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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.

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and correspondence of Schneider, including numerous manuscripts of short stories and poems, many of which are unpublished, and several full-length manuscripts of unpublished critical works.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 and manuscripts of Van Doren, consisting of letters, poems, short stories, novels, plays, radio broadcast transcripts ("Invitation to Learning"), diaries, critical works, proofs, and printed works. Correspondents include Louise Bogan, Philip Booth, Babette Deutsch, Richard Eberhart, T.S. Eliot, John Gould Fletcher, Herbert Gorman, E.W. Howe, Robinson Jeffers, Archibald MacLeish, Louis MacNeice, Edgar Lee Masters, Lewis Mumford, Hyam Plutzik, Allen Tate, and Louis Zukovsky. Also, extensive correspondence with Robert Lax and Thomas Merton, as well as manuscripts by these two authors.

Letters, manuscripts, notes, proofs, course materials, and printed matter. The letters are chiefly from his colleagues at Columbia University, other literary critics, a few publishers and, single letters from several American authors. There is a series of lengthy letters from Chase to his wife, Frances Marie Walker Chase, dated 1938 and 1949-1961; letters from his colleagues and friends to Mrs Chase, 1962-1967, mostly letters of condolence on Chase's death, and a few related to his publications. The manuscripts and proofs of his writings include typescripts on Herman Melville and Walt Whitman. Also included are notes on American and Englisgh literature, course materials for his Columbia courses, articles and reviews by him, articles, reprints and reviews by others, most of which are inscribed to Chase, and three dozen volumes of his own works, including foreign translations. In addition, there are 250 volumes from Chase's library, many with his annotations and marginalia. 1984 ADDITION: Letters from friends dealing with the contemporary literary world between 1948-1955. The main body of material is from Robert Willard Flint, a sometime poet and critic, who was a graduate student at Columbia in 1946 and later worked at the Harvard Library. 1986 ADDITION: Letters to Richard Chase from colleagues in the literary world, 1948-1971, with 2 letters to his wife after his death. 114 of these letters are from Robert Flint, 25 from Lionel Trilling, and 3 letters from Robert Penn Warren

Correspondence, playscripts, screenplays, scenarios, short stories, and other manuscripts, drafts, photocopies, contracts and other documents, tearsheets, clippings, and other materials relating to his career as a screenwriter, playwright, and author of short stories. Correspondence with friends, students, admirers, and professional colleagues concern his teaching, playwriting, films, articles, photography, and literary topics. There are also two groups of letters from students and readers about his textbook, "The Human Nature of Playwriting" (1949). Among the cataloged correspondence are William Gibson, MacKinlay Kantor, Anna Louise Strong, Louis Untermeyer, and Carl Van Doren. Included are manuscripts, drafts, or photocopies of almost all his films, plays, and short stories, such as playscripts and drafts of his plays, "The Jazz Singer" (1922), "Skylark" (1939), "Jason" (1942), and others; screenplays and scenarios, many in photocopy, of "Trouble in Paradise" (1932), "The Merry Widow" (1934), "The Shop Aroung the Corner" (1940), "Suspicion" (1941), "Heaven Can Wait" (1943), and many other films; and manuscripts, drafts, tearsheets, and printed copies of his short stories and articles of film and television criticism. There are also many clippings and reviews, programs, and other printed materials about his plays and films.