Guide to the Sonnet Club Collection

The Sonnet Club, the Santa Cruz Chapter of the California Federation of Chaparral Poets, Collection consists of a large red scrapbook plus some loose materials.  The scrapbook is red, the front cover has separated from the remainder of the scrapbook.  The scrapbook is in fair condition with the front cover loose and some of the pages are fragile to the touch.  The album primarily contains newspaper clippings of meetings and activities the club was involved in and around Santa Cruz County.  There are also meeting minutes, poems from club members, and a couple of photographs.

The following history notes are taken from the California Federation of Chaparral Poets website.

The story of the California Federation of the Chaparral Poets began in 1939 when the city of Glendale organized its First Annual Festival of Arts. The Poetry Committee’s display included a brochure, “In the Chaparral.”

On February 9, 1940, the Glendale Poetry Chapter was formed, followed in March by the Pasadena Poetry Club. From these two groups California Federation of Chaparral Poets was organized.

The first conference was held in 1940 at the Glendale YWCA, with more than 300 attending. By January 1942, the Federation had grown to 11 chapters across southern California, and continued to experience steady growth throughout the state.

By 1963, when the conference was held in Sacramento, CFCP had become the largest poetry group in the world, with 30 chapters from both northern and southern California, as well as members from more than a dozen other states. Since then, the conference generally alternates between northern and southern host chapters.

The Name: Symbolically the name ‘Chaparral’ was chosen because it is typically Californian, as the low growth of chaparral that covers the hillsides and desert wastes of California, adding beauty and fragrance to barren country sides, might be applied to poetry singing its way into a war-torn and barren world today.

The Sonnet Club of Santa Cruz

On 27 November 1949 the Sonnet Club of Santa Cruz was officially granted membership to the California Federation of the Chaparral Poets (CFPC).  In 1949 the CFPC was ten years old and still a relatively small organization with a handful of chapters scattered primarily throughout Southern California.  Although its members were few in number, the CFPC had certainly grown beyond its humble beginnings as the poetry committee for the City of Glendale’s First Annual Festival of the Arts, and it had created an ambitious mission for its chapters: 1) to promote the teaching and writing of poetry, 2) to strengthen the appreciation of poetry, and 3) to develop fellowship among poets.  As a sign of eager acceptance of this mission the Sonnet Club voted in January of 1950 to change its name permanently to “Santa Cruz Chapter, California Federation of Chaparral Poets.”  The Santa Cruz chapter made great strides in promoting the ideals of the CFPC by organizing both student poetry and member poetry contests, in addition to encouraging the chapter’s members to publish as frequently as possible.  By April 1956 the club had already published two anthologies of its members’ poems – “Seedling Verse” and “First the Blade.”  In celebration of Poetry Day in 1954 there was a radio program while in October 1955 a television program was broadcast.  Books of poems by individual members – Katherine Wallis, Grace Glenway Hayward, and Reva T. Jensen – had also been published.  Moreover, members’ poems appeared in publications such as The Oregonian, Christian Home, Kaleidograph, American Bard, Carmel Pine Cone, The Denver Post, Author & Journalist, Desert Magazine, and several more.

SERIES I.  RED SCRAPBOOK (1949 – 1969)

One (1) Box

Series Scope and Content Summary

This series contains a large red scrapbook.  The front cover of the scrapbook has come loose.  The scrapbook is in fair condition with the front cover loose and some of the pages fragile to the touch.  The scrapbook primarily contains newspaper clippings of club meetings and other club activities.  There are also meeting minutes and poems from club members.  There are also a couple of photographs one of them possibly Fay Frykland, the first club president.

– The California Federation of Chaparral Poets officially approved the Sonnet Club of Santa Cruz’s application to start a local Chaparral Poets branch on 27 November 1949.
– In November 1949 the president of the Sonnet Club was Mrs. Melville Frykland.
– The Sonnet Club officially changed its name to the “Santa Cruz Chapter, California Federation of Chaparral Poets” at its January 1950 meeting.  Officers were also elected at this meeting.
– The word ‘Chaparral’ is one of many musical names inherited from the music-speaking Spanish Californians.  It was applied to those low, thorny shrubs that originally covered the hills and valleys of California.  The poets of California have adopted the name ‘Chaparral’ applying it to all writers and lovers of verse.  The club aims to encourage the study of poetry, writing of poetry, reading and marketing and appreciation of poetry, and to stimulate publication in the press and magazines and on radio programs and through other public platforms.
– List of charter members and officers for various years.
– Poems by the clubs’ members.
– Many articles about poetry contests held by the Santa Cruz Chapter.
– Obituary for one of the club’s members – Addie Littlefield Kleist – who was a resident of Santa Cruz since 1927, and an active member of the Santa Cruz Art League and an active exhibitor.  She was the founder of the Sonnet Club.  She died on 14 December 1953.  She bequeathed $100 to the chapter for future student poetry contests.  The chapter honored her request with creation of the Addie Kleist Annual Poetry Contest.
– One member of the Santa Cruz Chapter, Katherine E. Wallis, was an internationally known sculptor.  She published her first book of poems, “Chips from the Bloc,” in 1956.
– By April 1956 the club had published two anthologies of its members’ poems, “Seedling Verse” and “First the Blade.”
– The Scrapbook includes newsletters, clippings about the club, its contests, activities and various members from October 1949 (when it was still the Sonnet Club) to December 1969.

Box ID#: Folder ID#

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SERIES II.  LOOSE ITEMS (1953 – 2008)

One (1) Folder

Series Scope and Content Summary

This series contains meeting programs and various correspondence related to the Sonnet Club.  Included in this material is a bequeath from Addie Kleist to be used to sponsor student poetry contests.  There was also a poem from a Vega Swift

TIGHT BELT

The dessert looked oh, so delicious
That I thought I’d try just a taste;
Then I just simply couldn’t be wasteful –
So I ended full of waist.

Box ID#: Folder ID#

1:X