Collections : [Rare Book & Manuscript Library]

This collection contains the correspondence, editorial files and office files of the Columbia University Press, primarily from its reorganization in 1923 by Frederick Coykendall to the present.

Letters written to MacAlarney from well-known literary figures such as Franklin P. Adams, Irving Bacheller, Henry Arthur Jones, Joseph Hergesheimer, Rose O'Neill, and Gilbert Parker. Many of the letters concern the use of writers' stories or books for motion picture production. Other letters concern publication in the LADIES HOME JOURNAL.

Letters and manuscripts of Evelyn Waugh, including letters written to Sr. Jaime Potenze, and a series of eight pen-and-ink drawings done by the novelist for the limited edition of BLACK MISCHIEF, ca. 1932. The scenario for the MGM film of his THE LOVED ONE (1966), screenplay by Terry Southern and Christopher Isherwood, has been added. Also, thirteen letters from Evelyn Gardner Waugh to John Maxse.

Correspondence, playscripts, screenplays, scenarios, short stories, and other manuscripts, drafts, photocopies, contracts and other documents, tearsheets, clippings, and other materials relating to his career as a screenwriter, playwright, and author of short stories. Correspondence with friends, students, admirers, and professional colleagues concern his teaching, playwriting, films, articles, photography, and literary topics. There are also two groups of letters from students and readers about his textbook, "The Human Nature of Playwriting" (1949). Among the cataloged correspondence are William Gibson, MacKinlay Kantor, Anna Louise Strong, Louis Untermeyer, and Carl Van Doren. Included are manuscripts, drafts, or photocopies of almost all his films, plays, and short stories, such as playscripts and drafts of his plays, "The Jazz Singer" (1922), "Skylark" (1939), "Jason" (1942), and others; screenplays and scenarios, many in photocopy, of "Trouble in Paradise" (1932), "The Merry Widow" (1934), "The Shop Aroung the Corner" (1940), "Suspicion" (1941), "Heaven Can Wait" (1943), and many other films; and manuscripts, drafts, tearsheets, and printed copies of his short stories and articles of film and television criticism. There are also many clippings and reviews, programs, and other printed materials about his plays and films.