Rare Books
Letters to Christopher [by] Stephen Spender
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Stephen Spender
Manuscripts
The collection is comprised primarily of the manuscripts, correspondence, photographs, and ephemera of Paul Theroux. His works are often semi-autobiographical and are based on his experiences living and traveling around the world. He is noted for his rich, sometimes ironic, description of people and places. The material comprises almost his entire career as a writer and includes multiple drafts of various works from working notebooks to printed galleys. The collection includes novels (1967-2016), short story collections (1972-2014), non-fiction and travel books (1972-2016), and shorter works including reviews, articles, short stories, plays, and lectures (1960-2015); the collection also includes Theroux's working and travel notebooks (1968-2014). The collection also contains professional papers and business correspondence (1963-2015), with publishers, agents, other authors and reader's letters; included in this material are letters from, among others, Eve Auchincloss, Peter De Vries, Margaret Drabble, Nadine Gordimer, Graham Greene, Blanche C. Gregory, Hamish Hamilton Ltd., Houghton Mifflin Company, V.S. Naipaul, Jonathan Raban, Oliver Sacks, Muriel Spark, Stephen Spender, William Styron, and Auberon Waugh. There is also a smaller amount of family material and personal correspondence (1939-2015), with family and friends; this correspondence includes Eugene Theroux, Alexander Theroux, Peter Theroux, Marcel Theroux, Louis Theroux, Anne Theroux, and various other family members. The ephemera consists of photographs, printed material and magazines (1941-1915).
mssTheroux
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Stephen Woodlin letters to family
Manuscripts
Set of 14 letters sent by Stephen Woodin to his family in Genoa, New York, from 1849-1853, while he was traveling to or living in California. The majority of the letters were written to his wife and children, and one to his brother George Woodin (HM 19382). In the first letter, Woodin describes his lodgings in Panama City, including the food available with prices and his observation of religious ceremonies. After arriving in California, Woodin mined for gold near the North Fork of the American river, and in the next four letters (HM 19370-19372, and HM 19382) he describes his travels from Sacramento to the gold fields, working at gold mining (he wrote to his brother that he averaging making $5 a day), his provisions and the costs of goods, and his surroundings and impressions of California. The remaining 9 letters (HM 19373-19381) were written from 1852-1853, beginning when Woodin was on his return journey to California. He writes of traveling from Aspinwall (Colon) to Panama City, where an American flag was displayed for the Fourth of July. He also notes that he encountered "Mr. Booth, a theatrical performer [and his] two sons," probably referring to Junius Brutus Booth and his sons Edwin Booth and Junius Brutus Booth, Jr. (HM 19374). From San Francisco he writes of keeping his hotel, which he liked "very well, all but the selling rum" (HM 19476), of his expenditures, of various steamers that arrived in the city, of duels and executions, including that of "three gamblers...what a pity it...won't be three hundred, for they are the greatest pests there is in this country" (HM 19378), of a Dr. E. White, who was lecturing on spiritual rapping and "making a perfect fool of himself in this business while his wife supports the family by working" (HM 19375), of widespread flooding in January 1853 (HM 19378), and of his favorable impressions of the Chinese in the city, noting that "the Chinese all go by the name of John here, they are a harmless, industrious set of people possessing a great deal of ingenuity and many of them are good businessmen and far more advanced in some of the arts and sciences than our own Americans" (HM 19380). He also writes of his wishes that his family could join him in California, and in April 1853 worries that his partner had left the business and Woodin did not know how to get out of it himself (HM 19379). The final letter was written in June 1853, when Woodin was recovering from a bout of typhoid fever (HM 19381).
mssHM 19369-19382