University of Pennsylvania Finding Aids

Collection contains 54 boxes of professional and family correspondence; 68 boxes of writings by Brooks, including typescripts, galleys, and notes for books, articles, prefaces, and addresses, as well as juvenalia, diaries, and notebooks; and 20 boxes of memorabilia, photographs, and newspaper clippings.

Howard Melvin Fast (1914-2003) was a best-selling and prolific American author of historical fiction, mysteries, and science fiction, known for his books on themes of patriotism, social justice, and the immigrant experience. He wrote nearly 100 books and more than 150 short stories, as well as numerous screenplays, stage plays, and newspaper columns. The Howard Fast papers include correspondence, journals, appointment books, address books, financials, writings, promotion and reviews, scrapbooks, biographies, profiles, chronologies, bibliographies, interviews, governmental and political files, vital records, personal documents, awards, photographs, artwork, and audiovisual materials. The papers were deposited at the University of Pennsylvania over the course of 45 years and represent nearly all facets of the writer's life.

The Davis Grange (a subchapter of the Pennsylvania State Grange and the National Grange of the Order of Patrons of Husbandry) was founded sometime in the late 19th or early 20th centuries, and was based in Eighty-Four, Washington County, Pennsylvania. The Davis Grange No. 1466 records date from 1925 to 1960, and include materials documenting the meetings, activities, and membership of the Davis Grange. This collection documents the life of an agricultural community in rural Pennsylvania and Pennsylvania State Grange activities in Washington County. The minute books in particular are a rich source of information and include records of members, such as their names, their activities, their accomplishments, and notices of their deaths.