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A series of images from the UAB Archives
Name William C. Carter Papers
Dates 1893-2005: Bulk 1978-1998
Extent 1.33 cubic feet
Historical Note William C. “Bill” Carter was born in Georgia, and in 1963 obtained an undergraduate degree in French from the University of Georgia. He received a master’s degree in French from Georgia and in 1971 earned a doctoral degree in French from Indiana University. Dr. Carter’s first faculty position was at Ohio University, but in 1975 he received an appointment at UAB as assistant professor of French. From 1979 until 1990 Carter was the chair of the UAB Department of Foreign Languages. Dr. Carter was project director for Proust at UAB, a multi-event commemoration held in 1988 as part of the 75th anniversary of the publication of Marcel Proust’s Swann’s Way. Carter is the author of several monographs, was the producer of an award-winning documentary on Proust, and is acknowledged as a world authority on the life and works of the French novelist Proust. Dr. Carter was promoted to professor at UAB in 1990 and in 2002 received the university’s Ireland Prize for Scholarly Distinction. In 2004 Dr. Carter was named a Distinguished Professor of French by the Board of Trustees of the University of Alabama System. Carter retired from UAB in 2008 and the following year was named a Distinguished Professor Emeritus.  Dr. Carter is the author or editor of numerous publications, including Conversations with Shelby Foote (1989); The Proustian Quest (1992); Marcel Proust: A Life (2000), The Memoirs of Ernest A. Forssgren, Proust’s Swedish Valet (2006), Proust in Love (2006), and Marcel Proust: A Documentary Volume (2013).  Dr. Carter is currently working on a new translation of Proust's monumental seven-part novel, and has authored new editions of Swann’s Way: In Search of Lost Time, Volume 1 (2013), In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower: In Search of Lost Time, Volume 2 (2015), The Guermantes Way: In Search of Lost Time, Volume 3 (2018); Sodom and Gomorrah: In Search of Lost Time, Volume 4 (2021); and The Captive and the Fugitive: In Search of Lost Time, Volume 5 (2023).
Scope and Contents Collection includes correspondence, greeting cards, publications, research notes, magazines, sheet music, newspaper clippings, photographs, audiovisual tapes, ephemera and realia, etc.

Many of the items in this collection have been scanned and are now available in the William C. Carter Collection within the UAB Libraries Digital Collections site at https://uab.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/
Arrangement Five discrete series:  1. Correspondence; 2. Research and Subject Files; 3. Publications; 4. Audiovisual Material; 5. Ephemera
Accession Number M2014-15
Provenance Originally donated by Dr. Carter to UAB and the Mervyn H. Sterne Library in 2007, the collection was deeded to UAB in 2008.  Upon the administrative merger of the Sterne and Lister Hill Libraries, the collection was transferred from Sterne to the UAB Archives in the fall of 2014.  (The accession number reflects the 2014 transfer date, not the original 2007 donation to UAB).
Copyright The UAB Archives owns the copyright to some of the material and maintains its proprietary rights to all material in this collection.
Fnding Aid Printed descriptive guide by Tim L. Pennycuff in repository.
Access Points Carter, William C.
Foote, Shelby,  d  1917-2005.
Novelists, American  x  20th century  x  Correspondence.
University of Alabama at Birmingham.
Document Types Letters, memos, postcards, greeting cards, magazines, audiotapes, videocassette tapes, news clippings, ephemera and realia.
Location Manuscript Stacks
Related Series PMC122, William C. Carter Photographs
Physical Condition Acid free folders, acid free boxes

This page created 2017 and last updated 2024

Copyright:  The University of Alabama Board of Trustees.

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