The papers document aspects of Purdy's early literary career. Major correspondents include Carl Van Vechten, John Cowper Powys, Edith Sitwell,Paul Bowles, and Gerald Brenan.
The Carl Van Vechten Letters to Saul Mauriber date from April 1943 to December 1965, and include typed and manuscript notes, letters, greeting cards, postcards, and telegrams documenting their relationship over twenty years.
The papers contain correspondence, diaries, writings, subject files, and personal papers of John Breon concerning his World War II experiences, correspondents include Pat Carroll, Charles Cerbone, Gertrude Stein, Alice B. Toklas, and Carl Van Vechten.
The Chester Himes Papers consist of original manuscripts, correspondence, photographs and artwork that document his long career as a writer. The manuscripts offer insight into Himes's creative process and many of them also represent the original versions and original titles for works that were later altered for publication. The bulk of the correspondence reveals Himes's relationship with the publishers and editors of his books and also offers a glimpse into the author's thoughts on his own work. The photographs and artwork document Himes's life with his family, friends and colleagues.
A collection of one hundred drawings by the self-taught African American artist Mary A. Bell, featuring glamorously dressed and accessorized women and men engaged in courtship activities, or women centered in domestic or garden settings. Many of the images have religious iconography as well as animals, birds, plants, and children, with houses or other buildings placed distantly in the background. The drawings range in size from 78 x 52 to 51 x 39 cm. and were executed in crayon, colored pencil, and graphite on a lightweight wove tissue or pattern paper. Bell mounted each drawing on a second sheet of lightweight paper that she wrapped around all four edges to create the effect of a frame, then attached small paper tags to the top edges of the frames onto which she inscribed a title, phrase, description, or other caption; some drawings have larger paper tags attached to their versos with poems or lengthier inscriptions. Bell signed a few drawings with her initials "M.B." and included Carl Van Vechten's initials ("Mr. C.V.") in one work titled "Happy thoughts." The drawings are not dated but were made in the years after her retirement and before her hospitalization.
Correspondence, writings, diaries, photographs, artwork, research materials, printed materials, and other papers by, to, or related to Samuel Steward. Correspondents include Gertrude Stein, Alice B. Toklas, George Platt Lynes, and Thornton Wilder. Writings include drafts of homoerotic novels written under the nom de plume Phil Andros, and a translation of Querelle of Brest by Jean Genet. A focus of the papers is Steward's sexual exploits, which are documented in diaries, photographs, and other papers, including Steward's stud file cataloging his sexual partners and records and writings produced for sexologist Alfred Kinsey. The papers also include writings, photographs, clippings, artwork, and other materials related to Steward's work as a tattoo artist, including correspondence from Don Ed Hardy. Artwork includes pen and ink tracings of illustrations by Jean Cocteau, for Genet's Querelle, a portrait of Gertrude Stein by Carl Van Vechten inscribed by Stein, and a charcoal portrait of Alice B. Toklas.
The Bruce Kellner Papers consist of letters to Kellner and other papers, including two poems by Fania Marinoff, actress and wife of Carl Van Vechten, a list of Marinoff's appearances on stage and in films, and a portion of Marinoff's last will and testament. Correspondents include Donald Gallup, Carl Van Vechten, Alice B. Toklas, Donald Windham, Fania Marinoff, Donald Angus, and others.
The Richard Wright Papers contain manuscripts, correspondence with other writers such as Nelson Algren, Arna Bontemps, Ralph Ellison, Chester Himes, Langston Hughes, Gunnar Myrdal and Margaret Walker, photographs, financial and legal documents and printed materials relating to the life and work of Richard Wright. Included are drafts of such works as Black Boy and Native Son, photographs of trips to Spain and Ghana, various items of personal memorabilia such as Wright's Spingarn Medal, and a film of Wright's screen test for the movie version of "Native Son".
Collection contains correspondence, photographs, and other materials documenting the life and career of painter Jared French and a circle of friends and collaborators. Correspondence with individuals and cultural institutions, chiefly museums and galleries, document French's personal and professional affairs, with significant representation from members of the literary and artistic and gay male communities in New York during the middle decades of the twentieth century. In addition to large groups of letters from his wife Margaret (Hoening) French and painter Paul Cadmus, correspondents include Jack Dunphy, E. M. Forster, Edward Hopper, Lincoln Kirstein, George Platt Lynes, Bernard Perlin, George Tooker, Carl Van Vechten, Glenway Wescott, Monroe Wheeler, and Donald Windham. Photographs in the collection document French's personal relationships, interests in classical statuary and architecture, and artistic collaborations. Travel photographs depict statuary, architecture, and public scenes and events, with groups, travel companions, and friends. Some photographs appear to have been taken during the early 1950s in Europe, mostly in Italy (Florence). Others, depicting scenes in Europe, Vermont, New York City, and Coney Island, date from the 1920s through 1940s. People present include Jared and Margaret French, Paul Cadmus, E. M. Forster, Lincoln Kirstein, Osbert Sitwell, and others. Photographs from the "PaJaMa" collective formed by French with his wife and Cadmus, many of which were taken during the 1930s and 1940s on Fire Island, Provincetown, and Nantucket beaches, include George Tooker, Lincoln Kirstein, Truman Capote, George Platt Lynes, Donald Windham, Jack Dunphy, and Monroe Wheeler.
Connecticut's Archives Online