Catherine Seelye Papers

From 1960-1974, Catherine Seelye worked in the library of the University of Connecticut, first in Collection Development and later as Assistant Librarian. Her husband, John Seelye, was an English Professor also at the University of Connecticut. When the University purchased the Charles Olson Papers in 1972, John and Catherine Seelye developed a proposal to edit and publish Olson's reflections on Ezra Pound. (Olson had intended to publish the materials himself after Pound's death, but Olson's death in 1970 preceded Pound's in 1972.)

Once the publication was approved, Catherine Seelye took on the task of transcribing and editing Olson's material in collaboration with the curator of the Charles Olson Papers, George Butterick. By the time Charles Olson and Ezra Pound: An Encounter at St. Elizabeths was published in 1975, Catherine Seelye and her husband had moved to North Carolina. Seelye kept in correspondence with Butterick about extending the project to include the rest of Olson's notebooks, but their plans never reached fruition.

Catherine Seelye received her B.A. from West Virginia University and M.A. from University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. As a librarian for the Institute of Government at the University of North Carolina from 1955-1960, Seelye indexed and edited Popular Government and other publications. During her years at the University of Connecticut, she wrote articles for various library bulletins. Charles Olson and Ezra Pound: An Encounter at St. Elizabeths remained her only published book.