Search

Mostly testimonial letters from satisfied clients of A.P. Watt, praising his services. Many of the letters were published in promotional brochures. Two of these books, COLLECTION OF LETTERS ADDRESSED TO A.P. WATT BY VARIOUS WRITERS (London, 1893) & LETTERS ADDRESSED TO A.P. WATT (London, 1894), are included in the collection. There were other editions published in 1889, 1898, 1899, 1924, 1929, etc.

Correspondence, outlines and drafts, manuscripts, letters of agreement, contracts, photographs, artwork, and memorabilia. The collection is divided into two parts: the Frederic Dannay papers and the files of ELLERY QUEEN'S MYSTERY MAGAZINE (EQMM). The Dannay papers consist of extensive correspondence with most of the notable mystery writers of this century, as well as well-known authors who sometimes wrote in that genre: Isaac Asimov; Lawrence Block; Ray Bradbury; Pearl S Buck; Edgar Rice Burroughs; James M. Cain; Raymond Chandler; Agatha Christie, etc. Most of the novels and short stories written by Dannay and Lee are represented in manuscript form: "The Roman Hat Mystery;" "Ten Day's Wonder;" "Cat of Many Tails;" "The Scarlet Letters;" "The Glass Village;" "The Player on the Other Side;" "And on the Eighth Day" etc. In addition, there are the manuscripts of books edited by Ellery Queen; manuscripts by Ellery Queen Jr.; scripts by Ellery Queen; poetry by Dannay; contracts between Dannay and Lee, as well as between them both as Ellery Queen and numerous parties. There are also manuscripts by such notables as Jorge Luis Borges; Erskine Caldwell; Raymond Chandler; Agatha Christie; Stanley Ellin; William Faulkner; Dashiell Hammett; O Henry; Nigel Morland; Georges Simenon; Muriel Spark; Julian Symons; Roy Vickers; and Cornell Woolrich.

Correspondence, manuscript, and drawings relating to English and American literature of the 19th and early 20th centuries collected by Solton (1896-1961) and Julia (-1984) Engel. Ten letters and four manuscripts of poems by Rudyard Kipling form the largest unit within the collection. Prominent among the other items are the manuscript of Robert Louis Stevenson's "Mock Trial" and two Walt Whitman letters, a copy of R. W. Emerson's famous "Leaves of Grass" letter in Whitman's hand and Whitman's letter to Conway regarding the Emerson letter. Also included is a letter from James Fenimore Cooper to Mary Rutherfurd Clarkson Jay, wife of Peter Augustus Jay. Thirty-one of the drawings in the collection are by William Wallace Denslow and John Rae Neill and represent illustrations done for various works by L. Frank Baum. There are also two drawings of Gelett Burgess, one ot "The Goop" and the other of "The Purple Cow." Castings of the obverse and reverse of the bronze Kipling medallion commissioned by Engel in 1953 from Julio Kilenyi are stored in 2 oversize boxes. Most of the items in this collection relate to a collection of first editions which was also presented to the Libraries by Mr. and Mrs. Engel.