This collection is located on-site.
This collection has no restrictions.
The collection consists mainly of drafts, both hand-written and typed, for various writings and lectures. Particularly well-represented is Fadiman's work for Encyclopaedia Britannica and the Book-of-the-Month club. Some correspondence and research materials are also included in the collection.
This collection is arranged in 4 series, the contents of each arranged alphabetically.
You will need to make an appointment in advance to use this collection material in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library reading room. You can schedule an appointment once you've submitted your request through your Special Collections Research Account.
This collection is located on-site.
This collection has no restrictions.
Reproductions may be made for research purposes. The RBML maintains ownership of the physical material only. Copyright remains with the creator and his/her heirs. The responsibility to secure copyright permission rests with the patron.
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Clifton Fadiman papers; Box and Folder; Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Columbia University Library.
George Macy Papers, 1916-1970 at the Rare Book & Manuscript Library
Gilbert Highet Papers, 1929-1978 at the Rare Book & Manuscript Library
Ralph Thompson Papers 1944-1956 at the Rare Book & Manuscript Library
Reminiscences of Clifton Fadiman: oral history, 1955 at the Oral History Research Office, Rare Book & Manuscript Library
Materials may have been added to the collection since this finding aid was prepared. Contact rbml@columbia.edu for more information.
Source of acquisition--Fadiman, Clifton. Date of acquisition--1969. Accession number--M-69.
Columbia University Libraries, Rare Book and Manuscript Library
Cataloged Christina Hilton Fenn 06/--/89.
Collection reprocessed Marina Kastan, Pratt Institute, Class of 2012 11/--/2010.
Finding aid written Marina Kastan, Pratt Institute, Class of 2012 11/--/2010.
2010-12-16 xml document instance created by Marina Kastan, Pratt Institute, Class of 2012.
2019-05-20 EAD was imported spring 2019 as part of the ArchivesSpace Phase II migration.
Clifton P. Fadiman (1904-1999), known to friends as Kip, was a well-known author, editor, and broadcast personality. Born in Brooklyn to Russian immigrant parents, Fadiman developed an interest in language and literature very early on. He attended Columbia University, and graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1925. After beginning his career as an editor at Simon and Schuster, Fadiman worked as the book review editor for The New Yorker from 1933 to 1943. In 1938, Fadiman was hired as the host of a radio quiz show called Information Please. The show ran for over ten years; after it was taken off the air, Fadiman hosted a number of other radio and television programs.
In 1944 Fadiman became an editor and judge for the Book-of-the-Month club, a position he held for over fifty years. He was also a consultant and contributor to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, for which he wrote an article on children's literature of which he was especially proud. Children's literature was a life-long interest; he edited the World Treasury of Children's Literature, published in 1984, and wrote a book review column in the children's magazine Cricket (of which he was a senior editor). Fadiman was an extremely prolific author, writing on subjects from poetry to mathematics to wine, and the editor of numerous anthologies and collections. In 1993 he was honored with the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters.
Fadiman married Pauline Elizabeth Rush in 1927. The couple had a son, Jonathan Rush. In 1949 they divorced, and Fadiman married Annalee Jacoby the next year. They had two children, Kim and Anne. Fadiman died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 95.
The subject headings listed below are found in this collection. Links below allow searches for other collections at Columbia University, through CLIO, the catalog for Columbia University Libraries, and through ArchiveGRID, a catalog that allows users to search the holdings of multiple research libraries and archives.
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This series consists of various writing projects, including the obituary of Harry Scherman, a fellow Columbia graduate and the founder of the Book-of-the-Month club, and the forewords to several books. In the case of A Visit from Saint Nicholas, correspondence and research materials on Clement Clark Moore sent to Fadiman by his publisher are included in addition to Fadiman's drafts of the introduction. The series also contains an essay entitled "What Makes a Teacher Great?" about Mark van Doren, who taught at Columbia from 1920 to 1959.
Box 1 Folder 1
Box 1 Folder 2
Box 1 Folder 3
(Essay in Sherry-Lehmann Summer Sale Catalog)
Box 1 Folder 4
Box 1 Folder 5
Box 1 Folder 6
(Introduction, Correspondence, and Research Materials)
Box 1 Folder 7
This series is comprised of Fadiman's notes for several lectures on the topics of literature and communication.
Box 1 Folder 8
Box 1 Folder 9
Box 1 Folder 10
Box 1 Folder 11
Box 1 Folder 12
Box 1 Folder 13
This series contains drafts of and papers relating to Fadiman's work for the Encyclopaedia Britannica Company.
Included in this sub-series are research materials and numerous drafts of the article on children's literature that Fadiman wrote for theBritannica.
Box 2 Folder 1
Box 2 Folder 2
Box 2 Folder 3 to 6
Box 2 Folder 7
This sub-series contains documents related to some of Fadiman's other projects for the Encyclopaedia Britannica company, such as theYoung Children's Encyclopaedia, referred to in Fadiman's notes as the "pre-reader." Fadiman was editor ofBritannica'sHumanities Film Series from 1969 to 1981, and this series contains two of his film reviews. Also included is a translation of Wilhelm von Humboldt's "On the External and Internal Organization of the Berlin Institutions of Higher Learning," and a letter from Fadiman harshly criticizing the piece and its author.
Box 3 Folder 1
Box 3 Folder 2
Box 3 Folder 3
(Chapter Head Notes for the 1971 Edition)
Box 3 Folder 4
(Translation forGreat Ideas Today),
Box 3 Folder 5
This series consists of book reviews that Fadiman wrote for the Book-of-the-Month club newsletter.
Box 3 Folder 6
Box 3 Folder 7
Box 3 Folder 8
Box 3 Folder 9
Box 3 Folder 10