Special Collections and University Archives: Literature and the Arts

The collection consists of original and typescript short stories, novels, essays, lyrics, and screenplays from a variety of authors.

Letters and literary manuscripts, chiefly of late 19th- and 20th-century English and American authors, including George Henry Borrow, Edmund Gosse, William Michael Rossetti, Clement King Shorter, Algernon Charles Swinburne, and Thomas James Wise; together with related material.

Records (1957-1982) documenting all aspects of producing a respected English-language literary magazine that helped to launch the careers of a number of authors and also published fiction and poetry by established writers. Includes editors' correspondence; general correspondence with authors, illustrators, and their agents; files of poetry editor B.S. Johnson; files of the New York office, advertising and publicity files; distribution records; copyright and permission documents; financial records; printers files; contents lists and indexes; manuscripts and authors logs; issue files; manuscripts not used; artwork; and audio recordings of 1960s interviews.

Chiefly correspondence (1923-1943) relating to publication of the periodicals Events and Current History, for which Brodney was an editor; editorial records of articles, stories, and poems published in Forum, which merged into Current History (later Current History and Forum) in 1940. Correspondents include Leonard Drew (who preceded Brodney as editor of Current History), Fred A. Shannon, Preston Slosson, and Wilbur White.

The collection consists of over 90 volumes dating from 1727 through about 1925. Topics range from classic literature to cookery, and from almanacs to religious and spiritual guides. Examples include a London Almanack for 1785 and 1790, a copy of Lummis Birch Bark Poems printed on birch bark in 1882, as well as a Bible chained to a wooden stand and a Qur'an meant to be worn as a locket, both published by David Bryce.

The collection consists of about 500 limited edition fine and private press books comprising literature, poetry, bibliographies, and works on private presses, typography, and the graphic arts, most illustrated with wood engravings, lithographs, or etchings. The collection includes imprints from the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Czech Republic, Italy, Switzerland, Belgium, Denmark, Sweden and Hungary. Materials mostly in English, German, French, Dutch and Czech.

This archive assembles material relating to books and broadsides published by the Stone House Press, along with broadsides from other presses, correspondence, and ephemera, such as advertisements, announcements, and printed keepsakes. Other prints and publications of interest to Morris Gelfand, the proprietor of the press, are included.

The collection includes just under 150 miniature books that are in miniature format, but not published with the same focus on fine paper, creativity, type, and binding that characterize the Miniature Fine Press and Artists’ Books Collection. These books include fiction, poetry, aphorisms, and essays, as well as religious topics, Bible extracts, dictionaries, comic books, and books from the countries of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.

Scrapbook containing letters and postcards received from Theodore Roethke, letters about Roethke, a typescript Roethke poem ("The reminder" with a correction in pen by the author), and letters from Vance Packard, John O'Hara, and Edna St. Vincent Millay.

Notes, correspondence, minutes, worksheets, photos, and other papers of the committee composed of members of the association and of the Rutgers University faculty for the purpose of compiling Authors of New Jersey (1955) by Rudolf Kirk and Clara Marburg Kirk.

The records document the work undertaken by the Women's Project of New Jersey to produce Past and Promise: Lives of New Jersey Women. The papers also provide details of the Project's other endeavors to promote understanding of the roles of women in the history of New Jersey. The records consist of documents, photographs, audiovisual materials, and an artifact.

Administrative records of the Conference on Literature and Urban Experience (CLUE). The conference featured more than 50 distinguished writers and academics discussing a wide range of topics—"literature, theater, film, education, and the visual arts" focusing on the theme of urban experience. Designed as an educational experiment intended to engage a larger, public audience, CLUE intended to reach out to the public at large and involve it in a broad discussion of the modern urban experience.

Robert Ardrey was a playwright and screenwriter who researched and popularized theories regarding the animal origins of human behavior. The bulk of these materials focus on this topic, including materials relating to African Genesis (1961), The Territorial Imperative (1966), The Social Contract (1970) and The Hunting Hypothesis (1976). Ardrey's experiences as a Hollywood screenwriter are also documented. The collection consists of correspondence, address books, financial records, travel records documenting a lecture tour, Ardrey’s writings and research materials, an autobiography, and reference materials in the form of scholarly papers, articles, offprints, and pamphlets.

Papers, consisting chiefly of manuscripts of writings, royalty statements, correspondence, and lecture outlines that document de Leeuw's career as a lecturer and author of books and magazine articles, chiefly for children and young adults. She wrote or co-wrote more than 70 published books, both fiction and nonfiction. The manuscripts in the collection include poetry and prose, both published and unpublished, including newspaper articles and columns. The correspondence includes letters from fans, correspondence with publishers, editors and agents and letters exchanged with others, including her sister, artist and children's author Cateau de Leeuw. Biographical information on Adèle de Leeuw is also included.

Beryl de Zoete was a dance critic, dance researcher, and translator. She wrote on dance at various times for The Daily Telegraph, the New Statesman and Nation, and Ballet and wrote books on dance in Bali (1938), India (1953), and Sri Lanka (1957). The collection contains letters received, notes and drafts of writings on folk dances and drama, personal journals, poems, miscellaneous prose compositions (including plays), translations into English, press clippings, and printed ephemera.

The Janet Hobhouse Papers includes personal correspondence, editorial correspondence, notes and manuscripts of published works, copies of her essays and reviews, and reviews of her books. In the collection are also a number of photographs, a scrapbook, a taped interview, and personal miscellany. In addition, the collection contains an important set of detailed letters written by Janet to her mother when she was a teenage girl and young woman living in England. Finally, the collection includes some papers of Hobhouse's husband Nicholas Fraser, including travel diaries and the manuscript of an unpublished novel.

The papers include letters to Richard Seymour and a bound manuscript. The letters (undated, 1952-1967) contain comments relating to Sassoon's work and contemporary literary figures. Included with the letters are three short poems in Sassoon's hand and an untitled verse of four lines. The manuscript entitled "A Beginning" consists of 23 pages of prose in Sassoon's hand. The manuscript is not signed, but Sassoon's signature appears on the front pastedown. Laid in the volume are three pages of autograph notes.

Correspondence, chiefly letters received (1938-1962); letter to Clive Bell (1917); drafts of published works dealing primarily with Chinese civilization; unpublished fictional pieces; published articles; corrected page proofs of several books; pamphlets relating to Far Eastern subjects, and letters (1918-1962) of friends and associates.

Correspondence, typescripts and galleys of speeches and essays on various subjects, and list identifying articles by Gilder in Century magazine. Includes letters from John Burroughs, George Washington Cable, Samuel L. Clemens, Clara Clemens Gabrilowitch, Hamlin Garland, Edmund Gosse, W.D. Howells, Edmund Clarence Stedman, and Walt Whitman.

Papers consisting of receipts for monies received from publishers for serial installments of Libbey’s writings; correspondence pertaining to her literary productions; publishing contracts and legal agreements; U.S. copyright certificates for works registered or renewed from 1883 to 1924; dramatic writings; papers relating to rights to her works; and press clippings, including samples of her syndicated newspaper columns.

Over 100 letters (1941-1948) received from Sigrid Undset or which pertain to her in some way; articles and other published writings by Undset, including one book; press clippings, most or all of which pertain to Undset; and miscellaneous items relating to Undset, some of which might have been enclosures in her letters. Undset's literary activities while in the United States are mentioned in the letters, as are radio broadcasts that she made.

Angus Gillespie, an American Studies professor at Rutgers University, is a folklorist who focuses mainly on myths and legends of the United States. The collection contains research material assembled for two of his books: Looking for America on the New Jersey Turnpike (1989) and Twin Towers: The Life of New York City's World Trade Center (1999). Gillespie added another chapter addressing September 11 in the book's second edition (2002).

Letters (1865-1887) to Peter Eckler, W.S. Kennedy, Ernest Rhys, and others; writings, notes, and annotations and marginalia by Whitman; proof sheets of articles about him; writings and letters about W.H. Ballou, C.W. Eldredge, T.W. Higginson, W.S. Kennedy, Gabriel Sarrazin, Horace L. Traubel, and others; portraits of Whitman; and miscellaneous items.

The papers contain correspondence relating to Steele's literary work; writings, including articles, short stories, and plays; notes on plays and manuscript notebook on ideas for plays; scrapbooks of newspaper clippings; and photos, printed matter, and clippings, largely concerning murder and other crimes.

This collection consists of personal papers of Lane Cooper, scholar, writer and professor of English language and literature at Cornell University. It contains drafts of major works by Cooper, letters of agreement with publishers and personal acknowledgments of gifts of books or appreciation of his published works, reviews of published works, and incoming letters from publishers and friends.

Writings (1920s-1970s), primarily relating to literary topics and personalities, such as Virginia Woolf, but also including several items of fiction and an essay describing a two-year residence in Egypt; television and radio broadcasts (1957) consisting of 12 lectures on the modern novel, with related correspondence and press releases; and speeches (1940-198) on literary topics and Boyd's life experiences.

Includes information regarding Frances R. Grant's book Oriental Philosophy, her proposed book Women of Latin America, and her attempted venture into magazine publication, Alcance. Alcance was intended to be a literary and cultural magazine reviewing North American life and thought, written in Spanish and directed to a Latin American audience. Includes unpublished manuscripts and correspondence from leading literary and cultural figures such as John dos Passos, Upton Sinclair, Archibald MacLeish, and Frank Lloyd Wright, as well as correspondence from Thornton Wilder, Reinhold Niebuhr, H.L. Mencken, Thomas Mann, Lillian Hellman, and Aaron Copeland. The collection also contains speeches and published and unpublished writings by Grant.

Papers documenting Phyllis Zatlin’s scholarship in the field of Spanish theater and literature. Document types include correspondence, manuscripts, articles, notes, drafts, ephemera, and audiovisual material. The largest series documents Zatlin's article and book-length scholarly projects, work with Estreno, and university and community service. Also included are correspondence with Spanish theater critics and playwrights (1970s-1980s) and recordings of Zatlin's interviews with Spanish and French literary figures, such as Eduardo Manet, Elena Quiroga, and Jaime Salom.

Susan Cavin was a prolific writer and an outspoken supporter of gay and lesbian rights. This collection provides examples of her work, including drafts of and correspondence relating to her dissertation. Cavin eventually published the dissertation under the title Lesbian Origins, and the collection contains a set of proofs of this version, as well as other less extensive writings by Cavin. These shorter writings include her poetry pamphlet, Me and Them Sirens Running All Night Long, and articles on lesbian social protest, materials on the Gay and Lesbian Press Association of which Cavin was president, and materials issuing out of her involvement with civil disobedience. Also included are records of Big Apple Dyke News (BAD), a New York lesbian newspaper.

The papers contain typescripts of published and unpublished works written by Robert J. Alexander. Document types include notes, drafts and proofs. Includes manuscripts of books, articles, book chapters, edited works, encyclopedia and almanac entries, reports, reviews and comments, as well as Alexander's Ph.D. dissertation and M.A. thesis. Of interest are unpublished works such as the autobiographical "A Yank's Eye View of England, 1943-45" and "In Revolutionary Catalonia," a novella "Of Little Faith" (under the pseudonym Robert Jackson), and biographies of Norman Thomas and Rómulo Betancourt.

Letters received (1893-1965), correspondence, military journals, notes on military topics, drafts of published and unpublished writings, maps, charts, clippings, photos, printed matter, and other papers.

Papers, consisting chiefly of manuscripts of writings, royalty statements, correspondence, and lecture outlines that document de Leeuw's career as a lecturer and author of books and magazine articles, chiefly for children and young adults. She wrote or co-wrote more than 70 published books, both fiction and nonfiction. The manuscripts in the collection include poetry and prose, both published and unpublished, including newspaper articles and columns. The correspondence includes letters from fans, correspondence with publishers, editors and agents and letters exchanged with others, including her sister, artist and children's author Cateau de Leeuw. Biographical information on Adèle de Leeuw is also included.

The collection consists of over 900 children's books issued mainly between 1801 and 1900 and measuring 10 centimeters or less in height. They are generally bound in paper wrappers and are of miscellaneous provenance. Most titles were published in America, although some British publications are included as well. The collection includes religious tracts, toy books, primers, catechisms, alphabets, hymns, songbooks, nursery rhymes, fairy tales, miniature books and wordless picture books, among other popular genres, and reflects the growth and development of American book illustration and wood engraving. The collection also includes some advertising formally imitative of children's books and evidently directed at children.

Collection consisting of literary papers (corrected typescripts, galley and/or page proofs, correspondence, and other papers) of contemporary children's authors, including many who are residents of New Jersey. Persons represented include Robin F. Brancato, Patricia Lee Gauch, Barbara Girion, Larry Kellelkamp, Robert Lipsyte, John J. Loeper, Virginia Masterman-Smith, Judith St. George, St. Tamara, Dorothy Edwards Shuttlesworth, Datus Clifford Smith, Carol Snyder and Judith Viorst, among others.

The Children's Miniature Books Collection numbers just over 230 volumes. The publications date from 1802 through 1993, with the bulk of the collection dating from after 1940. The titles range from those intending to improve the minds of the young readers, religious texts and educational materials, to those created to entertain, children's stories and fairy tales. The books themselves range from an elegantly-boxed set of children's stories from 1866 to the more ephemeral Golden Books, Mighty Midget, and Mt. Hawley series of the late 20th century.

This collection consists mainly of fictional juvenile literature by Earl Reed Silvers, but also includes biographical information such as images and correspondences. The writings on Silvers include unpublished undated manuscripts, galley proofs, and published writings from newspapers and magazines.