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Playscripts, notes, caricatures, rehearsal lists, playbills, a flyer, and newspaper reviews and clippings for THE CRUCIBLE by Arthur Miller. THE CRUCIBLE, a drama about the Salem witch trials of 1692, was first produced in Wilmington in January 1953 and opened in New York in June 1953. The playscripts show the working notes of Arthur Miller and of Jed Harris, the director.

Correspondence, manuscripts, diaries, commonplace books, drawings, photographs, and printed materials. The collection is a comprehensive documentation of the dramatist's career and includes manuscripts, typescripts, notes, and costume and scenic design for more than seventy of his plays and related writings; 31 diaries, commonplace books, and scrapbooks containing manuscript and typescript notes, travel sketches, original drawings, and photographs; and correspondence files including letters from Harley Granville-Barker, Sir Herbert Beerbohm-Tree, John Galsworthy, Booth Tarkington, and Thornton Wilder. Austin Strong's mother, Isobel Field, was the step-daughter of Robert Louis Stevenson. Consequently, the collection contains much Stevensoniana, including photographs and Isobel Field's letters from Western Samoa, where she was known as "Teuila." Also, correspondence and photographs relating to Cornwall Park, Auckland, New Zealand, which was designed by Austin Strong.

Correspondence regarding the production of the plays INTIMATE STRANGERS and MAGNOLIA by Tarkington. There are twelve holograph letters, one detail sketch for a costume, and one page of manuscript and one page of typescript notes by Tarkington as well as thirteen telegrams sent by him. The letters and telegrams are all addressed to Mr. Ira A. Hards, director of the plays. In addition, there are copies of seven telegrams by Hards and one by the producer, A.L. Erlanger, all but one of which are addressed to Tarkington. Also, carbon copies of four letters from Hards and Erlanger to Tarkington, two items concerned with book production and dramatic rights of THE INTIMATE STRANGERS and one theatre program.

This collection consists of ten volumes of business records connected with the operation of Daly's Theatre between 1872 and 1899. Included are cash account books recording income and expenditures, rosters of personnel, attendance books for members of the company, salary accounts, receipt books, and one volume having to do with directions for the settings for various plays.

Correspondence, manuscripts, proofs, photographs, and printed and miscellaneous material relating to the life and writings of Don Marquis. Among the more important works included are MASTER OF THE REVELS, CHAPTERS FOR THE ORTHODOX, JACK (published as SONS OF THE PURITANS), THE EGO BIOGRAPHY, the "Old Soak" and "O'Meara" and stories, works related to archy and mehitabel, and THE DARK HOURS. Also, letters by Marquis, Joseph B. Gilder, Marjorie Vonnegut Marquis, Christopher Morley, and others, and manuscripts by Benjamin DeCasseres, Joseph B. Gilder, and Rodman Gilder.

Manuscripts by Payne, including plays, poems, journals, essays, account books, correspondence, letter books (to and from) including a large group of letters from Washington Irving. Also, pictorial material, scrapbooks, biographies, portraits, passports, and other documents; and materials on the Cherokee incident, 1835-1838, and Payne's arrest in Georgia. Other material include letters of various members of the Payne family and of related families. Of greatest interest is a group of fine letters and manuscripts of Eloise Richards Payne (1787-1819), a sister of the playwright. These present a sensitive and revealing portrait of the social, cultural, and political life of the time. Among the manuscripts and documents are many items of genealogical interest on the Paine, Shippen, Lynch, Luquer, and Lea families. Two boxes of the papers of Col. Thatcher Taylor Payne Luquer contain correspondence on various aspects of John Howard Payne's career, and on "An Unconscious Autobiography" the letters and diaries of William Osborn Payne (1783-1804), a brother of the playwright, edited by Col. Luquer.

Correspondence and manuscripts of Westervelt. Much of the correspondence relates to the production of his own plays. Also, letters from famous actors including William Charles Macready, Augustin Daly, and Charles Kemble; typescript manuscripts of Westervelt's plays, among them "By Right of Sword" and "Rally Round the Flag;" and contracts, photographs, and printed materials.

Letters and postcards from Wilde to Prof Paul Robinson Coleman-Norton, professor of classical philology at Princeton University. The letters are personal in content, reminiscing on their former association at Burgoyne Trail, a nudist camp, asking Coleman-Norton's professional aid, and giving some account of Wilde's current activities. Many of the letters are signed "Jimmy.".

Two playscripts of THE MILKTRAIN DOESN'T STOP HERE ANYMORE along with numerous drafts of the play's six scenes. Many of the pages bear cuts, corrections, and alterations by Williams. Also, the author's pen-and-ink rough sketch of the set. The playscripts and drafts are mainly photo-offset, typescript, and carbon typescript. There are also notes, a revision, photographs, and playbill for the production at the Festival dei due Mondi, Spoleto, July 1962.