Collections : [Rare Book & Manuscript Library]

Correspondence, manuscripts, research files, teaching materials, memoranda, etc.

Correspondence files and financial papers. The files include correspondence, contracts, clippings and programs, ledgers and financial accounts, submission books, and calendars and memorandum books. Authors for whom there are extensive files include the following: Truman Capote; Patrick Dennis; John Dos Passos; Lloyd C. Douglas; John Hersey; Alice Tisdale Hobart; Paul Horgan; William Humphrey; Frances Parkinson Keyes; Margaret Mitchell; Alan Paton; Kenneth Roberts; Lillian Smith; John Steinbeck; George R. Stewart; Ben Ames Williams; and Kathleen Winsor

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.

Letters, manuscripts, documents, and printed materials by and relating to explorers of both poles. Many of the letters are addressed to Vilhjalmur Stefansson or Bassett Jones. The letters for the most part discuss subjects of professional interest. Thre are printed materials, photographs and memorabilia of many expeditions and explorers.

Invitations and photographs relating to dinners given by the Bohemian Club to honor artists such as Mischa Elman, Engelbert Humperdinck, Serge Koussevitzsky, Ignace Paderewski, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Richard Strauss, and Eugene Ysaye.

A collection of letters, manuscripts, and documents of prominent actors, actresses, and theatrical managers. Many of these are single, unrelated items. The largest body of correspondence is from the American actress, Charlotte Cushman (14 letters). Another figure of major interest is William Charles Macready, partly because of Miss Cushman's relationship to him (she toured with him for several years) and also as there are several of his letters. Sir Henry Irving, Edwin Forrest and James Mowatt are each represented by a few letters. A group of 8 unsigned letters may have been written by the famous singer, actress, and manager, Eliza Vestris. One box contains manuscripts of Samuel Coit, Charlotte Cushman, Clyde Fitch, Wallace Gould, Henry von Heiseler, E.H. Sothern, and Lester Wallack. Six boxes contain Augustin Daly's check stubs and bank books for Daly's Theatre, New York, for 1872-1899. (For additional Augustin Daly business records, see description sheets for Daly's Theatre Collection, X810.128/D15& the Dramatic Library Collection shelf list).

Twelve books by Truman Capote in various printings and foreign language translations, ephemera relating to stage adaptations of some of his works, and books about Capote. Novels represented include "Breakfast at Tiffany's" and "In Cold Blood".