Collections : [Rare Book & Manuscript Library]

The Group for Contemporary Music records document the function of an American chamber ensemble dedicated to the performance of contemporary classical music, dating from 1961 to 2012. The records consist of correspondence, photographs, programs, memoranda, schedules, meeting notes, clippings, contracts, bills, financial records, fund raising and grant applications, and so on.

Letters, manuscripts, prints, portraits, memorabilia, clipping, pamphlets, and other printed materials relating to Abraham Lincoln and his contemporaries. Included are four autograph letters from Lincoln, two of which are photostatic copies; one letter each from Salmon P. Chase, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Horace Greeley, and Robert Lincoln; two manuscript passes (military); a bust of Lincoln; a cast of his hands and a reconstruction of Lincoln's library. Also, five letters from Hill to his grandson David Schrady Hill, and typescripts of his sermons and speeches.

Correspondence, manuscripts, diaries, notebooks, and publications. The many manuscripts reflect Barzun's interest in poetry, literature and political affairs. The collection also contains materials for the journal, Art et Action which Barzun helped to found; lecture notes, 1933-1952; and a few items pertaining to Filippo Tommaso Marinetti and the Futurists. There are some Barzun family papers, as well. The correspondents are primarily French and American authors including André Breton, Katherine Dreier, Marcel Duchamp, Georges Duhamel, Albert Gleizes, Ivan Goll, Harriet Monroe, Ezra Pound, Pierre Reverdy, Edgar Varèse, Gabriel d'Annunzio, and Felippo Tommaso Marinetti.

The files of Curtis Brown, Ltd. literary agency include correspondence with authors, publishers, and other agents and deal with the editing and publishing of trade and textbooks, serial rights, reprints, dramatic rights, translations and foreign rights, promotion and copyright registration. For each author there are contracts, royalty statements, tax statements, and other financial materials. There is also a contract file, including cancellations and related correspondence, from 1914 to 1988. Among the cataloged correspondents are: Louis S. Auchincloss, W.H. Auden, Erle Stanley Gardner, Robert Graves, Ogden Nash, Ayn Rand, and Sloan Wilson.

Master's thesis produced by May Randall entitled "The New Negro Poet" for her degree in English from the University of Chicago in the late 1920s. The thesis examines black poets of the Harlem Riennaisance and the collection includes a photocopy of her thesis, and the original letters from 39 Dlack poets of the time, all personal correspondence with Ms Randall regarding her thesis, which she Dlanned to submit for publication. The poets include many of the leading lights: Countee Cullen, Langston Hughes, W.E.B. Du Bois, and Claude McKay, plus 35 lesser known authors. Most of the letters are giving her permission to publish their work, but they also referred her to other poets, and gave her contact information so she could include them. The letters are friendly, helpful, and enthusiastic about the idea that her thesis might become a published book.