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The Helen and Kurt Wolff Papers consist of correspondence, manuscripts, printed material, and personal papers documenting the professional lives of Helen and Kurt Wolff through their affiliations with Kurt Wolff Verlag, Pantheon Books, and Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
Series I, Correspondence, consists predominantly of professional correspondence with authors, publishers, and translators, though correspondence can also be found with friends, editors, literary agents, periodicals, and organizations. There are authors' files for Joy Adamson, Hermann Broch, Max Frisch, Günter Grass, Julien Green, Donald Harington, Uwe Johnson, Carl Gustav Jung and his editor Aniela Jaffé, Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Konrad Lorenz, Jan Morris, Iris Origo, Amos Oz, Boris Pasternak, and Georges Simenon. Other noteworthy files exist for Hannah Arendt, Kurt von Faber du Faur, and translator Ralph Manheim. In addition to correspondence with various European publishers, there are large files of internal Pantheon Books and Harcourt Brace Jovanovich correspondence, and with individual colleagues, including William Jovanovich, Kyrill Schabert, and Wolfgang Sauerländer.
Series II, Kurt Wolff Verlag, consists of a small group of chiefly printed ephemera, as well as a list of KWV titles. Series III, Pantheon Books Papers, is subdivided for writings, financial and legal documents, and other papers. There are drafts of manuscripts, including corrected typescript carbons of Jung's Memories, Dreams, Reflections, marked printed versions of non-English language editions, reader reports, and printed publicity and reviews. Financial and legal documents include contracts, minutes, and statements and auditors' reports. Other papers include lists of Pantheon titles from 1946-1961.
Series IV, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Papers, is subdivided for writings, financial and legal documents, and other papers. Materials include drafts, marked printed versions of non-English language editions, reader reports, printed publicity and reviews, photographs, and lists. There are corrected drafts of manuscripts by Bryher, Günter Grass, Uwe Johnson, Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Henry Michaux, and others. Financial records include contracts and royalty statements from 1981-1993.
Series V, Writings, is subdivided for the wiritings of Kurt Wolff, Helen Wolff, and others. There are several essays by Kurt Wolff on writers and publishing that appeared as radio broadcasts in the early 1960s. Subjects include Expressionism, Carl Sternheim, Franz Kafka, Karl Kraus, Lou Andreas-Salomé, and Franz Werfel. The writings of Helen Wolff include corrected typescript drafts of articles on publishing and translating and drafts of commemorative reminiscences on authors, friends, and colleagues, including translator Richard Winston. The writings of others include clippings and printed versions of articles.
Series VI, Subject Files, consists chiefly of clippings on writers and publishers and Series VII, Personal Papers, consists chiefly of printed ephemera.