Collections : [Rare Book & Manuscript Library]

Correspondence, manuscripts, memorabilia, photographs, phonograph and tape recordings, and printed files. Included are Cerf's personal correspondence files, 1929-1945, and the diaries and scrapbooks which he maintained from his school days throughout his active career. The diaries, in date-book format, contain terse notes on Cerf's meetings with authors and friends, on his travels and publishing activities; the scrapbooks contain correspondence and photographs, as well as memorabilia and printed items, and were annotated by Cerf and his wife, Phyllis Fraser Cerf Wagner. Also in the collection are manuscripts and proofs for Cerf's books including "The Laugh's on Me""Treasury of Atrocious Puns""The Sound of Laughter""Stories to Make You Feel Better", and "At Random: the Reminiscences of Bennett Cerf", which was edited by Phyllis Cerf Wagner and Albert Erskine, 1977. The papers also include condolence letters written at the time of Cerf's death, photographs and photo albums,certificates and awards, and miscellaneous printed material, including Random House and Modern Library catalogues. Among the major correspondents are: Truman Capote, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Edna Ferber, Moss Hart, J. Edgar Hoover, Hubert Humphrey, Lyndon B. Johnson, John Lindsay, Joshua Logan, John O'Hara, Jacqueline Onassis, Richard Rodgers, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Gertrude Stein, Adlai Stevenson, Harry Truman, and Robert Penn Warren

Letters to Kenton from outstanding literary figures such as Theodore Dreiser, Carl Van Vechten, Charles Hanson Towne, George Cram Cook, Henry L. Mencken, Richard Watson Gilder, Witter Bynner. The correspondence is partly personal, and part relates to the Provincetown Players, but chiefly the letters are from editors of various magazines including DELINEATOR and SMART SET, to which Kenton contributed stories.

Literary papers and some related correspondence of Moers, including typescript drafts, notes, photocopies of Theodore Dreiser letters and manuscripts, and correspondence related to writing, editing, and publishing TWO DREISERS. Revisions of this manuscript contain extensive editorial notes, instructions, and annotations by Moers' editor Malcolm Cowley. The photocopies of printed materials consist chiefly of articles written by Dreiser for newspapers and magazines, especially EV'RY MONTH. For Moers' book LITERARY WOMEN, there are typescript drafts, notes, the setting copy, and proofs. Also, letters, notes, drafts, and printed material for her article in the NEW YORK PUBLIC REVIEW OF BOOKS; correspondence, manuscripts, notes, drafts, photographs, clippings, and other printed material for her books, book reviews, articles, and lectures; and books inscribed to Moers and books on women authors and feminism with her notes.

Letters written to the publisher George T. Delacorte, Jr. from various literary figures, relating to the publication of their work in FAMOUS STORY MAGAZINE. Included are letters from Gertrude Atherton, Irwin S. Cobb, Theodore Dreiser, Ellen Glasgow, Fannie Hurst, Selma Lagerlöf, Edgar Lee Masters, Maxfield Parrish, and Wilbur Daniel Steele.

Manuscripts and correspondence of Schneider, including numerous manuscripts of short stories and poems, many of which are unpublished, and several full-length manuscripts of unpublished critical works. The collection also contains an extensive file of typescript reports on books for The Book Find Club, clippings of reviews written by Schneider and about his books, photographs and drawings of Schneider, and a file of correspondence relating to his writings. The literary correspondence includes letters from many of the important novelists, poets, and literary critics from the 1920s to the 1950s. They include Conrad Aiken, Sherwood Anderson, Kenneth Burke, Malcolm Cowley, Theodore Dreiser, Waldo Frank, Lillian Hellman, Robert Hillyer, Alfred Kreymborg, Thomas Mann, Arthur Miller, Marianne Moore, Lewis Mumford, Laura Riding, Muriel Rukeyser, Karl Shapiro, Stephen Spender, Mark Van Doren, and Yvor Winters.

Correspondence, manuscripts, documents, financial records, memorabilia, and printed materials. The papers relate to numerous organizations--social, political, civic, and philanthropic--with which he was associated. Among these organizations are Legal Aid Society; Prison Association of New York; Outdoor Recreation League; Socialist Democratic League and National Party; American Alliance for Labor and Democracy; Constitutional Democracy Association; National Security League; YMCA, etc. Included among the papers are his journals and diaries, 1884-1950. An incomplete set of his letterbooks 1905-1960 and some family papers relating to real estate and financial matters

Correspondence, manuscripts, drawings, documents, photographs, clippings, and other printed materials. Most of Freeman's own letters are written to Anne Williams Feinberg, his secretary. Among the cataloged correspondence are: Sherwood Anderson, Margaret Bourke-White, Erskine Caldwell, John Dos Passos, Theodore Dreiser, Langston Hughes, Edna St. Vincent Millay, and Lincoln Steffens. There is the manuscript of his book NEVER CALL RETREAT.

Records of literary agents Paul Revere Reynolds, founder of Paul R. Reynolds agency, and his son, Paul Revere Reynolds, Jr. The records consist of correspondence, contracts, scripts, and financial records. The files are rich in correspondence between authors and agents and provide important information about some of the most significant works published in the last seventy years.

A collection of letters and manuscripts of Dreiser. Among the seventeen letters are four written to the American editor William C. Lengel, concerning the writing of THE "GENIUS." The collection also contains the holograph manuscripts of "Fulfillment" a short story published in the author's CHAINS in 1927, and "Some American Women Painters" a journalistic essay written ca. 1897 and apparently unpublished (see article by Ellen Moers, COLUMBIA LIBRARY COLUMNS, May 1966, pp. 10-24).

Letters to Cyril Clemens containing comments on his work and writings as well as that of other American writers. There are also four letters of Gladys Brooks (Mrs Van Wyck), Brooks' passport dated 1951, and one page of a holograph manuscript essay on Theodore Dreiser.