Manuscripts

Artifacts and audiovisual

Description: Babitz's Brownie camera, rubber stamps, and books by humorists Robert Benchley and H. Allen Smith. Audiovisual materials include a microcassette interview with Laurie Pepper, a VHS tape entitled Readings of Eve Babitz (1998), an unidentified CD, and an unidentified floppy disc.
Type: Manuscripts(Opens in new tab)
Date: 1960s-1998
Call number: mssBabitz
Creator: Babitz, Eve(Opens in new tab)
Provenance: Purchased from Eve Babitz through Glenn Horowitz Bookseller with support from Steve Martin and Anne Stringfield, November 2021.; gift of Mirandi Babitz, December 2024.
Restrictions: Open for use by qualified researchers and by appointment. Please contact Reader Services at the Huntington Library for more information.

Screenplays

Manuscripts

Typescript and photocopy drafts of Dead Giveaway, The Flute, Green Hotel, Lovers and Dangers, Models, and Naked Chess. There are three untitled screenplays: one about Art and Laurie Pepper, another about Babitz's Hollywood childhood, and the last featuring characters Marie and Gina.

mssBabitz

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Correspondence - friends and family incoming/outgoing

Manuscripts

Incoming letters and cards from friends, some unsigned or unidentified; and the majority of Babitz's outgoing correspondence. Babitz's outgoing correspondence is primarily from the late 1960s to early 1970s and includes carbon copies, drafts, and unsent letters and postcards. There is also incoming and outgoing family correspondence (mid 1950s to mid 1960s) with her parents Sol and Mae Babitz, sister Mirandi Babitz, and a few other relatives.

mssBabitz

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Artwork

Manuscripts

Primarily collages Babitz made between 1967 and 1970, using magazine clippings, paper, and cardboard. Collage subjects include musician friends and acquaintances including Jim Morrison, Mick Jagger, Stephen Stills, Ginger Baker, and Noel Harrison; commissioned work featuring Marilyn Monroe and Liza Minnelli; and pastoral and abstract scenes. There is also a 1917 watercolor by Babitz family friend Kate Steinitz, and an undated drawing by Eve Babitz's mother, Mae Babitz.

mssBabitz

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Eve Babitz papers

Manuscripts

Materials documenting the life and career of writer and artist Eve Babitz. Writings includes drafts and galleys of her books Slow Days, Fast Company (1977), Sex and Rage: Advice to Young Ladies Eager for a Good Time (1979), L.A. Woman (1982), Black Swans (1993), and Two By Two: Tango, Two-Step, and the L.A. Night (1999); as well as articles and stories; screenplays; unpublished manuscripts; and collected clippings and publications. The Personal series includes incoming and outgoing correspondence with friends, family, and publishing contacts; biographical and family items; and Babitz's notebooks and datebooks. Photographs are of Babitz, her friends and family, and the Los Angeles area, including hundreds she took with a Brownie camera documenting her friends and social sphere from 1968 to 1971. Artwork primarily consists of collages Babitz made between 1967 and1970, some commissioned for publication or album artwork. Collage subjects include musician friends and acquaintances including Jim Morrison, Mick Jagger, Stephen Stills, Ginger Baker, and Noel Harrison; commissioned work featuring Marilyn Monroe and Liza Minnelli; and pastoral and abstract scenes. There are also drawings and paintings dating from the early to mid-1960s.

mssBabitz

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Biographical and family

Manuscripts

Materials related to Babitz's childhood and school days, including a handmade card for her father, a single diary page, report cards, and yearbooks. Also includes her passports, astrology charts, business cards, miscellaneous notes and receipts, and materials related to Marcel Duchamp events in which Babitz was asked to participate. Some family related items include a Bach workbook written by Sol Babitz and a family calendar, cookbook, and genealogy by Mirandi Babitz.

mssBabitz

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Photographs

Manuscripts

Photographs and negatives of Eve Babitz, her family and friends, and the Los Angeles area, including hundreds taken by Babitz of friends and gatherings during the years 1969-1972. Photo subjects from this time include Jackson Browne, the Byrds, Black Oak Arkansas, Glenn Frey, Steve Martin, Linda Ronstadt, Gram Parsons (38 images), and Dan Wakefield; and several Los Angeles locations including Echo Park and the Griffith Observatory. There are also photos from the late 1980s of friends and gatherings and a trip to Miami. Family photographs include Eve Babitz from childhood to the 2000s, her cats, her parents Sol and Mae Babitz, sister Mirandi Babitz, and their family home. Scrapbooks and photo albums feature snapshots of friends and family, with one album dedicated to the Slow Days, Fast Company book release party in 1977. There is also significant material related to dance in Los Angeles, which appears to be related to Babitz's book Two by Two: Tango, Two-Step, and the L.A. Night.

mssBabitz

Artifacts and audiovisual

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Screenplays

Correspondence - friends and family incoming/outgoing

Artwork

Eve Babitz papers

Biographical and family

Photographs