Search

The collection contains writings and research material on seventy utopian associations compiled by A. J. MacDonald for his proposed volume "The Communities of the United States." The contents range from notes and brief sketches of communities to more extensive profiles based on Macdonald's personal visits, his interviews with residents and colleagues, and transcriptions from contemporary publications. Also included are the printed materials such as prospectuses, constitutions and by-laws, and stock certificates that he collected in his travels, and visual material from published wood engravings to the graphite and watercolor sketches Macdonald made on site. Utopian communities particularly well represented are the Brook Farm Phalanx, the Clermont Phalanx, New Harmony, the Icarian Community, the North American Phalanx, the Oneida Community, the Prairie Home Community, the Skaneateles Community, the Sylvania Association, the Wisconsin Phalanx, and several Shaker settlements. Macdonald also wrote about two communities outside the United States, the Brazilian Experiment and the Venezuelan Experiment of the Tropical Emigration Society, and about the utopian leaders A. J. Davis, Charles Fourier, Orson S. Murray, Robert Owen, Jemima Wilkinson, and Frances Wright.

The Dudley Fitts Papers consists chiefly of writings and correspondence relating to the production of the first American edition of An Anthology of Contemporary Latin-American Poetry (New Directions, 1942).

The papers contain most of Asch's major works as a novelist, including the controversial Der Man fun Notseres. The Writings series which is made up of Novels, Plays, Essays and Appeals and Other Writings, are written mostly in Yiddish, and includes reviews, playbills, programs, photographs of productions of plays. The correspondence is a selection of letters to Asch from many prominent Jewish writers and organizations. There is a series of letters from Stefan Zweig, as well as a large amount of correspondence with PEN clubs throughout Europe. Asch's concern for the Jews in Europe before and after the second World War is a constant subject in his writings and correspondence. There are also photographs of Asch and his family and friends, clippings of articles about Asch, postcards, and a bust of Asch by Morice Lipsi.

The Damon Runyon papers contain correspondence, writings, photographs, scrapbooks, films, and other papers documenting the literary and personal activities of American author Damon Runyon.

Six typed manuscripts (draft copies, with author's corrections) comprising "Abroad with General Wladyslaw Sikorski: Fragments of Wartime Reminiscences from the Years 1939-43" (draft of Z Gen. Sikorskim Na Obczy´znie); "Kowno Reminiscences", 1946 (draft of Wspomnienia Kowie´nskie); "At the Combined Chiefs of Staff of the Western Allies, 1943-1945" (draft of W Najwyzszym Sztabie Zachodnich Aliantów 1943-1945); "At the Combined Chiefs of Staff: Wartime Reminiscences, 1943-1945" (draft of W Najwyzszym Sztabie Zachodnich Aliantów 1943-1945; "Assorted Articles".

The papers consist largely of motion picture film used in the production of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and Slaughterhouse-Five. Additional materials include the production files, action photographs, and story boards from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, as well as interviews and other documentation used for the documentary The Making of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

The records consist of student records of the Yale Department of History.

Probate record books, 1854-1958; Probate files, 1833-1976.

The Charles H. Hapgood Papers consist of correspondence, manuscripts, and research materials related to Hapgood's research projects and publications on earth science, archeology, ancient history, parapsychology, and spirit communication.

Letters to Gertrude Buckman from various writers, poets, and editors, including John Berryman, James Laughlin, Adrienne Rich, Kurt Vonnegut, and Robert Penn Warren. Letters date from circa 1944-1997 and include a small amount of letters from unidentified correspondents.