University of Pennsylvania Finding Aids

William Wister Haines (1908-1989) was an American author, screenwriter, and playwright, most famous for his novels Slim and High Tension, which depicted working-class protagonists during the Great Depression, and Command Decision, a play and novel depicting the final stages of World War II. This collection includes material related to his literary work, especially in the form of drafts of novels, short stories, essays and articles, screenplays and television scripts, and plays.

This collection contains some papers of the Jewish American scholar, writer and editor, Walter Hart Blumenthal (1883-1969). Although composed primarily of Blumenthal’s short stories and poetry, the collection includes one scholarly article published in 1960, titled “Spurious Shakespeare Portraiture” with some accompanying research materials. In 1965 Blumenthal compiled his poetry into the typescript of “Exit Laughing” and his short stories into “Perspectives: Stories of This Brief Tenement Wherein the Spirit Dwells”, both ultimately unpublished.

The papers document the literary career and the personal and professional life of twentieth-century American novelist and writer Waldo David Frank. Comprising correspondence, writings, publicity, writings by others, memorabilia, photographs, scrapbooks, and clippings spanning from 1879 to 1977, the collection contains 132 boxes and 3565 folders. The correspondence documents Frank's personal and professional relationships with writers, editors, artists, friends, and family. Letters from friendships with other writers and artists such as Jean Toomer, Sherwood Anderson, Alfred Stieglitz, Lewis Mumford, Van Wyck Brooks, and Hart Crane document congenial collaborations, sharing of ideas, and disagreements. The writings contain his notebooks, major works, articles, essays, and early writings tracing Frank's works and ideas of society and culture with psychological and social themes of man and his environment. Frank's passion for the culture and study of Spain, Latin America, and Mexico is apparent in correspondence and his research, preserved through notes and photographs of South America and Mexico. Letters and photographs display Frank's relationships with family members, his wives (Margaret Naumburg, Alma Magoon Frank, and Jean Klempner Frank) and his children. The materials in this collection divulge not only the writings of Waldo Frank, but the struggles of the writer and his encounters with himself and society as he seeks his vision of truth in the world. He was courageous in the face of his critics and his political enemies even when experiencing both written and physical attacks. Even though Frank claimed he was an outsider he was embraced by the people and cultures he championed and studied. Although largely forgotten by the end of his lifetime, his correspondence, writings, and ideas remain, providing insight into literary circles, political ideas, and historical events in the United States and Latin America during the early- to mid-twentieth century.

Victor Bockris (born in 1949) is a poet, editor, and biographer of artists, authors, and musicians. The Victor Bockris papers document the activities of a community of avant-garde poets and artists of the early 1970s, mainly active in Philadelphia and New York City.

Thomas Lask was the poetry editor at the New York Times. This collection consists of personal correspondence addressed to Lask and other individuals at the New York Times, as well as publications and printed material that Lask saved.

Contains 22 series, including correspondence (118 boxes); legal matters (7 boxes); writings (260 boxes), comprising books, essays, short stories, poems, plays, screenplays, radio scripts, addresses, lectures, interviews, introductions, and prefaces; journals edited by Dreiser (6 boxes); notes (9 boxes); diaries (5 boxes); biographical material (1 box); memorabilia (41 boxes), comprising scrapbooks, photographs, art work, promotional material, postcards, and miscellanea; financial records (5 boxes); clippings (23 boxes); works by others (12 boxes); and oversize materials (2 boxes). Also includes materials regarding various family members: brother Paul Dresser (8 boxes of correspondence, sheet music and lyric sheets, clippings and memorabilia, and two plays written by Dresser); second wife Helen Dreiser (4 boxes of diaries and other writings); and niece Vera Dreiser (2 boxes of correspondence).

The Little Corporal, published monthly from July 1865 to June 1875, was one of the first nationally popular American children’s magazines. The library holds issues of The Little Corporal dating from November 1870 to January 1874.

Telegraph Books (circa 1970-1972) was a publishing company founded by Victor Bockris, a poet, editor, and biographer of artists, authors, and musicians, poet Aram Saroyan, and literary agent Andrew Wylie. The Telegraph Books collection, dating from 1970 through 1972, documents the activities and functions of Telegraph Books publications in addition to the activities of Victor Bockris at that time, including audio recordings of interviews and conversations with colleagues and workshop materials.

This collection includes material collected by Siegfried Weisbeger (1896-1984), proprietor of the Peabody Book Shop in Baltimore Maryland and confidante of H.L. Mencken (1880-1956), a noted writer, editor, and social provocateur, famous for his disdain for common morals and received wisdom. The collection contains correspondence between the two men and other correspondents of the Peabody Book Shop, manuscripts and published writings by and about Mencken (many of them signed), and autobiographical writings and poems written by Weisberger.

A volume containing copied poems and elegies with Christian themes handwritten by Eliza Maria Dalton from 1840-1869.

An album containing photographs taken by an unknown person in Sri Lanka working at a British preparatory school during the years 1919 to 1932. There are two letters and some copied poems laid in the volume.

Paul Eldridge (1888-1982) was an American poet, novelist, essayist, short story writer, and teacher. Most prolific in the 1940s, Eldridge's writing focused on issues of World War II, the Israeli-Palestine conflict, and Zionist and Jewish issues more generally. This collection consists of manuscripts, typescripts, and reprographic copies of Eldridge's poems, stories, and essays; scrapbooks of clippings related to Eldridge's writing and other activities; dustjackets; photographs; issues of newspapers and periodicals in which his columns appeared; and correspondence related to Eldridge's writing and career.

Mary Colum (nee Maguire) (1884-1957) was a literary critic known for her memoir, Life and the Dream, the posthumously published Our Friend James Joyce, as well as contributions to such magazines as Scribner's, The Saturday Review of Literature, and The Forum, where she also served as literary editor. Padraic Colum (1881-1972) was a poet, playwright, novelist, biographer, and folklorist, known primarily for his collections of myths and folktales for children, his novels Castle Conquer and The Flying Swans, a volume of collected poetry, and several plays. This collection contains 20 boxes of material relating to the works and careers of Padraic and Mary Colum, the management of Padraic Colum's estate following his death, and the life of Emmet Greene, nephew of Padraic and Mary Colum and executor of Padraic Colum's estate.

Mrs. Grundy was a humor magazine published weekly from July 8 to September 23, 1865. Its staff included Dr. Alfred L. Carroll, Henry L. Stephens, Edward F. Mullen and C.D. Shanley, as well as contributors such as Thomas Nast. Each issue included articles, poems, jokes, letters to Mrs. Grundy, and illustrations. Most of the content centered around political and economic issues in New York City. This volume contains the entire run (twelve issues) of Mrs. Grundy, dating from July 8 to September 23, 1865. These issues were published weekly and generally contained: the title page drawn by Thomas Nast; a page of advertisements; short pieces, including poems, letters and articles; a full-page, unbacked cartoon, generally regarding a political topic relevant to the week, drawn by Henry L. Stephens; cartoons and/or illustrations; and jokes and mottos.

This collection contains two volumes of poems and ballads titled Mes vers by Herminie Delavault spanning the years 1840 to 1879. Written in French, the works also include verse created for the musical compositions by Delavault's husband Germain-Eugène Delavault (1814-1892). In addition, volume two contains a French translation of John Gay's libretto for Handel's Acis and Galatea.

Margaret McHenry earned her doctorate in English from the University of Pennsylvania in 1931. Her dissertation was titled "The Ulster Theatre in Ireland." Following her graduation, she taught English at Roxborough High School in Philadelphia and continued to write. This collection contains writings by Margaret McHenry, including "The Ulster Theatre in Ireland;" poetry; a biography of S. Weir Mitchell; and "A Booklover's Britain," later "England in English." For the most part, each of her works is represented by a nearly finished copy; and in some cases, with drafts and notes.

The collection comprises the personal papers of Alma Mahler, the personal and professional papers of Franz Werfel, memorabilia related to Gustav Mahler, and the research files of Adolf D. Klarmann concerning Franz Werfel. Materials include correspondence to and from Alma Mahler and Franz Werfel, as well as to and from Adolf Klarmann, sometimes on behalf of Alma; writings of Alma, such as diaries and memoirs, as well as her musical compositions; writings of Werfel, such as poems, plays, novels, novellas and stories, and essays; memorabilia relating to Alma, her parents, Gustav Mahler, and Werfel, such as clippings, programs, and personal documents; photographs; and audio files, such as interviews and songs. Also included are Klarmann’s research notes and writings on Werfel, as well as material relating to Klarmann’s work as editor of Werfel’s writings.

Julia Blumenreich is a Philadelphia-based poet and editor of the poetry journal 6ix. This collection documents her work as a poet as well as her editorship of 6ix from 1991 to 1998. To a lesser degree, the collection touches on her personal and family life with her husband Gilbert Ott (1950-2004) and her daughter Willa.

Commonplace book consisting of poems and songs kept by John Riley Marsh of Alvaston, Grange, Alvaston, Derbyshire, England written in 1829.

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 H.H. Furness Memorial Library focuses on the study of Shakespeare and other Tudor and Stuart dramatists. Horace Howard Furness (1833-1912) and his son Horace Howard Furness Jr. (1865-1930) founded and edited the Variorum Shakespeare and their library was donated to the University of Pennsylvania in 1932. This collection contains personal correspondence to and from Rev. William Henry Furness (1802-1896), Horace Howard Furness, and Horace Howard Furness, Jr., largely relating to Shakespearean study and the H.H. Furness Memorial library; notebooks; copies of speeches and articles; and other assorted items relating to Shakespearean scholarship or to the Furness family.

A volume containing the diary of Georgiana P. Miller Johnson, spanning the years 1861 to 1870. Johnson lived in Dorchester, Massachusetts.

George Henry Boker (1823-1890) was an American poet, playwright, and diplomat whose patriotic writings supported the Union government during the American Civil War. This collection contains letters to and from Boker; a small portion of financial records, largely relating to the publishing of Boker's poetry; and poems, plays and other writings by Boker.

Francis Howard Williams (1844-1922) was a Philadelphia literary critic and author whose works were featured in publications such as The Atlantic Monthly, Harper’s Weekly, Lippincott’s Magazine, and The Independent. He was the known friend of several literary greats including Walt Whitman, Louisa May Alcott, and George W. Cable and was part of a large circle of contemporary poets, writers, editors, and publishers of the time period. The collection includes letters to Williams, writings, and ephemera.

Emerson Bennett’s Dollar Monthly was a monthly magazine of literature and fashion published in Philadelphia in 1860. The magazine was edited by the prolific author of westerns and romance novels Emerson Bennett with John T. Hamelin. After the initial year of publication Bennett withdrew from his editorial duties, and Hamelin remained as the editor of the newly named American Dollar Monthly. This collection consists of volume 1 of Emerson Bennett’s Dollar Monthly bound in a single volume, dating from January to December of 1860. The magazine contains short stories, poems, articles, illustrated plates, cartoons, needle and fancy-work patterns, and regular columns. This volume contains a long serialized piece by Bennett, The Mountain Lily; or, Adventures in the Wilderness: A Companion to “Prairie Flower”, which appears in every issue. Other stories and poems by Bennett and Hamelin appear, as well as by writers Wesley Bradshaw, S. Annie Frost, Lavinia S. Goodwin, Marie T. Hamelin, Belle Bush, and others.