Susan Orlean Papers, 1930s-2015, 2019

This collection documents Orlean's career as a writer and a journalist. The collection contains address books, appointment books, audio recordings, clippings, computer files, contracts, correspondence, drafts, interviews, notes, notebooks, photographs, proofs, publications, research materials, school records, and video recordings.

Documentation of the full process of Orlean's writing is most extensive for her book projects: Saturday Night (1990), The Orchid Thief (1998), and Rin Tin Tin (2011). The records for these projects include Orlean's notebooks, which she brings on research trips, and her research materials. The notes and research for Saturday Night are organized by chapter. For The Orchid Thief and Rin Tin Tin, Orlean also used a system of numbered index cards to plot out her points and to prepare before beginning to write on a computer. These index cards, and related notes also organized by number, are included in the records.

Orlean also kept notebooks and research materials for her projects for The New Yorker and other magazines. Records are most extensive for articles written from the late 1980s to the present. The collection also include copies of many of Orlean's newspaper and magazine articles, including clippings scrapbooks of her early work in Portland, Oregon and Boston, Massachusetts that were created by Orlean's mother.

The collection includes personal, family, and professional correspondence. Most correspondence was only loosely organized, and remains in its original groupings. The personal correspondence files include correspondence, postcards, and greeting cards. Professional files include correspondence on various proposals, projects, and other professional matters, as well as personal messages. In addition to the professional correspondence, the collection includes other professional files that include agreements, contracts, event information, lecture notes, press passes, royalty statements, clippings, interviews, and reviews.

The papers also contain personal materials and school papers, including diaries, diplomas, journals, passports, postcards, and various mementos. Orlean's school records date primarily from middle school, high school and college, and include class notes, student newspapers, notebooks, and writing assignments. In addition, the papers include family correspondence, photographs, and postcards – some of the family correspondence includes Susan Orlean, but other pieces are between other family members, and do not involve her directly.

The collection includes both personal and professional photographs. The printed photographs include childhood photographs, family photographs, professional headshots and photographs from events, and photographs which appear to show Orlean on location at professional assignments.

The collection also includes audiocassettes and videocassettes, compact disks, DVDs, floppy disks, hard drives, and a personal digital assistant device. These materials document Orlean's writing, as well as her professional appearances. Many of these materials have not been reformatted; please contact the Rare Book & Manuscript Library in advance of your visit to discuss access options.