The Finvola Drury papers are organized into eight series: correspondence, publications, writings, professional, personal, photographs, clippings, and A/V materials.
The correspondence series is sorted alphabetically by surname or institution name, except in cases where the correspondent's full name was not included in the correspondence or a single letter was addressed to multiple recipients. The bulk of correspondence is between Finvola Drury and her son, George S. Drury, and his wife Kathy. Other notable correspondents include Flo Kennedy, Sohnya Sayres, Jim Cohn, and David Cope.
A note on names: Finvola's daughter, Finvola, is often referred to by her nickname "Finny," or sometimes "Finvola II," while Finvola herself uses the nickname "Fin."
The publications series is sorted between poetry and prose and arranged alphabetically by title. Also included are various ephemera with Drury's poetry or prose printed on them, as well as a published review of Drury's book, Burning the Snow.
The writings series contains four subseries: poetry drafts, prose drafts, notes, and notebooks and journals. Both the poetry and prose draft subseries include files created and named by Drury and/or the donor, denoted in the finding aid and folder titles as "poetry draft files" or "prose draft files." Loose/unsorted poetry and prose drafts were organized alphabetically by name by the processing archivist and placed into folders labeled "alphabetized poetry drafts," denoted in the finding aid like "poetry drafts, A-Z." The notes subseries consists of pages of Drury's handwritten notes about literature, writing, ideas for poems or prose, and other subjects of interest. The "subject notes" files were ordered and labeled by Drury and/or the donor. Other notes were loose and/or unsorted and brought together in processing. Finally, the notebooks and journals subseries comprises notebooks and journals Drury kept throughout her life, as well as a handful of notebooks that belonged to her daughter, Finvola.
The professional series is made up of materials from Drury's career, sorted primarily by institution, followed by announcements for Drury's poetry readings, a copy of Drury's resume, and the draft of a memoir a student wrote under Drury's tutelage.
The personal series consists of biographical sketches written about Drury, notes and records from Drury's undergraduate and graduate education, personal ephemera, and a book given to Drury by Detroit artists.
The photographs series is organized chronologically.
The clippings series consists of newspapers and clippings Drury kept in her files, as well as a handful of collages Drury and her friend, Kathy Rose, made from news clippings.
The A/V series contains two LP music records, three tapes, and three CDs.
Poet, teacher, and activist Finvola Drury was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1926. She received her B.A. from Empire State College, followed in 1982 by an M.A. in Literature from the University of Buffalo. In the 1950s, she taught creative writing classes at the University of Chicago. While living in Michigan in the 1960s, Drury served as the chair of Wayne State University's Miles Modern Poetry Committee. She went on to teach creative writing workshops at the Rochester Institute of Technology and the Writers and Books literary center. She was also a member of the board of directors at Writers and Books for 15 years.
Throughout her life, Drury wrote and published poetry and prose in numerous publications. She also published two books of poetry, Burning the Snow and Elegy for Joric Ross. She collaborated and corresponded with other prominent writers, poets, and artists in the Detroit and Rochester areas, including Ann and Ken Mikolowski, David Cope, and Jim Cohn, all of whom also have papers housed at the University of Michigan. Over the years, Drury also participated in a variety of demonstrations and campaigns for peace, workers' rights, veterans' issues, women's rights, and more.
Drury married her husband, George F. Drury, in 1948. The couple had two children together: George S. Drury and Finvola Drury. Finvola, an AIDS researcher and advocate, died unexpectedly in 1991. George F. died in 2010 at 93. Drury died in 2015 at the age of 89.
