University of Pennsylvania Finding Aids

August Mencken (1889-1967) was an American civil engineer and author. This collection comprises August Mencken’s correspondence regarding his brother, H.L. Mencken, his research and work on a scale model of the Confederate cruiser Alabama, and miscellaneous collected writings from friends and colleagues.

Edward Sculley Bradley (1897-1987) was a scholar, author, educator, and administrator at the University of Pennsylvania. He was a prolific writer and editor, serving as editor of the General Magazine and History Chronicle, Philadelphia, 1945-1956. He published biographies of literary figures George Henry Boker and Henry Charles Lea, as well as editions of works by Mark Twain, Stephen Crane, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Walt Whitman. Bradley was considered an international expert on Whitman, editing several important editions of the poet's Leaves of Grass. The Sculley Bradley papers include his personal and professional correspondence dating from 1923 to 1962, material from several literary censorship cases for which he testified, corrected drafts of his manuscripts for the Comprehensive Reader's Edition, Norton Critical Edition, and Variorum edition of Leaves of Grass, ephemera and graphics associated with Walt Whitman, and a small amount of material on other authors.

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.