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Family to donate Poet Clinton Larson's papers to library at BYU

The L. Tom Perry Special Collections department of the Harold B. Lee Library at Brigham Young University will acquire the papers of poet Clinton Larson on Friday, Feb. 29.

Larson was perhaps the first Mormon poet to devote his life and poetry to his craft. He authored several volumes of poetry including The Lord of Experience, Counterpoint, The Conversions of God, Centennial Portraits, Selected Poems of Clinton F. Larson, and Sunwind. He wrote many poems that received wide acclaim, including To a Dying Girl and Homestead in Idaho. Larson was also a playwright and was the originator and first managing editor of BYU Studies.

In 1947, he earned his master's in English from the University of Utah and went on to receive a doctorate in English at the University of Denver in 1956. Larson joined the English faculty at BYU, where he taught creative writing until his retirement in 1985.

Larson's family will donate his papers to the L. Tom Perry Special Collections department, where they will be preserved, cataloged and made available for research.

Writer: David Luker

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