Charles P. Edwards Collection, 1942-2003

Title: Charles P. Edwards Collection, 1942-2003

Predominant Dates:1998-2000

ID: RG2/020

Creator: Edwards, Charles P. (Charles Pastene) (1919-2015)

Extent: 1.1 Cubic Feet. More info below.

Arrangement: This collection is partially processed. The folders in Box 1 are arranged topically (according to categories assigned by Edwards), and the manuscripts and drafts are housed in Boxes 2, 3, and 4.

Date Acquired: 00/00/2006

Languages: English

Author and educator Charles Pastene Edwards (1919- ) was an American Field Service (AFS) ambulance driver during World War II. The Charles P. Edwards Collection contains early drafts and manuscripts of his book, entitled An AFS Driver Remembers, and photographs, correspondence, letter transcriptions, and other documents (mostly photocopies) related to AFS during and after the war.

The bulk of the Charles P. Edwards Collection includes typewritten drafts and a complete manuscript of Edwards’s book, entitled An AFS Driver Remembers (previously known as A Saga of C Platoon: Personal Memoir in the earlier drafts.) The collection also contains typewritten drafts of Tapestry: Poems for All Seasons and My Luckiest Day, original photographs and enlarged photocopies (used for the manuscripts of his book), documents related to his position as an Allied Military Government Public Health and Welfare Officer, photocopied clippings of his participation in track meets sponsored by the Allied Force Headquarters (AFHQ) Zone Allied Track and Field Championships during the summer of 1945 in Naples, Italy, and post-war correspondence pertaining to AFS driver Vernon Prebel’s memorial service and the AFS student exchange programs. The collection also includes a typewritten transcript of his wartime letters from 1943 and poems (in a folder entitled “Writings”), and a copy of an essay he contributed to the 1999 edition of The Bowdoin Forum, entitled “America in the World – Some Lessons of History.”

Alternate Extent Statement: 4 boxes

Access Restrictions: This collection is open for research. Cotton gloves are required for the handling of all photographic material.

Use Restrictions:

Single photocopies may be made for research purposes. Permission to publish material from the collection (with the exception of the manuscript and poems) must be submitted in writing to the AFS Archives. Permission to publish excerpts from the manuscript or poems (outside the guidelines of Fair Use) must be granted by Charles P. Edwards or his family.  Researchers are responsible for determining any other copyright questions.

In the event that this research becomes a source for publication, a credit line indicating the Archives of the American Field Service and AFS Intercultural Programs is required.

Acquisition Method: The Charles P. Edwards Collection was donated to the Archives of the American Field Service and AFS Intercultural Programs by Charles P. Edwards in five separate accessions from 1984 to 2006.

Appraisal Information: Copies of Charles P. Edwards’s books, entitled An AFS Driver Remembers (1999), Tapestry: Poems for All Seasons (1997) and Una storia d’amore (1997), were removed from this collection and added to the AFS Library. For questions about accessing the books, please contact the AFS Archives.

Preferred Citation: [Identification of item], [Date]; Charles P. Edwards Collection; Archives of the American Field Service and AFS Intercultural Programs, New York, NY.

Processing Information: This collection was partially processed by AFS Archives staff at an unknown date, and again by Johnamarie Macias in May 2011. Preliminary finding aid written by Johnamarie Macias and Nicole Milano in 2011 and encoded in EAD by Nicole Milano in May 2011 under the scope of the 2010-2011 Basic Processing grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission.