Norris M. Getty

Born 1915-05-13 Waco, NE (USA)

Died 1983-01
Norfolk, NE (USA)

Buried
Waco, NE (USA)
Buried in Waco Cemetery

Norris Getty was the youngest of eight children, from a farming family in Waco, Nebraska. He attended the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and in the 1930s worked for the Nebraska Federal Writers Project. There he met Weldon Kees and the two struck up a close friendship. They remained friends and correspondents until Kees' death. Getty would serve in World War II, first as a commanding officer at Fort Huachuca, Arizona for an all-black regiment, later seeing action in the South Pacific. After the war, Getty completed his degree at UNL and went on to Harvard University. Getty taught classics at the Groton School, an elite prepatory school in Massachusetts, for many years.

In 1978 Norris Getty donated his correspondence with Weldon Kees to the Heritage Room. Copyrights to Getty's own letters were included in the donation.

Places Lived

Waco, NE
Lincoln, NE
Boston, MA
Groton, MA
New York
California
Arizona
Norfolk, NE

Author Of

Poetry
Nonfiction

Keywords

Poetry; Translated Greek and Latin Classics; Nebraska Federal Writers Project

Education

Bachelor of Arts Degree, 1947, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE
Graduate Studies, Harvard University, Boston, MA

Occupation

Classics Teacher at Groton, an all-boys school in Groton, MA

Places Worked

Harvard University, Boston, MA
Nebraska Writers' Project, Lincoln, NE
Groton Prepatory School, Groton, MA

Associations

Friend and literary critic of Weldon Kees

Bibliography

Getty made many contributions to the Nebraska Federal Writers' Project and also published various poems during the war years with the assistance of Weldon Kees.
The Heritage Room does not have any of these publications, except in publications of the Nebraska Federal Writers' Project.

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