Pinkley Call, n.d., 5 x 2 1/4, cut down from a larger picture.
7.  Formal blue half-tone portrait of May Kennedy McCord playing a guitar.  n.d., 5 1/2 x 3 1/4.  Handwritten  notation on front:  "Love to Lydia [Lida] from May."  Handwritten notation on verso:  "I don't know whether I ever sent you one of these 'critters,' and I am mailing some I had promised this morning.  It was   taken at Eureka in front of the curtain at Festival 2 years ago.  A lady artist there who is really a fine artist.  Forgot her name."

Folder 8:  Groups.

8.  Formal group portrait of several members of the Ozarks Writers and Artists Guild, Ginger Blue (near Noel, Missouri), Oct, 1948.  5 x 7, identifying                 sheet attached.  Stamped on verso:  "When reordering copies of this print, please refer to No. 301 - B. Fenton Fotos, Noel, Missouri."   Handwritten notation           on verso:  "Ozark Writers and Artists Guild. Taken at Ginger Blue in October, 1948."
9.  Cora Pinkley Call, Pyles, and an unidentified man, 1958, 3 1/2 x 5.  Handwritten notation on verso: "Cora Call and Lida Pyles with a speaker at a                   Conference in 1958."
10.  Formal outdoor group portrait of the Ozark Creative Writers, Inc., c. 1973, 8 x 10.  Pyles first row, fifth from left.  Handwritten notation on verso:  "ca.           1973:  Ozark Creative Writers.  Lida Pyles in plaid pantsuit holding sign.  L. P. was a founder of (with Lee Ward this group; later she withdrew from                    membership."
11.  Formal outdoor group portrait of Pyles, Cora Pinkley Call, and others.  n.d., 5 x 7.  Stamped on front:  By Fenton."  Handwritten notation on verso:             "When I'm done with this picture, it goes to Lida Wilson Pyles - - 2228 Pearl, Joplin, Missouri."  Handwritten notation on verso, different hand:  "Lida Pyles, top row.  Taken in Eureka Springs."
12.  Pyles (?) with back to camera, and four musicians.  n.d., 5 x 7.  Stamped on verso:  "Sunbeam Photo Studios, Seligman, Missouri 65745.  Please Give Credit   to Sunbeam Photo Studios."  Handwritten notation on verso:  "35 mm c.s. #207 (2) (6 - 6)."