Clarence Day papers

Description data TOP

unitid

{"value"=>"MssCol 741", "type"=>"local_call"}

{"value"=>"741", "type"=>"local_mss"}

unitdate

{"value"=>"1796-1993", "type"=>"inclusive", "normal"=>"1796/1993"}

{"value"=>"1890-1953", "type"=>"bulk", "normal"=>"1890/1953"}

date_inclusive_start

1796

date_inclusive_end

1993

keydate

1796

unittitle

{"value"=>"Clarence Day papers"}

physdesc

{"format"=>"simple", "value"=>"110 linear feet (249 boxes"}

repository

{"value"=>"The <span class=\"corpname\">New York Public Library. Manuscripts and Archives Division.</span> <div class=\"address\"> <span class=\"addressline\">5th Avenue and 42nd Street, New York, New York 10018-2788</span></div>"}

abstract

{"value"=>"The Clarence Day Papers document the literary career, business activity, personal life and family background of the author and illustrator. The papers include personal and professional correspondence; notebooks, manuscripts, typescripts, galley proofs and publication tearsheets; business and financial records; family papers; news clippings and literary reference files; school and college records; drawings, photographs and artifacts. Correspondents include Helen Dore Boylston, Henry Canby, Paul De Kruif, Francis Hackett, Learned Hand, Carl Hovey, Albert G. Keller, Troy Kinney, Sonya Levien, Rose Wilder Lane, Alice Duer Miller, Elsie Clews Parsons, William Lyon Phelps, Harold Ross, Miriam Finn Scott, Upton Sinclair, Signe Toksvig, E. B. White and Katharine White. The Clarence Day Papers are an important resource for the study of American magazine literature during the 1910s-1930s, and provide essential background information regarding Day's most popular and enduring work, <span class=\"title\">Life With Father</span>."}

langmaterial

{"value"=>"English"}

prefercite

{"value"=>"<p>Clarence Day Papers, Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations.</p>"}

origination

{"value"=>"Day, Clarence, 1874-1935", "type"=>"persname"}

bioghist

{"value"=>"<p>Author and illustrator Clarence Day, best known for his book <span class=\"title\">Life With Father</span>, was born in New York City on November 18, 1874. He was the eldest son of Clarence Day, Sr., a successful stock broker, and Lavinia Stockwell Day, a native of Painesville, Ohio. His grandfather was Benjamin H. Day (1810-1889), a printer and journalist who founded the <span class=\"title\">New York Sun</span>. Clarence Day was educated at Columbia Grammar School in Manhattan, St. Paul's School in New Hampshire, and Yale College, where he received a B.A. degree in 1896. After graduating, Day lived in New York City and worked in his father's brokerage house. In his spare hours he socialized with fellow Yale alumni and volunteered as a canvasser for the Citizens Union, a civic association which opposed Tammany Hall in the 1897 mayoral election.</p> <p>In the spring of 1898 Day left Wall Street and joined the U. S. Navy, then mobilizing its forces for the Spanish-American War. He served as paymaster aboard the <span class=\"title\">Nahant</span>, a Civil War-era monitor that stayed close to New York harbor throughout the conflict. During his military service, Day suffered the first symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis, a chronic disease marked by inflammation of the joints, stiffness and severe pain. He spent much of the next decade travelling in the western United States, hoping that a dry climate, together with the medical treatments he took at spas visited along the way, would cure him. Day read widely and corresponded with friends and family including his sister-in-law Wilhelmine Johnson Day; his cousin Julia Stockwell; the poet Alice Duer Miller; and Yale sociologist Albert G. Keller. Many of his letters and postcards were illustrated with humorous sketches done in the same casual style as the drawings and cartoons he would later publish in magazines, newspapers and books. Day's physical condition steadily worsened, and he eventually chose to settle permanently in New York City, where he treated his illness primarily with massage and bed rest. For many years he lived in the home of his parents on East 68th Street, but later moved into his own Manhattan apartment.</p> <p>During the early 1900s Clarence Day was active in the alumni affairs of Yale University. He was for several years the owner of the <span class=\"title\">Yale Alumni Weekly</span>, and served as an adviser to the magazine's editor, Edwin Oviatt. In 1908, he helped his brother George, who was about to begin a long career as Treasurer of Yale, to establish the Yale University Press. Clarence Day also served several terms as Secretary of his graduating class. In this position, he corresponded with 1896 alumni and compiled several editions of a \"Class Book\" that reported on their activities. The short biographical portraits of his classmates that he wrote for the 1915 edition, known as <span class=\"title\">The '96 Half-way Book</span>, were widely admired. Day's extensive correspondence and literary work on behalf of his alma mater gave him a great deal of satisfaction, and also led him to discover his vocation as an author. During the early 1910s, he began to compose short poems and stories and to draw cartoons that he submitted to popular magazines and newspapers. <span class=\"title\">The Metropolitan Magazine</span> and <span class=\"title\">Harper's Weekly</span> were among the first to print his work. In addition, several of his cartoons and verses in support of voting rights for women appeared in pro-suffrage publications. By the end of the decade, Clarence Day was an established literary professional with numerous publication credits and a regular column in the mass-circulation <span class=\"title\">Metropolitan Magazine</span>. His first book, <span class=\"title\">This Simian World</span>, was published by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. in 1920. This wry commentary on the sociological consequences of mankind's evolution from apes received positive reviews, though its sales were modest.</p> <p>As his literary career took shape, Clarence Day settled into a daily routine that he followed, with little variation, for the rest of his life. It was his habit to sleep during the morning and early afternoon hours, and to receive visitors in the evening or at night. Whether entertaining family, friends or new acquaintances, Day was an informal host who rarely wore more than a crepe dressing gown. He saw visitors in the bedroom which also served as his office, surrounded by his books, letters, manuscripts and drawings. By most accounts, Day was highly charismatic and an inquisitive, sophisticated conversationalist. He worked in the late night hours from his bed. To ease the pain of his arthritis he usually wrote or drew with his hand suspended over the pad by a trolley and sling. Day read dozens of newspapers and periodicals and maintained extensive clipping and subject files. He conducted a wide-ranging correspondence with writers, artists and intellectuals including Henry Canby, Francis Hackett, Troy Kinney, Rose Wilder Lane, Sonya Levien, Philip Littell, Elsie Clews Parsons, Signe Toksvig, E. B. White and Katharine White.</p> <p>In addition to his literary work, Clarence Day devoted much time to business and family affairs. He owned and managed a large stock portfolio, and over the years ran several businesses in collaboration with his brother Julian, who had settled in England. He also oversaw the financial affairs of his brother Harold, who suffered from traumatic epilepsy as the result of a childhood accident. Clarence, George and Julian Day settled the estates left to them by Clarence Day, Sr. (d.1927) and Lavinia Day (d.1929). In 1922, Day met Katharine Dodge, a young art librarian who worked for him briefly as a secretary. Their relationship soon developed into a romance, and they were married in 1928. A daughter, Wilhelmine (Wendy) Day, was born in 1931.</p> <p>By that time Clarence Day had achieved notable success as a writer and illustrator. He was widely admired for his subtle observations of modern civilization and human nature, and his ability to render them in clear, comic prose. His essays, book reviews, short stories, verses and cartoons appeared in <span class=\"title\">Harper's Magazine</span>, <span class=\"title\">The New Republic</span>, <span class=\"title\">Ladies Home Journal</span>, <span class=\"title\">The Metropolitan Magazine</span>, <span class=\"title\">The New York American</span>, and <span class=\"title\">The New Yorker</span>. Day's second book, <span class=\"title\">The Crow's Nest</span> (1921), was a collection of essays and stories drawn from his early magazine and newspaper work. <span class=\"title\">Thoughts Without Words</span>, a book of satiric drawings accompanied by short poems, appeared in 1928. But Day achieved his greatest popularity in the 1930s with the publication of a series of comic memoirs of family life centered on the character of Father, based on Clarence Day, Sr. A first volume on the subject, <span class=\"title\">God and My Father</span>, appeared in 1932 and was followed by several stories in <span class=\"title\">The New Yorker</span>. These were collected and published by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. as <span class=\"title\">Life With Father</span> (1935), an instant best-seller and Day's most enduring work. In the book, Father appears as an assertive, supremely confident Victorian confounded by modern social relations, mechanical devices and urban rhythms. Day renders Father's straightforward, blustery approach to complex problems with a clear prose noted by contemporaries for its sly irony and touching nostalgia.</p> <p>Clarence Day died of pneumonia on December 28, 1935. Katherine Day collected and published a posthumous volume of family stories, <span class=\"title\">Life With Mother</span> (1937). She also oversaw the publication of <span class=\"title\">After All</span> (1936), a revised and expanded edition of <span class=\"title\">The Crow's Nest</span>, and was involved with stage, screen and television adaptations of <span class=\"title\">Life With Father</span>.</p>"}

scopecontent

{"value"=>"<p>The Clarence Day Papers document the literary career, business activity, personal life and family background of the popular author and illustrator. The date span of the papers is 1796-1993, with the bulk of the material being from the period 1890-1935. The collection includes personal and professional correspondence; notebooks, manuscripts, typescripts, galley proofs and publication tearsheets; business and financial records; family papers; news clippings and literary reference files; drawings, photographs and artifacts. The Clarence Day Papers are an important resource for the study of American magazine literature during the 1910s-1930s, and provide essential background information regarding Day's most popular and enduring work, <span class=\"title\">Life With Father</span>.</p>"}

{"value"=>"<p class='list-head'>The Clarence Day papers are arranged in six series:</p>\n<ul class='arrangement series-descriptions'>\n<li><div class='series-title'><a href='/mss/741#c717890'>Series I. Correspondence</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1817-1993</div>\n<div class='series-extent'>44 linear feet</div>\n<div class='series-description'></div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/mss/741#c718607'>Series II. Family Papers</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1804-1957</div>\n<div class='series-extent'>17 linear feet</div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>Papers filed here document the education, careers, legal affairs and personal lives of several members of the Day family. The various subseries include such materials as account books, business correspondence, diaries, estate papers, expense receipts, financial records, genealogical notes, legal records, news clippings, notebooks, obituaries, passports, real estate documents, school and college records and wills.</p></div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/mss/741#c718771'>Series III. Personal Papers</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1880s-1942</div>\n<div class='series-extent'>19 linear feet</div>\n<div class='series-description'></div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/mss/741#c718945'>Series IV. Reference and Clipping Files</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1833-1930s</div>\n<div class='series-extent'>9 linear feet</div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>These alphabetically arranged subject files contain news clippings, lists of books, notes, printed material, publication tearsheets, typescripts of the writings of other authors and a few pieces of correspondence. These items, many annotated, document Clarence Day's wide-ranging interests, his research methods, his broad reading and his support for fellow writers. The files provide an interesting cross-section of the literary production of Day's wide circle of friends and offer a glimpse of Day's thinking on subjects ranging from advertising and money to marriage and religion.</p></div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/mss/741#c719092'>Series V. Works</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1891-1939</div>\n<div class='series-extent'>15 linear feet</div>\n<div class='series-description'></div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/mss/741#c719542'>Series VI. Visual Materials, Artifacts and Books</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1796-1940s</div>\n<div class='series-extent'>6 linear feet</div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>Items filed here are arranged in three subseries: A. Visual Materials, which include photographs of Clarence Day, and his family, friends and associates, unaddressed postcards and a few small paintings; B. Artifacts, such as locks of hair, buttons, eyeglasses and visiting cards; C. Books, including volumes from Clarence Day's personal library and several prayer books and hymnals owned and inscribed by his relatives.</p></div></li></ul>\n", "type"=>"arrangement"}

acqinfo

{"value"=>"<p>Gift of Wilhelmine Blower, daughter of Clarence Day, 1996 and 2001.</p>"}

accessrestrict

{"value"=>"<p>Clarence Day, Sr. letter books contained in Box 101 are unavailable for use pending preservation treatment, as of August, 2001.</p>"}

processinfo

{"value"=>"<p>Compiled by Jim Moske; machine-readable finding aid created by Jim Moske.</p>"}

arrangement

{"value"=>"In six series: I. Correspondence, 1817-1993; II. Family Papers, 1804-1983; III. Personal Papers, 1880s-1942; IV. Reference and Clipping Files, 1833-1930s; V. Works, 1891-1953; VI. Visual Materials, Artifacts and Books, 1796-1940s", "supress_display"=>true}

relatedmaterial

{"value"=>"<p>Related collections include the H.L. Mencken Papers and The New Yorker Records, Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library; related collections in other repositories are listed in the finding aid</p>"}

date_start

1796

date_end

1993

date_bulk_start

1890

date_bulk_end

1953

Update Collection TOP

Update from EAD XML File

Child components TOP

1. Series I. Correspondence [4/1]
2. Series II. Family Papers [8/1]
3. Series III. Personal Papers [3/1]
4. Series IV. Reference and Clipping Files [146/1]
5. Series V. Works [2/1]
6. Series VI. Visual Materials, Artifacts and Books [3/1]