About Special Collections at USC
LOCATION
University of Southern California
Doheny Memorial Library, 2nd floor, South wing
3550 Trousdale Parkway
Los Angeles, CA 90089
213-740-5900
specol@usc.edu
HOURS
Monday-Friday 9am-5pm
Saturday 1pm-5pm (during the fall and spring semesters only)
Information for first time users
Learn more about Class Visits and Research Consulation
Learn more about the history of USC's Special Collections
Collection Search
American Literature Collections
The Department of Special Collections is the home for many archival collections containing materials related to 19th and 20th century American literature. Most of the people or organizations whose papers or records are held at USC either lived or worked at some point in California; many, specifically in Los Angeles.
The tabs in this libguide will take you to information about specific collections in American literature. For information about other Special Collections American literature archives, please see the lists below.
Publishers' Archives
- Cadmus Editions RecordsPublisher's archives for a number of Cadmus titles.
- Peter Shneidre papersContains the papers of Peter Shneidre, who ran the small poetry press Illuminati Press and who published a number of small poetry periodicals. This collection also includes the financial records of Illuminati Press and the Press's publication files.
- John Henry Nash brochures, folders, and fine booksContains announcements, brochures, pamphlets, greeting cards, poems, sketches, fine books, folders, and engravings by various hands designed and printed by San Francisco fine printer John Henry Nash.
- Printers' ephemeraContains miscellaneous publishers' announcements, small press keepsakes, and printing ephemera.
- R. L. Barth PapersContains manuscripts, paste-ups and file copies of small press poetry published by Barth ca. 1980-88, as well as correspondence with poets Turner Cassity, Dick Davis, John Finlay, Charles Gullans, X. J. Kennedy, Janet Lewis, Timothy Steele, and Wesley Trimpi.
19th Century
- Willard Morse Collection on Thomas Nelson PageContains book reviews and periodical appearances (originals or photostats), and an extensive typewritten bibliography on Page (1853-1922), author of short stories, novels, essays, and poetry, who is best known for his role as literary spokesman for the glories of the Old South in such works as In Ole Virginia.
- Willard Morse Collection on William Dean HowellsContains book reviews and periodical appearances (originals or photostats), and an extensive typewritten bibliography on Howells (1837-1920), author, editor, and critic, who was widely acknowledged during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries as the "Dean of American Letters."
- Willard Morse Collection on Ambrose BierceContains book reviews and periodical appearances (originals or photostats), and an extensive typewritten bibliography on Bierce (1842-1914?), journalist and author of The Devil's Dictionary and Tales of Soldiers & Civilians (1891).
- General Manuscript collectionAn artificially created collection comprised chiefly of literary works and manuscript fragments of well-known writers and other public figures.
- George Hutchings Lecture Club CorrespondenceContains George Hutchings Lecture Club correspondence consisting letters to and from literary celebrities, 1870-1910.
- Ambrose Bierce PapersContains correspondence from author Ambrose Bierce (1841-1914) to Samuel E. Loveman (1885-1976), dated 1907 to 1913.
- Hamlin Garland CollectionContains correspondence, manuscripts, literary notebooks, photographs, and other memorabilia, by and about the American realist writer (1860-1940).
20th Century
- Norman Mailer papersContains speeches, correspondence, tape recordings, drafts and galleys connected with Mailer's campaign for mayor of New York City in 1960.
- Willard Morse Collection on Sinclair LewisContains book reviews and periodical appearances (originals or photostats), and an extensive typewritten bibliography on Lewis (1885-1951), author and novelist, who was the first American to win the Nobel Prize for Literature.
- Willard Morse Collection on Vincent StarrettContains book reviews and periodical appearances (originals or photostats), and an extensive typewritten bibliography on Starrett (1886-1974), the author of mysteries and horror stories of the "Chicago Renaissance."
- Robert Lowry papersContains typescripts and galleys of various books by American journalist, editor, and novelist Robert Lowry (1919-1994).
- Jack Hirschman papersContains manuscripts of Hirschman's Requiem and Hunger, typescript translations of Russian writer Alexander Kohan and Bukowski ephemera.
- Willard Morse Collection on Edgar Lee MastersContains book reviews and periodical appearances (originals or photostats), and an extensive typewritten bibliography on Masters (1868-1950), poet and author most widely known for "The Spoon River Anthology."
- Willard Morse Collection on Henry Van DykeContains book reviews and periodical appearances (originals or photostats), and an extensive typewritten bibliography on Van Dyke (1852-1933), minister and author of popular Christmas sermons, essays, and short stories.
- Ray Bradbury papersContains signed typescripts of Ray Bradbury's short stories "The Everlasting Clock," "The Man Upstairs," "Powerhouse," and "Skeleton." Also included in the collection are his introduction to Jules Verne's Mysterious Island and six letters from Bradbury to Dorothy Faulkner, dated 1950-1962.
- Anne Hawkins papersContains notebooks, galleys, drafts, and outlines for Anne Hawkins’ books about the Pony Express, along with some of her correspondence. Hawkins was a stenographer who lived in Southern California and was the author of Too Like the Lightning, Pony Express and To the Swift.
- Antonio Heras papersContains the papers of Antonio Heras, who was a professor of Spanish and Spanish Literature at USC from 1925-1950, including manuscripts and typescripts of his articles and stories, research notes, clippings, correspondence and diaries.
- Aldous Huxley papersContains financial records of Aldous Huxley dated 1957-1962.
- Anne Roller Issler papersContains typescripts for Anne Roller Issler’s work on Robert Louis Stevenson’s time spent in San Francisco between December 1879 and May 1880. The work, Happier for His Presence: San Francisco and Robert Louis Stevenson, was published by Stanford University Press in 1949.
- Arthur Lerner collection on Poetry TherapyContains publications pertaining to poetry therapy collected by Arthur Lerner, as well as a small amount of his correspondence.
- Frederick Shroyer papersContains the papers of Frederick Shroyer, who was a professor of English and American Literature at California State University--Los Angeles.
- Irving Shulman papersContains the papers of the novelist, screenwriter, and biographer Irving Shulman, including manuscripts and typescripts of screenplays, short stories, novels, and biographies.
- William Van Wyck papersContains two scrapbooks, typed poems, correspondence, memoirs, and drafts of published works by William Van Wyck.
- Irving Wallace papersContains the papers of the screenwriter and novelist Irving Wallace, including include correspondence, research notes, proofs, and typescripts for some of his stories, screenplays, and novels.
- Watts Writers' Workshop stories, lesson books, and other materialContains clippings about the workshop and works by Jimmie Sherman, one of the Workshop’s members.
- Leonard Wibberley papersContains the papers of the author Leonard Wibberley (1915-1983).
- Kenneth Rexroth papersContains the papers of Kenneth Rexroth, American poet and activist, comprise manuscripts, notes, printed material, publications, correspondence, and ephemera related to poetry, writing, speaking engagements, and teaching, primarily from the last decade of his life; also included are correspondence, manuscripts, drawings, photographs, and edits compiled by Geoffrey Gardner for a Kenneth Rexroth festschrift published in 1980.
- Charles Bukowski papersContains drafts of Women, Factotum, Ham on Rye, Post Office, and Barfly, screenplays based on Bukowski's (1920-1994) fiction, periodical appearances, tape recordings and ephemera.
- Lawrence Lipton PapersContains business files, tax records, and correspondence, typescripts, photographs, clippings, literary journals, tape recorded interviews, readings, and radio programs, and Lipton's (1890-1975) archives for his "Radio Free America" column in the Los Angeles Free Press.
- Stephen Longstreet papersContains typescripts, galleys, drawings for published books by Longstreet.
- Lawrence Ferlinghetti PapersContains tapes, clippings, periodicals, correspondence of the San Francisco poet and publisher.
- Poets Garden recordsContains publications, letters, diaries, and memorabilia of the literary group created by Los Angeles poet Ruth Le Prade.
- Ruper Hughes papersContains archives of the novelist, biographer, screenwriter, and musicologist, including subject files, typescripts, correspondence, published articles, and personal memorabilia.
- Collection of Jack London letters, articles, and typescriptsContains letters, articles, typescripts of stories written by American author Jack London.
- Carol Muske-Dukes papersContains the literary works, academic files, and personal papers of Carol Muske-Dukes, California poet laureate and USC professor of creative writing.
- Poe Society recordsContains reports of meetings, correspondence, articles by members of the Poe Society of Baltimore, ca. 1924-1928.
- Charles Bonner papersContains typescripts of Bonner's (1896-1965) novels Legacy (Knopf, 1940), Angel Casey (Knopf, 1941), and Ambition (Coward-McCann, 1946).
- William White collection on John P. MarquandContains books, magazine and anthology appearances by novelist John P. Marquand (1893-1960), together with bibliographic notes on Marquand assembled by Prof. William White.
- Paul Bowles papersContains correspondence, periodical appearances, tape recordings and a typed draft and galleys for Bowles's autobiography, Without Stopping (Putnam, 1972).
- Tom Clark PapersContains drafts and galleys of Writer: A Life of Jack Kerouac and The Exile of Celine, a Kerouac chronology, notes for the 1986 Olson Lectures, holograph notebooks and typescript poems and articles by Clark.
- Craig Rice PapersContains personal and business correspondence and typescripts, ca. 1950-55, by Rice (nee Georgiana Ann Randolph).
- Elbert Hubbard PapersContains small broadsides, minor publications by "The Roycrofters" and correspondence between Hubbard (1856-1915) and J. E. Woodhead.
- Lionel Menuhin Rolfe PapersContains srticles (some photocopied), ca. 1964 - present, on Southern California literature, politics, entertainment, and Jewish subjects, by journalist Lionel Rolfe (b.1942); includes preliminary studies for Rolfe's Literary L.A., research materials, and related materials by writer Nigey Lennon (b. 1954).
- Harriet Howe papersContains typescript poetry, scrapbook, story drafts by an active supporter of equal rights for women.
- Joshua Odell collection on Richard WilberCollection of books by and about the American poet and Pulitzer Prize winner (1921 - ); includes keepsakes and broadsides.
- Elizabeth Corbett PapersContains correspondence between novelist Corbett (b. 1887, Aurora, Ill., d. 1981, New York, NY) and Laura Burmeister; includes typescript poems.
- Collection on Carl SandburgContains articles, clippings, and photographs on the life of the poet and biographer, as well as miscellaneous books by Sandburg (1878-1967).
Loading...
