Opening Hours
Daily: 10 A.M.–5 P.M.
Closed on Tuesdays
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108
Rare Books
The Voynich manuscript : "The most mysterious manuscript in the world"
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Rare Books
Image not available
Daily: 10 A.M.–5 P.M.
Closed on Tuesdays
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108
Image not available
Manuscripts
This collection contains the papers of Los Angeles author and gay activist Joseph Hansen and includes drafts of published and unpublished work; correspondence; manuscripts of works by some of Hansen's friends, family, and students; professional papers primarily related to publishing; and personal and family papers. The bulk of the material dates from the 1940s through the early 2000s. The collection includes works by Joseph Hansen, which consists of chiefly typescript drafts for most of Hansen's novels (including those published under the pseudonyms Rose Brock and James Colton), poetry, essays and articles, and television and play scripts. While there are some handwritten edits and corrections among the drafts and proofs, the majority do not have annotations. There are also two boxes with copies of various publications, primarily literary magazines and newspapers, containing Hansen's published work. There are two boxes with various manuscripts of work by friends and family of Hansen including poems by FrancEyE, and drafts of novels: In Search of Truth by Chris Gugas and People Talking to Themselves by Armine D. Mackenzie. There is also a ledger and manuscript by Belle Race from the early 1900s, who presumably was a relative of Hansen's wife Jane Bancroft Hansen. The correspondence in the collection includes both personal and professional letters sent and received by Hansen. There is a sizable amount of correspondence between Hansen and his publishers and agents including Collier Associates, Countryman Press; Holt, Rinehart & Winston; Harper & Row; the John Johnson Agency; Joan Kahn; and Penguin Books. In addition, there are also five folders of rejection letters sent to Hansen. Within Hansen's personal correspondence, notable correspondents include: British author Beryl Bainbridge, who befriended Hansen in the 1970s while Hansen was living in London; English composer and musician Richard Rodney Bennett; the publisher Brandon House, who put out Hansen's Colton books; gay filmmaker Arch Brown, who collaborated with Hansen on a playscript of Hansen's novel Backtrack, which was not produced; American crime fiction writer Dorothy Salisbury Davis, with whom Hansen corresponded regularly; poet, and girlfriend of Charles Bukowski, FrancEyE (aka Frances Dean Smith); American author Philip Gambone who published a profile of Hansen in Something Inside: Conversations with Gay Fiction Writers; poet and literary critic Diana Gioia; gay activist William "Billy" Glover, who worked at One magazine and after helped form the Homosexual Information Center in 1968; poet and literary critic William Harry Harding; gay activist Ross Ingersoll; poet Bill Mohr; critic Terry Teachout, who reviewed some of Hansen's novels; and crime writer Charles Ray Willeford. There are also insignificant pieces of correspondence from well-known individuals: James Blish, James Broughton, Sue Grafton, Tony Hillerman, George Plimpton, Julian Symons, and Andrew Vachss. Professional and personal materials include a variety of materials related to many different parts of Hansen's life, including business, publishing, and financial documents; miscellaneous ephemera, research materials; family papers, with writings and papers by Jane Bancroft Hansen as well as the Hansen's only child Daniel Hansen; press features on Hansen and reviews of his publications; materials related to Hansen's KFI radio program "Stranger from the Sea"; documents related to Hansen's teaching, chiefly at the UCLA extension school; miscellaneous materials related to Hansen's involvement with the gay community such as the Gay Community Services Center and the homosexual Information Center; and some materials related to his work on a 1970 issue of the literary magazine Beyond Baroque. The collection contains one box of photographs with images of Hansen throughout his life, as well as family members including Jane Bancroft Hansen and Daniel Hansen, and some friends and residences. The collection also contains approximately 70 drawings on paper presumably by Jane Hansen from the 1960s, of which many may have been created as part of art class.
mssHansen
![Chester mystery cycle : [manuscript]](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Frail.huntington.org%2FIIIF3%2FImage%2F22APN4YTTRRF%2Ffull%2F%5E360%2C%2F0%2Fdefault.jpg&w=750&q=75)
Manuscripts
ff. 6-150v. [Chester Mystery Cycle]. Incipit: Ego sum alpha et omega i, primus et novissimus. I god moste of maiestye/ in whom begininge none may bee. Explicit: therfore excuse you withowten were/ I may not well I wysse. Deo gratias. This ys the laste of all the xxiiiitie pageantes and playes, played by the xxiiites craftesmen of the Cyttie of Chester wrytten in the yeare of our lord god 1591 and in the xxxiiiith yeare of the reigne of our sovereigne Ladye queene Elizabeth, whom god preserve for ever Amen. Finis. [added in a different script:] By me Edward Gregorie scholler at Bunburye the yeare of our lord god 1591. Rubric: Drapers Playe. Incipit pagina secunda qualiter deus docuit mundum, Deus. English. IMEV 716. R. M. Lumiansky and D. Mills, eds., The Chester Mystery Cycle. EETS ss 3 (London 1974) , using this manuscript as the base text, collated against the 5 other manuscripts; HM 2 described in the introduction, pp. xii-xiv and in the notes, pp. 533-47. See also The Chester Mystery Cycle: a reduced facsimile of Huntington Library MS 2 with an introduction by R. M. Lumiansky and D. Mills (San Marino and the University of Leeds 1980). Other complete editions of the Chester cycle, including the Banns, by T. Wright for the Shakespeare Society (1843-47) and by H. Deimling and Dr. Matthews for EETS es 62, 115 (1892, 1916) ; for a list of the partial editions, see Lumiansky and Mills, EETS ss 3, pp. xli-xlii . This manuscript lacking the first 5 leaves (as shown by contemporary foliation); the missing text (the Banns and Play 1) supplied in HM 2 on the introductory ff. I-XII from London, Brit. Lib., Harley 2013 in the nineteenth century.
mssHM 2
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Manuscripts
The collection consists of the papers of Elizabeth Boynton Harbert. Chiefly correspondence, the collection also contains manuscripts (including diaries, address books of woman suffrage workers, poetry and music), printed matter and ephemera, large scrapbooks of newspaper clippings, some photographs, and an extensive collection of pamphlets and broadsides on the topic of woman suffrage.
mssHarbert
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Rare Books
"Handsomely illustrated with over 150 photos and with full-color inserts, Felix is a stylish account of the intrigue behind the creation and marketing of the most popular, well-executed, and lucrative cartoon of the silent era. Based on a combination of "Sammy Johnsin" (a Sambo caricature) and Charlie Chaplin, Felix the Cat was the first cartoon character to exhibit an individual "personality" in moving pictures, preceding Mickey Mouse by a decade. From 1919 to 1933 Felix was internationally celebrated, as popular as Chaplin and Buster Keaton. Felix's producer, Pat Sullivan, a journeyman artist, chronic alcoholic, and convicted rapist, claimed credit for creating and developing Felix. But, as John Canemaker discovered, in truth it was Otto Messmer, Sullivan's brilliant, self-effacing production manager, who conceived, animated, and directed the more than two hundred Felix films during the period of his greatest popularity. And by focusing on Messmer's amazing achievement, Canemaker illuminates the entire world of film animation in the years before Walt Disney."--Publisher description.
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