- unitid
-
{"value"=>"188263", "type"=>"local_mss"}
{"value"=>"Berg Coll MSS 188263", "type"=>"local_call"}
{"value"=>"b23872112", "type"=>"local_b"}
- unitdate
-
{"value"=>"1980-1986", "type"=>"inclusive", "normal"=>"1980/1986"}
- unittitle
-
{"value"=>"John Irving letters to Rusty Unger"}
- physdesc
-
{"format"=>"structured", "physdesc_components"=>[{"name"=>"extent", "value"=>"1 box", "unit"=>"containers"}, {"name"=>"extent", "value"=>"0.21 linear feet", "unit"=>"linear_feet"}]}
- repository
-
{"value"=>"<span class=\"corpname\">Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature</span>"}
- abstract
-
{"value"=>"John Irving (1942-), an American-Canadian writer, who is known for his novels and their subsequent film adaptations, notably <span class=\"title\">The World According to Garp</span> (1978) and <span class=\"title\">The Cider House Rules</span> (1985). His personal letters to editor, writer, and film executive Rusty Unger, dating from 1980 to 1986, offer insights into his family life, professional work, and romantic relationship with Unger."}
- langmaterial
-
{"value"=>"English"}
- origination
-
{"value"=>"Irving, John, 1942-", "type"=>"persname"}
- bioghist
-
{"value"=>"<p>John Irving (1942-) is an American-Canadian novelist, short story writer, essayist, and screenwriter. He was born John Wallace Blunt, Jr. in Exeter, New Hampshire in 1942. Irving was renamed John Winslow Irving when his mother remarried in 1948. He was raised by his mother Frances (née Winslow) and stepfather Colin Irving.</p> <p>Irving graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy, where he wrestled as a student athlete and worked as an assistant coach. He wrestled throughout his life and wrestling features prominently in his writing.</p> <p>Irving left the University of Pittsburgh after one year. In 1962, he took a German course at Harvard University to prepare for entering the University of Vienna. During the course, Irving met his first wife, Shyla Leary. In 1964, they married while Irving was an undergraduate student. After Irving studied at the University of Vienna and returned to the United States, he graduated from the University of New Hampshire with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1965. That year his first son, Colin, was born.</p> <p>Irving received a Master of Fine Arts degree from the creative writing program at the University of Iowa in 1967. After graduation, he moved his family back to New England, took a job as an Assistant Professor of English at Windham College, and published his first novel <span class=\"title\">Setting Free the Bears</span> (1968). His second son, Brendan, was born in 1969.</p> <p>Irving achieved critical and popular success with the publication of his fourth novel, <span class=\"title\">The World According to Garp</span> (1978). The novel sold more than two million copies in a year and allowed Irving to become a full-time writer. In 1982, the motion picture adaptation starring Robin Williams was released and included a cameo of Irving appearing as a wrestling referee.</p> <p>In the years following the publication of <span class=\"title\">The World According to Garp</span>, Irving met and formed a romantic relationship with editor, writer, and film executive Rusty Unger.</p> <p>Irving and Leary divorced in 1981. That year, Irving published his next novel <span class=\"title\">The Hotel New Hampshire</span> (1981) to solid sales and mixed reviews.</p> <p>Irving's next publication <span class=\"title\">The Cider House Rules</span> (1985) put him in the middle of the debate about abortion in America. He met Janet Turnbull in 1986 and married her in 1987. They have a daughter Eva Everret Irving born in 1991.</p>"}
- scopecontent
-
{"value"=>"<p>The John Irving letters to Rusty Unger, dating from 1980 to 1986, detail mostly the early years of their romantic relationship. The bulk of the letters date from October 8, 1980 through September 15, 1981 and capture when Irving was starting to separate from Shyla Leary. The collection of approximately forty-five letters offers insight into Irving's relationship with Unger, family life, professional work, and travel plans mainly through typed letters and envelopes, and a small number of photographs, handwritten notes, clippings, flyers, postcards, and paper slips.</p> <p>In the fifteen letters dating from October 8, 1980 through January 15, 1981, Irving mentions the final edits of <span class=\"title\">The Hotel New Hampshire</span>; working with Twyla Tharp on a Stravinsky ballet; separating from Leary; his relationship with his sons; daily domestic life in Putney, Vermont; wrestling and injuries; his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts; title ideas for his novels and essays; traveling to Vienna, Austria; and his romantic interest in his French editor Anne Frejer.</p> <p>Irving's about twenty letters, dating from May 17 to September 15, 1981, include more personal details about Irving's separation from Shyla Leary and his sons' reactions to it, editing <span class=\"title\">The Hotel New Hampshire</span> for publication, possible book titles for the manuscript that became <span class=\"title\">The Cider House Rules</span>, his affair with Anne Frejer, his feelings about Unger, filming <span class=\"title\">The World According to Garp</span> and teaching Robin Williams how to believably act like a wrestler, postcards from and about Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, more about wrestling and injuries, and one fan mail letter about <span class=\"title\">The World According to Garp</span>.</p> <p>The around ten letters dating from April 1982 to 1986 discuss Irving and Unger's relationship (including its ending), their mutual and separate travel plans, and possible financial deals.</p> <p>Be advised, some letters include words that can be harmful and offensive.</p>"}
- arrangement
-
{"value"=>"<p>The letters are arranged chronologically in three date ranges: October 8, 1980 to January 15, 1981; May 17 to September 15, 1981; and April 1982 to 1986.</p>"}
- acqinfo
-
{"value"=>"<p>Gift of Rusty Unger, 2024.</p>"}
- processinfo
-
{"value"=>"<p>Processed by <span class=\"name\">Amy Lau</span> in <span class=\"date\">2026</span>.</p>"}
- date_start
-
1980
- keydate
-
1980
- date_end
-
1986
- date_inclusive_start
-
1980
- date_inclusive_end
-
1986
- extent_statement
-
0.21 linear feet (1 box)
- prefercite
-
{"value"=>"John Irving letters to Rusty Unger, Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature, The New York Public Library"}