Edna Ferber papers, 1903-1998

Author / Creator

Ferber, Edna, 1887-1968

Available as

Physical

Summary

Papers of a Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist and playwright. The bulk of the collection consists of correspondence, manuscript drafts, research material, notes and reviews of some of her novels, sho...

Papers of a Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist and playwright. The bulk of the collection consists of correspondence, manuscript drafts, research material, notes and reviews of some of her novels, short stories, and autobiographical writings. Of these, "Cimarron" (1929), "Giant" (1952), "Great Son" (1944), and "Ice Palace" (1958) are best represented. Also included are scripts, reviews. financial information, and correspondence related to theater scripts such as collaborations with George V. Hobart, as well as adaptations of her work by others. Of the many film adaptations of her novels, the collection includes variant scripts for "Giant" and reviews and correspondence for several other productions.

General correspondence contains letters from family, friends, and notables such as Louis Bromfield, Noel Coward, Jay N. Darling, Moss Hart and Kitty Carlisle Hart, Malcolm Johnson, Daniel Longwell, Kenneth D. McCormick, H. L. Mencken, William Lyon Phelps, Robert Sherwood, Louis Untermeyer, Alexander Woollcott, Rebecca West, and William Allen White. Other correspondence concerns relations with her literary agents and her editors, her coverage of the Lindbergh kidnapping trial for the "New York Times," and her attempts to bring her Jewish relatives to the United States prior to World War II. Miscellaneous papers include research material about Ferber collected by her great-niece Julie Goldsmith Gilbert, a taped recording of Ferber reading, personal and literary financial papers, speeches, and photographs.

The processed portion is summarized above and is described in the register. Additional accessions are described below.

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