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Correspondence, outlines and drafts, manuscripts, letters of agreement, contracts, photographs, artwork, and memorabilia. The collection is divided into two parts: the Frederic Dannay papers and the files of ELLERY QUEEN'S MYSTERY MAGAZINE (EQMM). The Dannay papers consist of extensive correspondence with most of the notable mystery writers of this century, as well as well-known authors who sometimes wrote in that genre: Isaac Asimov; Lawrence Block; Ray Bradbury; Pearl S Buck; Edgar Rice Burroughs; James M. Cain; Raymond Chandler; Agatha Christie, etc. Most of the novels and short stories written by Dannay and Lee are represented in manuscript form: "The Roman Hat Mystery;" "Ten Day's Wonder;" "Cat of Many Tails;" "The Scarlet Letters;" "The Glass Village;" "The Player on the Other Side;" "And on the Eighth Day" etc. In addition, there are the manuscripts of books edited by Ellery Queen; manuscripts by Ellery Queen Jr.; scripts by Ellery Queen; poetry by Dannay; contracts between Dannay and Lee, as well as between them both as Ellery Queen and numerous parties. There are also manuscripts by such notables as Jorge Luis Borges; Erskine Caldwell; Raymond Chandler; Agatha Christie; Stanley Ellin; William Faulkner; Dashiell Hammett; O Henry; Nigel Morland; Georges Simenon; Muriel Spark; Julian Symons; Roy Vickers; and Cornell Woolrich.

Annotated proofs and a letter, including proof copies, extensively revised for publication, of Cabell's GALLANTRY (short stories) and THE JEWEL MERCHANTS (a play) and a letter to a Mr. Hagerup about his works. Also, a signed typescript of Louis Untermeyer's introduction to GALLANTRY; and two letters from Cabell to Henry Blake Fuller.

Records of literary agents Paul Revere Reynolds, founder of Paul R. Reynolds agency, and his son, Paul Revere Reynolds, Jr. The records consist of correspondence, contracts, scripts, and financial records. The files are rich in correspondence between authors and agents and provide important information about some of the most significant works published in the last seventy years.

Correspondence, playscripts, screenplays, scenarios, short stories, and other manuscripts, drafts, photocopies, contracts and other documents, tearsheets, clippings, and other materials relating to his career as a screenwriter, playwright, and author of short stories. Correspondence with friends, students, admirers, and professional colleagues concern his teaching, playwriting, films, articles, photography, and literary topics. There are also two groups of letters from students and readers about his textbook, "The Human Nature of Playwriting" (1949). Among the cataloged correspondence are William Gibson, MacKinlay Kantor, Anna Louise Strong, Louis Untermeyer, and Carl Van Doren. Included are manuscripts, drafts, or photocopies of almost all his films, plays, and short stories, such as playscripts and drafts of his plays, "The Jazz Singer" (1922), "Skylark" (1939), "Jason" (1942), and others; screenplays and scenarios, many in photocopy, of "Trouble in Paradise" (1932), "The Merry Widow" (1934), "The Shop Aroung the Corner" (1940), "Suspicion" (1941), "Heaven Can Wait" (1943), and many other films; and manuscripts, drafts, tearsheets, and printed copies of his short stories and articles of film and television criticism. There are also many clippings and reviews, programs, and other printed materials about his plays and films.

The collection consists of the editorial and production archives of Vanguard Press: correspondence, manuscripts, contracts, memoranda, galley proofs, photographs, clippings, and printed materials. The correspondence and editorial files contain a wealth of detailed information about individual authors and the growth and development of the Press. Among the cataloged correspondents are: Nelson Algren, Saul Bellow, Stephen Vincent Benét, William Rose Benét; Phyllis Bottome; Pierre Boulle; Jocelyn Brooke; Cyril Connolly; A.J. Cronin; Nigel Dennis; John Dewey; Max Eastman; James T. Farrell; Vardis Fisher; Richard Garnett; Theodor Seuss Geisel; Louis Golding; Paul Goodman; Horace Gregory; Geoffrey Grigson; Lillian Hellman; William Heyen; Harold L. Ickes; Christopher Isherwood; Alfred Kazin; Philip Lamantia; Sinclair Lewis; Emanuel Litvinoff; Dwight Macdonald; Archibald MacLeish; Marshall McLuhan; Thomas Mann; Edgar Lee Masters; H. L. Mencken; William Meredith; Joyce Carol Oates; Katherine Anne Porter; Barbara Pym; William Sansom; William Saroyan; Ramon J. Sender; Upton Sinclair; Rex Stout; Edith Sitwell; Paul Theroux; Lionel Trilling; Harry S. Trumam; Louis Untermeyer; Eudora Welty; Richard Wilbur; and Thornton Wilder. There are some manuscripts by Bellow; Bottome; Boulle; Farrell; Grigson; Litvinoff; MacDonald; Oates; John Cowper Powys; Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.; Patrick Tanner; William Targ; Theroux; and Sitwell.