Manuscripts

Biographical and family

Description: 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.
Type: Manuscripts(Opens in new tab)
Date: 1953-2016
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.

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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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

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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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Artifacts and audiovisual

Manuscripts

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.

mssBabitz

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Personal

Manuscripts

Incoming and outgoing correspondence with friends, family, and publishing contacts, including Joseph Cornell (12 items including inserts and envelopes, plus photocopies), Peter Eden, Paul Glass, Joseph Heller (6 items including envelopes, plus photocopies), Dan Wakefield, and Jann Wenner; and her father Sol Babitz, mother Mae Babitz, and sister Mirandi Babitz. A folder of get-well letters and faxes following her hospitalization in 1997 includes notes from Jackson Browne, Joan Didion and John Gregory Dunne, Don Henley, Annie Leibovitz, Steve Martin, Van Dyke Parks, and many others. Also includes several notebooks and datebooks, biographical and family materials, personal items, and audiovisual materials.

mssBabitz

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Scrapbook - family

Manuscripts

Scrapbook containing childhood and family photographs, including early baby pictures of Babitz and Babitz with her godfather Igor Stravinsky.

mssBabitz

Biographical and family

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Correspondence - friends and family incoming/outgoing

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Artifacts and audiovisual

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