Opening Hours
Daily: 10 A.M.–5 P.M.
Closed on Tuesdays
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108
Rare Books
Preclarissimu[m] diui Sedulij opus: : iuxta seriem totius euangelij metrice congestum: atq[ue] Paschale carmen prenotatum
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Rare Books
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Daily: 10 A.M.–5 P.M.
Closed on Tuesdays
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108
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Manuscripts
Scope and Content Note -- Part I and AddendaThe collection is comprised primarily of manuscripts and correspondence of British author Hilary Mantel (1952-2022). Manuscripts include short stories, lectures, radio plays, articles and reviews, as well as various drafts and notes for Mantel's novels. Notably, all four drafts of A Place of Greater Safety are present, including Mantel's early drafts written while living in Saudi Arabia. Copious notes for The Giant, O'Brien are present, as well as significant notes for Fludd and A Change of Climate. The 2005 addenda include prolific notes and drafts of Beyond Black. Personal and business correspondence with a number of other prominent authors and figures is present, including Elizabeth Jane Howard, Barbara Epstein, Norman Hampson, Lesley Glaister, Miranda Miller and Auberon Waugh. Email strings have been catalogued according to the oldest full email present, with added entries made for the authors of email replies and significant addressees, excepting Hilary Mantel. SEALED: Boxes 47-52, 174-195 contain Mantel's diaries and are sealed for the lifetime of Mantel's widower, Gerald McEwen. Mantel's engagement books are monthly planners to cover appointment and events from 1989-1997. Ephemera includes printed items by and about Hilary Mantel, research materials, variants of cover art, publisher publicity for Mantel's books, and literature about various festivals and lectures with which Mantel has been involved. Of note are some materials relating to Mantel's life in Saudi Arabia, influential in her novel Eight Months on Ghazzah Street : an Arabic calendar, maps of Jeddah and a psychological evaluation of Mantel and her husband, Gerald McEwen. Audio tapes and CDs include interviews with Hilary Mantel, readings from her novels, and various radio programs Mantel wrote for or was involved with. Photographs include snapshots and professional portraits of Hilary Mantel and others. Some photographs appear to have been taken for book jackets. Scope and Content Note -- Part II The manuscripts in Part II include articles, short stories, interviews, and research, notes, and drafts for various novels, including Giving Up the Ghost and the first two novels in Mantel's Thomas Cromwell trilogy: Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies. This material includes numerous drafts of the novels, play scripts and television adaptations based on the novels. The correspondence includes Business Correspondence and Personal Correspondence; the Business Correspondence contains letters and emails from Mantel's publishers, agents, newspapers and magazines, and a large number of requests for Mantel to speak at various conferences and events. The Personal Correspondence is mainly letters and emails from family, friends and personal fan letters. There are a number of topics covered extensively in both correspondence series: Endometriosis, Mantel's Booker Prize wins in 2009 and 2012, Mantel's work being plagiarized in 2005 by Judith Kelly in her memoir Rock Me Gently and the controversy caused by Mantel in her "Royal Bodies" comments in 2013. This material also includes a small number of photographs, mainly snapshots and studio portraits, CDs and ephemera. The ephemera contains material about festivals, lectures, honorary degrees, financial reports and annotated envelopes; also included are a small number of engagement diaries. Scope and Content Note -- Part III The manuscripts in Part III include articles, book reviews, short stories, lectures and talks, interviews, and research, notes, and drafts for the third Cromwell novel The Mirror and the Light. There are also notes, research, and early drafts for Mantel's final unfinished novel about Jane Austen entitled Provocation. The material also includes business and personal correspondence, diaries, family papers, photographs, audiovisual, and ephemera.
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Manuscripts
This collection contains the papers of Jane Porter and includes the family correspondence of Jane Porter, Robert Ker Porter, and Anna Maria Porter spanning the years 1795-1841. This collection has several very strong subject points for the purpose of research. The correspondence between the family members describes life amongst the gentry and literary figures during the Regency and early Victorian eras. Their letters also make clear the financial straits the family faced and the struggles they endured to maintain their expected (and desired) place in society. The correspondence is also strong in the area of social customs and traditional roles of women in the Regency era, though both Jane and Anna Maria stood somewhat outside those roles as they were, with their writing, the main source of financial support for the family for many years. The letters also describe the social and economic changes in England over a span of fifty years. A number of the letters, particularly those of Robert Ker Porter, were written from Russia, Europe, and South America and provide an "Englishman's view" of the places he visited. The collection does have some areas of weakness. There is a definite lack of manuscript material for Jane, Anna Maria, and Robert Ker Porter; there are no manuscripts of their most well known novels and works. Also, entire years of correspondence are lacking, especially letters from Robert Ker Porter during various periods of his life. The papers consist of the following series: 1. Manuscripts and Documents (Boxes 1-4) are arranged alphabetically by author and title. The manuscripts consist mainly of notes, essays, reviews, and business documents written by Jane Porter, 1776-1850. There is also a small number of autograph manuscripts written by Anna Maria, Robert Ker Porter and others. Both Anna Maria and Jane Porter wrote poems and essays which they included in letters to various addressees; these poems and essays are noted on the outside of the folders, as well as in the Added Entries section of this Finding Aid. 2. Correspondence (Boxes 5-52) is arranged alphabetically by author. This series consists mainly of letters written between the Porter family and a small number written by others. The letters of Jane Porter, 1776-1850, begin early in her life and end just a short time before her death, thus spanning almost her entire life. The vast majority of the letters are personal but also included are business letters regarding the publication of the sisters' novels and articles. A large number of the business letters pertain to Robert Ker Porter: his debts, his travel books and artwork, and his diplomatic career. Jane Porter, 1776-1850, copied out the majority of these letters to send to her brother while he was traveling and living overseas. 3. Ephemera (Box 53) is arranged alphabetically by title. The ephemera consists mainly of miscellaneous envelopes and other items. There is one folder of unidentified manuscript fragments written by Jane Porter, 1776-1850, Anna Maria Porter, and others. The Ephemera also contains the spines and labels removed from the original volumes in which the letters were bound. 4. Oversize Manuscripts, Documents and Correspondence (Boxes 54-59) are arranged alphabetically by author. These items were removed from boxes 4-47 so the call numbers are not consecutive. Place holder cards were left in boxes 4-47 to indicate when an item was removed to an oversize box; each box label also indicates the specific oversize box or boxes to locate the items which were removed.
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Manuscripts
There are nearly three thousand separate manuscripts and manuscript notes in the Jack London Collection. As could be expected, the majority of the manuscripts are those written by Jack London himself. However, a significant number of the manuscripts in the collection were written by other persons: Charmian London, Sinclair Lewis, George Sterling, or others who sent London their work for his commentary or were paid to dramatize Jack London stories. A complete listing of all the manuscripts in the collection is available in the Jack London Register of Manuscripts -- a separate, bound volume located in the reference stacks or by request from the Manuscripts Department. However, in summary, the collection contains written notes, typewritten or holograph versions of almost everything Jack London wrote. The following books are represented in the manuscript collection: The Abysmal Brute, The Acorn Planter, Adventure (including the notes), The Assassination Bureau Ltd., Before Adam, Burning Daylight, Cherry (including a number of variant versions augmented by Charmian London and Jack London's original holographic version), The Cruise of the Snark, Dutch Courage ("Whose Business is to Live" only), Hearts of Three, The House of Pride (including some original artwork for "Koolau the Leper"), The Human Drift ("Nothing That Ever Came to Anything") and "A Classic of the Sea" are not included), The Iron Heel, Jerry of the Islands, John Barleycorn, The Kempton-Wace Letters (incomplete), The Little Lady of the Big House, Lost Face ("Flush of Gold" is not included), Love of Life ("Love of Life" and "The Story of Keesh" are not included), Martin Eden, Michael, Brother of Jerry, Moon Face (only "All Gold Canyon" and "Planchette" are available), The Mutiny of the Elsinore, The Night-Born (except "Winged Blackmail" and "Under the Deck Awnings"), On the Makaloa Mat (except "On the Makaloa Mat"), The Red One ("The Hussy" only), Revolution and Other Essays ("The Dignity of Dollars," "The Golden Poppy," "The Shrinkage of the Planet" and "Foma Gordyeeff" are not included), The Road, The Sea-Wolf, Scorn of Women, Smoke Bellew, A Son of the Sun, South Sea Tales, The Star-Rover, The Strength of the Strong (except "The Enemy of All the World" and "The Dream of Debs"), Theft, The Turtles of Tasman (except "The First Poet"), The Valley of the Moon, War of the Classes (Table of Contents and Preface only), White Fang, and A Wicked Woman. London's manuscripts are arranged by title for each individual piece however. Thus a short story collection such as The Son of the Sun is scattered throughout the manuscripts according to the title of each individual story. The collection is also rich in manuscript material written by Charmian London. Included are a number of manuscript versions of The Book of Jack London, Our Hawaii, The Log of the Snark and Charmian's ending to Eyes of Asia (Cherry). Other notable manuscripts include Charmian's notes for "Us" which later became The Book of Jack London. Also notable are her diaries from 1900-1947. The diaries were previously restricted and readers were required to obtain special permission from the Jack London estate. As of 2004, these restrictions have been lifted and the diaries are available for use without special permission. Among the manuscripts not written by the London family are those by: ATHERTON, Frank. "My Boyhood Days with Jack London." A somewhat unreliable, but nonetheless important reminiscence of Jack London's early days in Oakland. FOX, Barry. "Nakata, Son of Jack London." An article about one of Jack London's later Japanese servants. JENSEN, Emil. "Jack London at Stewart River." Recollections of London's months in the Klondike. LEWIS, Sinclair. "Plot Summaries." Some seventeen ideas for stories and novels which Sinclair Lewis sold to Jack London between 1911 and 1913. MORRELL, Edward. "Statement ... made to Jack London ..." An account of Morrell's prison experiences which London used as the basis for The Star-Rover. OPPENHEIMER, Jacob. "The Prison Tiger." Another prison story, which London incorporated into The Star-Rover. STERLING, George. Poems. Some 128 poems, some holograph, some typed, most signed, which George Sterling sent to Jack London during the many years of their friendship. THOMPSON, Fred. "Diary of Yukon Experiences." A copy of the diary which Thompson made during his trek to Dawson City with Jack London in 1897. WALLING, Anna Strunsky. "The Kempton-Wace Letters." Anna Walling's notes and writings about the book she and Jack London wrote in 1903.
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Manuscripts
The collection consists of screenplays, literary manuscripts, correspondence, photographs, awards and ephemera of Hollywood screenwriter Sonya Levien. The papers consist of the following series: Screenplays (Boxes 1-16), while not consisting of Sonya Levien's total output of seventy films, does cover the entire span of her career, from A Girl of the Circus (1925) to Jeanne Eagels (1956). The screenplays also include a draft written by William Faulkner, Drums Along the Mohawk, Sonya's Oscar award-winning screenplay Interrupted Melody written with William Ludwig, and a final draft of Joseph and His Brethren written by Clifford Odets. Another script, A Woman of My Own, was a collaboration between Sonya Levien and Zoë Akins. Besides screenplays the series includes a novella written by Sonya entitled The Man Who Lived Alone, as well as, four engagement books for the years 1916, 1917, 1921 and 1924. The materials are filed alphabetically except for the oversized screenplays which are stored in Box 16. Correspondence and literary manuscripts (other than screenplays) (Boxes 17-30), are arranged alphabetically by author. They include some personal letters but are mainly business related. There are also business letters relating to the Metropolitan magazine and Carl Hovey as editor and correspondent. This series also includes original essays and articles written by Sonya Levien and others. Photographs (Box 31), are arranged by subject and date. Included are photos of Sonya Levien, covering the years c.1900-pre1961. This series also includes a large photo collection of American and British Suffrage Activists. Ephemera (Box 32) is arranged by folder number. It holds lists, clippings, concert programs, signed playbills, notes on the Suffrage movement and a guestbook. Awards (Box 33). The awards are the Christopher Award for Quo Vadis (1952), The Screen Directors Guild of America Award (1958), and, the first ever presented, Screen Writers Guild, Laurel for Achievement (1953). Awards Oversize (Box 34) are arranged alphabetically and by size. They include twelve "Box Office Blue Ribbon Awards" covering the years 1933 to 1956 for various films; the Interracial Unity Award for Cass Timberlane (1948); the Photoplay Magazine Award for Top Ten Box Office for The Green Years (1946); the mounted certificate of Nomination from the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences for Interrupted Melody (1955); from Books & Authors for The Great Caruso (1951), and various awards from the Screen Writers of America (1951-1962). Ephemera & Photograph Oversize (Box 35) are arranged alphabetically and by size. It includes one oversize photograph (HM 74388), copies of the suffrage activist paper The Woman's Dreadnought, clippings about Sonya Levien's life and work, and various articles written by Sonya Levien or by Carl Hovey. 13. Artifacts (Box 36, not boxed) include the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences Award (the "Oscar" statuette) for William Ludwig and Sonya Levien for writing the story and screenplay of Interrupted Melody (1955). Another artifact is a motion picture film of Sonya Levien and friends, ca. 1935-pre1961 (unedited master, edited copy and a VHS videotape copy). This collection has several strong subject points for the purpose of research. In the screenplay series there are instances of 2-3 drafts of a screenplay, enabling a researcher to trace the creative process of writing a movie script. The collection is also strong in the area of women's suffrage, with such materials as letters, photos, essays, articles and the suffrage newspaper the Woman's Dreadnought. The collection also contains the correspondence of Harold Marsh Harwood and Fryniwyd Tennyson Jesse which recounts life in England and surviving the Blitz during World War II. The collection does have some areas of weakness. There is a definite lack of Sonya Levien's personal correspondence as there is little mention of Sonya's children or her husband, Carl Hovey. There is also a lack of material dealing with Sonya's early life or her work as a lawyer. The collection does have several photos of Sonya as a child and photos of her Law School class but no manuscript material.
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Manuscripts
This collection contains the personal and professional papers of American author Conrad Aiken. The collection includes his correspondence (chiefly letters addressed to him), dealing with his business and literary affairs, manuscripts of his works, with some photographs and ephemera. The manuscripts include poems published in "Skylight One" (1949), "The Divine Pilgrim" (1949), "A Letter from Li Po" (1955), "Sheepfold Hill" (1955), "The Morning Song of Lord Zero" (1963); "The Clerk's Journal: Being the Diary of a Queer Man" (1911)" a notebook (1911-1925) containing literary notes, addresses, etc. essays, notes, the first draft of Aiken's autobiography, etc. Correspondents include: Jane Aiken Hodge, Joan Aiken, John Aiken, Mary Augusta Hoover Aiken, William Ford Aiken, Rufus Blanshard, Brandt & Brandt (firm), D. G. Bridson, Edward John Burra, Horatio Colony, Malcolm Cowley, Richard Eberhart, T. S. Eliot, Jean Garrigue, Erich Heller, Dame Laura Knight, Seymour Lawrence, Malcolm Lowry, Grayson Prevost McCouch, Jay Martin , Henry Alexander Murray, Howard Nemerov, Allen Tate, Kempton Potter Aiken Taylor, Louis Untermeyer, and others. The collection includes: Manuscripts by Conrad Aiken: A wealth of original autograph and typescript drafts is to be found in the collection. The majority consists of manuscripts of poems published in Skylight One (1949), The Divine Pilgrim (1949), A Letter from Li Po (1955), Sheepfold Hill (1955), and The Morning Song of Lord Zero (1963) The Clerk's Journal: Being the Diary of a Queer Man (16 pp.; Jan. 9, 1911), an original autograph manuscript of the poem written for an English course at Harvard University (AIK 2798). The manuscript includes marginal comments by the instructor, Le Baron Russell Briggs, and is accompanied by the proof sheets for the 1971 edition and an early (1970)draft of Aiken's preface, entitled "A Short Memoir of Harvard, Dean Briggs, T. S. Eliot, in 1911" (AIK 3644) The Conversation; or Pilgrim's Progress (226 pp.; ca. 1940), the first type script of the novel. AIK 3393 Mr. Arcularis (1946 to ca. 1952), eleven drafts of the short story/play. In 1946 Diana Hamilton's dramatization of Aiken's short story was produced at the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith, London, under the title Fear No More. Deemed a failure by its producers, the play was revised. Hamilton, however, was suffering from brain cancer, so Aiken made the extensive changes leading to its production at the Arena Stage in Washington, D.C., May 8-27, 1951. Following further revisions, the play was published by Harvard University Press in 1957. The collection also contains four versions of Hamilton's Fear No More. AIK 3774-3784 Nine Poems (9 pp.; 1952), typewritten manuscript with a few autograph corrections of a piece published in the Aiken commemorative issue of Wake, acquired by the Huntington in 1984. AIK 4714 Notebook (one volume; 1911-1925), containing literary notes, addresses, etc. AIK 3588 The Soldier (29 pp.; ca. 1945), the first draft of the poem, written in pencil in a composition book. AIK 3399 Time in the Rock (112 pp.; ca. 1936), the first draft of the poem, typewritten with numerous autograph revisions. AIK 3698 The Tinsel Circuit (33 pp.; 1916), the original version of a group of 19 poems. Aiken published slightly revised versions of the seven poems as "Vaudeville Suite" in the fall, 1955, issue of the Carolina Quarterly. Nine of the poems were later revised extensively and published in The Morning Song of Lord Zero (1963). AIK 3699 Ushant: An Essay (319 pp.; 1951-1952), Aiken's autobiography, the most important item in the collection . This is the first draft, with extensive autograph revisions in ink and pencil. Also, fragmentary notes for the autobiography (eleven pieces; ca. 1946); and Ushant: An Intermediate Fragment (7 pp.; 1952), a typescript draft with autograph corrections of the text published in the Aiken commemorative issue of Wake (acquired by the Huntington in 1984). (Volume 2: AIK 3401); 4187; 4715. II. Manuscripts by others Clarice (Lorenz) Aiken. Lorelei Two (18 pp.), outline of an autobiography by Conrad Aiken's second wife, acquired in 1984. AIK 4765. William Ford Aiken. Eighty-nine manuscripts of poems and essays by Conrad Aiken's father, a Savannah physician, amateur poet, and inventor. Included in his manuscripts is "Isolation," a poem found after the murder- suicide of Dr. Aiken and Anna Aiken (Potter) Aiken. AIK 2917-3003. Malcolm Cowley. "The Blown Door," typescript of poem in letter to Conrad Aiken, Nov. 5, 1955. AIK 327. Graham Greene. Typewritten reviews of Aiken's King Coffin and Great Circle. AIK 3410. Clarence Malcolm Lowry. "Spiderweb," "Alcoholic," "Dark Path," and "Sonnet," four early poems sent to Conrad Aiken, 1929. AIK 2489. ------ "The doom of each, said Doctor Usquebaugh ...," typewritten poem enclosed in a letter to Aiken, Apr. 9, 1940. AIK 2488. "Tom, by airmale," notes for a poem? AIK 2490. ------ Ultramarine (1 volume; ca. 1929), part of an early draft of the novel, with autograph revisions by Aiken. Also, three pages of notes for chapter one, and a single page of an early draft. (Volume 1: AIK 3381). ------ "Work for Conrad" (2 pp.; 1937), four poems written for Aiken. AIK 3418. ------ "To Seymour Lawrence" (16 pp.; Nov. 28- Dec. 4, 1951), corrected typescript of letter about Aiken published in the commemorative issue of Wake, acquired by the Huntington in 1984. AIK 4751. Correspondence Significant correspondents include: Mary Augusta (Hoover) Aiken (b. 1907) is Conrad Aiken's third wife, married in 1937. The collection includes 70 letters and one telegram from Mary to Conrad between 1936 and 1955, the majority written in 1947 while Mary was in Rye, Sussex, England, seeing to the sale of Jeake's House and reporting to Conrad at Forty-one Doors in Brewster, Massachusetts (AIK 3291-3361) . Also included are 190 letters from Conrad to Mary, written from 1936 to 1973, with most again dating from 1947. The lively exchanges provide insight into the Aikens' relationship as well as the details of day-to-day life in Rye and Brewster (AIK 3099-3288). Of special literary interest are Conrad's letters of 1939, which contain drafts of sonnets published in And in the Human Heart. William Ford Aiken (d. 1901). Of the many letters written by Conrad Aiken's father to various family members, the most interesting are 34 sent to his parents while he studied medicine in Europe in 1886-1887 (AIK 2827-2860). Brandt & Brandt, Aiken's American agents. Publishing and related literary business details regarding Aiken's works are covered in 36 letters to Aiken between 1934 and 1976 (AIK 153-180, 1655, 2008-2009, 3405-3406, 3921-3922, 4613) and in one letter to the firm from Aiken in 1958 (AIK 4174). Edward John Burra (1905-1976) , English surrealist painter who lived in Rye and was a close, life-long friend of Aiken's. Their warm, humorous correspondence is replete with personal and social details and anecdotes, covering the period from the 1930s to the 1970s in 200 letters by Burra (AIK 2197-2392, 3940-3942) and 109 by Aiken (AIK 2397, 3097-3098, 4266-4372). The collection also contains 3 letters to Jay H. Martin (AIK 4615-4617) from Burra. Malcolm Cowley (b. 1898). Sixty long, frequently humorous letters written from 1935 to 1973 reflect the warm Cowley-Aiken friendship. Cowley writes thoughtfully and at length on Aiken's poetry and on Ushant, and he records his outspoken comments on many literary matters relating to other authors, such as Faulkner, Hemingway, Eliot, Pound, Randall Jarrell, Delmore Schwartz, Thomas Wolfe, Malcolm Lowry, and others (AIK 328-377, 3969-3978). John Davenport (1908-1966), English reviewer of modern literature. The correspondence includes 18 letters by Davenport, 1935 to 1965 (AIK 392-409). Conrad Aiken's 72 letters, covering the same time period,are especially valuable for details of his literary and other activities during the 1940's (AIK 3789-3859, 4205). Highlights are long references to Malcolm Lowry and Under the Volcano, as well as mention of John Burra, Ezra Pound, and Aiken's Mr. Arcularis. Thomas Stearns Eliot (1888-1965). A fine series of 65 letters, 1914-1963, to Aiken reflecting their close friendship (AIK 485-549). Of particular significance are the revealing and introspective early letters. This correspondence contains verses by the young Eliot, as well as his comments about his own writing and his opinions of Aiken's works. Later letters deal with literary business concerning Aiken's contributions to Criterion. Eleven letters by Valerie (Fletcher) Eliot, 1960-1970, include references to Eliot and Ezra Pound (AIK 550-559, 3987). Maurice Firuski (1894-1978)was a friend and classmate of Aiken at Harvard; in 1919 he became the proprietor of Dunster House Bookshop in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and later of Housatonic Bookshop in Salisbury, Connecticut. The 16 letters from Firuski (AIK 579-593, 3993) and an extraordinary series of 83 letters by Aiken between 1920 and 1973 reveal much concerning Aiken's personal and literary life (AIK 921-1002, 4407). Seymour Lawrence (b. 1926), editor and publisher of Wake, editor at the Atlantic Monthly Press, and founder and president of Seymour Lawrence, Inc. Eight letters (1948-1953) from Lawrence to Conrad and Mary Aiken chiefly concern the 1952 Aiken commemorative issue of Wake (AIK 696-703). A 1984 acquisition brought to the Huntington 33 letters from Aiken to Lawrence, 1952-1953 (AIK 4716-4748), as well as correspondence about the issue from Frederick Newton Arvin, Richard Palmer Blackmur, Archibald MacLeish, Marianne Moore, Walter Piston, and Edmund Wilson. Manuscripts submitted for the issue by Conrad Aiken and Malcolm Lowry are listed above in the Manuscripts section. Robert Newton Linscott (1886-1964), editor at Houghton Mifflin Company and Random House. Of the 40 lively, entertaining letters to Aiken, 1919-1961, those for the 1920s have particular value for the contemporary literary scene (AIK 704-742, 2805). Clarence Malcolm Lowry (1909-1957). The young Lowry became fascinated with Aiken's writing and visited him in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in August, 1929. In that year Aiken became Lowry's guardian, and the two remained close until Lowry's death. The collection contains important files of 53 letters (1929- 1954) from Lowry (AIK 2493-2538, 2540-2546) and 15 letters (1939-1954) written by Aiken (AIK 2549-2562, 4785). The correspondence attests to their long, close friendship and is excellent for personal and literary details of Lowry's life. Grayson Prevost McCouch, "Old Bird," Aiken's classmate from Middlesex School, Concord, and Harvard. Their long friendship is represented in 15 letters (ca. 1925-1977) from McCouch to Conrad and Mary Aiken (AIK 1108-1115, 4062-4067, 4629) and in 53 letters (1911-1973) by Aiken (AIK 4408-4458, 4835, 3875). David Merrill Markson (b. 1927), author and friend of Malcolm Lowry. There are 11 letters from Markson to Conrad and Mary Aiken (1954-1973; AIK 1136-1144, 4069-4070), and in 1984 the collection increased by 45 letters from Aiken to David and Elaine Markson (AIK 4786-4830). Much social and some literary news is recounted, and the early letters contain references to Lowry. Jay H. Martin (b. 1935). After seeking Aiken's advice about writing poetry, Martin became a close friend and later wrote a major critical study of Aiken. The correspondence includes 53 letters by Martin (AIK 1169-1219, 4072-4073) and 101 by Aiken dating from the early 1950s to 1970s and is interesting for Aiken's retrospective comments about his own poetry (AIK 4581-4582, 4482-4578, 4704-4705). John Orley Allen Tate (1899-1979). Personal and literary matters are discussed in 105 letters to Conrad and Mary Aiken written between 1949 and 1973 (AIK 1751-1843, 4132-4136, 4139-4141) and in a 1973 letter from Aiken to Tate (AIK 3876). The Sewanee Review is mentioned, as well as such literary figures as Eliot and Lowry. Kempton Potter Aiken Taylor (b. 1893), Conrad Aiken's brother, adopted in 1901 by Frederick Winslow Taylor. An intimate and revealing look at the brothers is provided in 62 letters (1912-1973) by Taylor (AIK 2878, 1841-1903, 2415-2417, 4144) and 106 letters (1931-1972) by Aiken (AIK 1904-2007, 2144-2145). Louis Untermeyer (1885-1977). These lively, often cordially disputatious letters between Untermeyer and Aiken feature frank and detailed analyses of their own and one another's work. Many other authors and literary matters are also dealt with, energetically and at length, in 52 letters (1919-1973) by Untermeyer (AIK 838-888, 4154) and in Aiken's 20 letters written between 1954 and 1969, acquired by the Huntington in 1982 (AIK 4679-4698). Additional correspondents of note: Leonie (Fuller) Adams, 12 letters and telegrams, 1948-1973. AIK 1-11, AIK 3385. James Agee, 1 letter, 1931. AIK 13. Martin Donisthorpe Armstrong, 5 letters, 1914-1929. AIK 47-51. Gordon Bassett, 5 letters, 1940-1951. AIK 74-78. John Berryman, 3 letters, 1953-1964. AIK 84-86. George Biddle, 7 letters, 1956-1969. AIK 89-94, 3912. Katherine Garrison (Chapin) Biddle, 12 letters, 1952-1973. AIK 2605-2613, AIK 3913-3915. Elizabeth Bishop, 3 letters, 1949-1950. AIK 96-98. Richard Palmer Blackmur, 5 letters, 1931-1961. AIK 100-103, AIK 4750. Rufus Anderson Blanshard, 18 letters, 1956-1973. AIK 104-120, AIK 3916. Maxwell Bodenheim, 7 letters, 1918-1919. AIK 127-133. Alain Bosquet, 9 letters, 1955-1962. AIK 137-145. Douglas Geoffrey Bridson, 16 letters, 1951-1973. AIK 192-204, AIK 3930-3932. Cleanth Brooks, 6 letters, 1953-1956. AIK 209-214. Van Wyck Brooks, 6 letters, 1921-1923. AIK 2625-2629, AIK 4614. Winifred Bryher, 4 letters, 1933-1951. AIK 218-221. Kenneth Duva Burke, 4 letters, 1964-1972. AIK 224-226, AIK 3937. Witter Bynner, 1 letter, 1955. AIK 236. Princess Marguerite Gaetani, 2 letters, 1948? AIK 1728-1729. Gordon Cairnie, 7 letters, 1951-1969. AIK 237-241, AIK 3946-3947. Huntington Cairns, 8 letters, ca. 1949-1973. AIK 242-248, AIK 3948. Horatio Colony, 16 letters, 1935-1973. AIK 292-304, AIK 3961-3963. Cyril Vernon Connolly, 2 letters, 1945-1947. AIK 308-309. Evelyn Dagnall (of A.M. Heath and co.), 12 letters, 1946-1952. AIK 1332-1343. Hilda Doolittle, 11 letters, 1933-1935. AIK 421-431. Edward Doro, 3 letters, 1971-1973. AIK 432-433, 3984. Richard Eberhart, 25 letters, 1943-1951. AIK 446-470. Luther Harris Evans, 5 letters, 1947-1953. AIK 561-565. John Gould Fletcher, 7 letters, 1931-1948. AIK 594-600. Ford Madox Ford, 1 letter, 1931. AIK 607. John Freeman, 6 letters, 1920-ca. 1930. AIK 611-616. Robert Lee Frost, 2 letters, 1922-1923. AIK 619-620. Jean Garrigue, 14 letters, ca. 1949-ca. 1973. AIK 2662-2675. Diana Hamilton, 4 letters, 1946. AIK 1737-1740. A.M. Heath and company, Ltd. (Aiken's English agents), 6 letters, 1947-1957. AIK 649-653, AIK 2680. Erich Heller, 16 letters, 1953-1973. AIK 1012-1025, AIK 4018-4019. Robert Silliman Hillyer, 4 letters, 1930-ca. 1949. AIK 659-662. Catharine Huntington, 7 letters, 1949-ca. 1974. AIK 2706-2709, AIK 4037-4039. Ernst and Eithne (Wilkins) Kaiser, 10 letters, 1954-1964. AIK 2715-2724. Neva Goodwin (Rockefeller) Kaiser, 22 letters, 1966-ca. 1974. AIK 1346-1364. Weldon Kees, 5 letters, 1949-1954. AIK 690-694. Harold and Dame Laura (Johnson) Knight, 25 letters, 1932-1963. AIK 1043, AIK 1045-1069. Alfred Kreymborg, 4 letters, 1919-1922. AIK 2726-2729. Alexis Saint-Leger Leger, 1 letter, 1958. AIK 2733. Amy Lowell, 5 letters, 1921-1922. AIK 744-748. Robert Traill Spence Lowell, 4 letters, 1947-1956. AIK 2735-2738. Archibald MacLeish, 4 letters, 1949-ca. 1955. AIK 750-752, AIK 4752. Katherine Mansfield, 1 letter, 1921. AIK 753. Harold Edward and Alida (Klemantaski) Monro, 10 letters, 1930-1935. AIK 754-763. Marianne Moroe, 6 letters, 1951-1952. AIK 4753-4758. Nicholas Moore, 4 letters, 1942-1947. AIK 1246-1249. Lawrence Quincy Mumford, 5 letters, 1955-1968. AIK 765-769. Lewis Mumford, 5 letters, 1952-1972. AIK 1253-1256, AIK 4080. Henry Alexander Murray, 32 letters, 1931-ca. 1974. AIK 2754, 1257-1284, AIK 4081-4083. Paul Nash, 13 letters, 1934-1945. AIK 2755-2767. Howard Nemerov, 17 letters, 1963-1973. AIK 1296-1311, AIK 4087. Charles Norman, 3 letters, 1945-1961. AIK 770-772. Norreys Jephson O'Conor, 2 letters, 1948-1952. AIK 1382-1383. Oxford University Press, 17 letters, 1949-1973. AIK 1387-1403, AIK 4090-4091. Charles A. Pearce, 7 letters, 1948-1951. AIK 1411-1417. Norman Holmes Pearson, 2 letters, 1952-1971. AIK 773-774. Clover Pertinez, 24 letters, 1948-1971. AIK 1422-1442, 2413-2414, AIK 1443-1448. Charles Horace Philbrick, 31 letters, 1958-1971. AIK 1455-1485. Walter Piston, 7 letters, 1931-ca. 1974. AIK 1491-1496, AIK 4759. Katherine Anne Porter, 1 letter, 1952. AIK 1512. Alfred Claghorn Potter, 27 letters, 1925-1940. AIK 1515-1541. Ezra Loomis Pound, 2 letters, 1914-ca. 1934. AIK 1554-1555. Ivor Armstrong Richards, 9 letters, 1966-1973. AIK 780-783, AIK 4100-4104. Edwin Arlington Robinson, 6 letters, 1922-1923. AIK 1581-1586. Robert Alden Sanborn, 1 letter, 1923. AIK 2782. Mark Scharer, 11 letters, 1946-1973. AIK 790-796, 4109-4112. Delmore Schwartz, 6 letters, 1942-1956. AIK 784-789. Karl Jay Shapiro, 14 letters, 1945-1953. AIK 802-814. Theodore Spencer, 5 letters, 1930-1948. AIK 816-820. Wallace Stevens, 2 letters, 1922-1952. AIK 825-826. John Lincoln and Maire Sweeney, 23 letters, 1955-1975. AIK 1674-1691, AIK 4126-4130. Thurairajah Tambimuttu, 11 letters, 1948-1972. AIK 828-836, AIK 1750, AIK 4131. James Thurber, 2 letters, 1951-1952. AIK 4761-4762. Mark Albert Van Doren, 1 letter, 1951. AIK 4763. Robert Penn Warren, 5 letters, 1960-1970. AIK 899-903. George B. Wilbur, 20 letters, 1922-ca. 1974. AIK 2111-2122, AIK 4162-4169. Oscar Williams, 6 letters, 1941-1964. AIK 905-910. William Carlos Williams, 4 letters, 1919-1952. AIK 911-914. Edmund Wilson, 4 letters, 1951-1954. AIK 916-918, AIK 4764. The collection also includes some audio recordings and films, photographs, ephemera, honorary awards, engagement books, financial records, publishing, theatrical and musical agreements, copies of reviews, and guardianship papers and receipts collected by Aiken's guardian.
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Manuscripts
This collection contains the papers of British-American writer Christopher Isherwood, chiefly dating from the 1920s to the 1980s. This part of the collection consists of scripts, literary manuscripts, correspondence, photographs, ephemera, audio-visual material, and Isherwood's library, the archive is an exceptionally rich resource for research on Isherwood, as well as W.H. Auden, Stephen Spender and others. Subjects documented in the collection include homosexuality and gay rights, pacifism, and Vedanta. The Christopher Isherwood Papers were cataloged over a span of 10 years and multiple acquisitions, resulting in a collection organized by accretion, with each new acquisition added on in sequence at the end of the collection, rather than interspersed with similar or related materials. Therefore, each separate acquisition must be searched in order to locate all of the relevant manuscripts or correspondence by a particular author. Similarly, the collection was cataloged by multiple catalogers, so styles, levels of detail and format vary throughout the collection and finding aid. Scripts (Boxes 1-9) The majority of scripts are by Isherwood, and there are quite a few collaborative efforts, e.g., Below the Equator and Jacob's Hands with Aldous Huxley; and Frankenstein, A Meeting By the River and other titles with Don Bachardy. There are also drafts of the early Auden-Isherwood collaborations The Dog Beneath the Skin and The Enemies of a Bishop. Literary Manuscripts (Boxes 10-84) The archive includes manuscripts for most of Isherwood's works. The largest exception is the manuscripts for The Berlin Stories, which are not present. High points include multiple drafts for A Single Man, The World in the Evening, Down There On a Visit, Christopher and His Kind, A Meeting By the River, The Memorial, and My Guru and His Disciple. Isherwood's "Writing Notebook" (CI 1158) is very rich, containing long series of notes on the writing of The World in the Evening and Down There On a Visit. For example, he spent seven years working and re- working The World in the Evening, a process that included many conversations about the novel with his friends Dodie Smith and Alec Beesley. The "Writing Notebook" includes accounts of those conversations, in addition to notes reflecting his own thoughts about writing the novel. An extensive series of notes for lecture that Isherwood presented at universities in southern California contains highly important information on Isherwood's views on literature, Vedanta, and his own place in 20th-century letters. Isherwood and W.H. Auden enjoyed a deep, life-long friendship and, beginning in their youth, they exchanged thoughts about literature and their reactions to one another's writings. Isherwood exerted a profound effect on Auden's poems, suggesting alterations on many occasions. Because of Isherwood and Auden's close literary interaction, Auden gave many poems to Isherwood. These verses, some unpublished, are in the Isherwood Papers, along with an extraordinary notebook containing drafts of early Auden poetry (some unpublished). Of special note is the journal that Isherwood and Auden kept jointly on their trip to Asia in 1938, later published as Diary of a Trip to Asia. Correspondence (Boxes 10-84) The collection is rich in letters to Isherwood, most notably from W.H. Auden and Stephen Spender. The Auden letters are superb and, together with poetry manuscripts, form a body of original material that is equaled only by the manuscripts held in the Berg Collection at the New York Public Library. The letters from Stephen Spender are excellent and form a long body of communication about literary and editorial matters, both his own and Isherwood's. Spender sold Isherwood's letters to the Bancroft Library, so the two halves of the correspondence are housed in northern and southern California. A superb series of letters from E.M. Forster bespeaks the closeness of his friendship with Isherwood, as well as his position as mentor to the younger writer, who greatly admired the older writer. In addition to literary and social matters, Forster's letters include descriptions of the effects of bombing on England during World War Two. Most notably, several letters address Forster's request that Isherwood oversee publication of Maurice after Forster's death. Correspondence from other major literary figures includes letters by Truman Capote, Somerset Maugham, J.D. Salinger, Gore Vidal and Tennessee Williams. An extensive series of letters from dance impresario Lincoln Kirstein fully and wittily document his time in the military, stationed in Germany during World War Two. The longest set of letters by Isherwood is the series to his mother Kathleen Bradshaw-Isherwood, which are long and filled with important information about his activities and his thoughts. These letters have been published: Colletta, Lisa, ed., Kathleen and Christopher: Christopher Isherwood's Letters to His Mother (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2005). Apart from this series, Part I of the collection contains relatively few letters by Isherwood. Diaries (Box 85) This box of five volumes includes trips to Greece (1933) and South America (1947-1948), a volume of ideas for stories, and daily diaries (1935-1938 and 1979). Please note: this box of diaries does not have any restrictions of access or use. Addenda (Boxes 86-90) The Addenda material came to the Library in 2000 and was cataloged over the next several years. It consists, mainly, of literary correspondence, interviews and manuscripts by W.H. Auden, Don Bachardy, Ray Bradbury, Christopher Isherwood, Ken Maley, Stephen Spender, and Edward Upward. The Isherwood manuscripts include drafts of Christopher and His Kind, Down There on a Visit and The World in the Evening. Photographs (Boxes 91-114) There are about 1,800 photographs in Part I of the collection, chiefly depicting Christopher Isherwood and Don Bachardy. The majority of the photographs are the work of professional photographers and therefore under copyright, so researchers wishing to publish or make use of them must seek the appropriate permission. Ephemera (Boxes 115-122) Among the ephemera are flyers and publicity for the Auden-Isherwood collaborations, for productions of Cabaret, and for stagings of adaptations of Isherwood's novels. There are also Isherwood's datebooks and address books, published interviews, clippings by and about Isherwood, about his writings, and about others, and miscellaneous printed material. There is also important material that documents homosexuality and the gay rights movement. Audiovisual Material (Boxes 123-135) The audiovisual material contains 3, 5 and 7" magnetic tapes, audiocassettes, VHS and Betamax tapes and three films. The magnetic tapes include Christopher Isherwood conferences, interviews, lectures and speeches; also included, among others, are Don Bachardy, Swami Prabhavananda, Dylan Thomas, and Edward Upward. Many of the tapes also have CD preservation copies and these are noted in the finding aid The audiocassettes include dramatizations of Christopher Isherwood's works, interviews and lectures, as well as a few other authors, including Edward Upward. A limited number of audiocassettes have CD preservation copies and these are noted in the finding aid. The VHS, Betamax tapes and films include interviews with Christopher Isherwood and Don Bachardy on the BBC and Dick Cavett television show, as well as an interview by Ariana Huffington; the tapes have DVD preservation copies and these are noted in the finding aid. The three films are still in process and are not available. Sealed Diaries and Scholar's Papers (Boxes 136-138) The eight daily diary volumes (1939-1970) are sealed until Jan. 1, 2030. The scholar's material includes essays, correspondence and photocopies; the material is sealed until 30 years after the date of each item.
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