Paul Auster papers

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id: 4829
origination: Auster, Paul, 1947-2024
date statement: 1963-2022
key date: 1963
identifier (local_mss): 22208
org unit: Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature
call number: Berg Coll MSS 22208
b-number: b19667520
total components: 5260
total series: 7
max depth: 7
boost queries: (none)
component layout: Default Layout
Extended MARC Fields: false
Extended Navigation: false
created: 2013-04-01 15:05:09 UTC
updated: 2026-05-18 17:50:29 UTC
status note: (missing)
Display Aeon link: true

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unitid: {"value"=>"22208", "type"=>"local_mss"}

{"value"=>"Berg Coll MSS 22208", "type"=>"local_call"}

{"value"=>"b19667520", "type"=>"local_b"}
unitdate: {"value"=>"1963-2022", "type"=>"inclusive", "normal"=>"1963/2022"}
unittitle: {"value"=>"Paul Auster papers"}
physdesc: {"format"=>"structured", "physdesc_components"=>[{"name"=>"extent", "value"=>"610 boxes, 6 oversize folders", "unit"=>"containers"}, {"name"=>"extent", "value"=>"185.5 linear feet", "unit"=>"linear_feet"}]}

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{"format"=>"structured", "physdesc_components"=>[{"name"=>"extent", "value"=>"190 audio recordings", "unit"=>"audio_recordings"}]}

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repository: {"value"=>"Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature"}
abstract: {"value"=>"Paul Auster (1947-2023) was an American writer, poet, filmmaker, and translator whose work often touched on themes of coincidence, chance, memory, and solitude. Notable works include the novels The New York Trilogy, Moon Palace, and 4 3 2 1; the memoir The Invention of Solitude; and the films Smoke and Blue in the Face. The Paul Auster papers date from 1963 to 2022 and contain all aspects of Auster's professional work, including typescript and holograph drafts, notebooks, correspondence, audio and moving image recordings, clippings, and ephemera."}
langmaterial: {"value"=>"Multiple languages"}

{"value"=>"English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, Danish, Swedish, and many other languages are present throughout the collection."}
origination: {"value"=>"Auster, Paul, 1947-2024", "type"=>"persname"}
bioghist: {"value"=>"Paul Auster (1947-2024) was a Brooklyn-based novelist, filmmaker, poet, essayist, and translator. He is best-known for The New York Trilogy, a series of three loosely linked novellas published separately in 1985 and 1986, and for his subsequent novels In The Country of Last Things, Moon Palace, Mr. Vertigo, and 4 3 2 1. In these novels and others, Auster's protagonists, frequently writers and Brooklynites themselves, struggle to find meaning in lives set adrift by coincidence and tragedy. These themes resonate throughout Auster's fiction, nonfiction, and screenwriting. Auster was born in Newark, New Jersey in 1947 and grew up in the New Jersey suburbs. After graduating from Columbia University, he spent four years in France, where he wrote poetry and supported himself by working as a translator. He married the writer Lydia Davis in 1974 (they divorced in 1978). In 1982, Auster married the writer Siri Hustvedt. That same year, Auster published The Invention of Solitude, his breakthrough prose work. That genre-bending book, written largely about his father's sudden death, melds autobiographical narrative with meditations on memory, language, and solitude. In 1985 and 1986, Auster published to critical acclaim the three novellas that would form The New York Trilogy. City of Glass, Ghosts, and The Locked Room blend postmodern fiction with detective noir. More realistic novels with stronger narrative elements followed, including In the Country of Last Things, Moon Palace, The Music of Chance, Mr. Vertigo, and Leviathan. These novels maintained the themes of loss, chance, and search for identity in Auster's earlier work. In 1994, Auster turned to filmmaking, collaborating with Wayne Wang and Harvey Keitel on the films Smoke and Blue in the Face, set in Brooklyn. Smoke was awarded the Silver Bear - Special Jury Prize at the 1995 Berlin International Film Festival and Auster won the 1996 Independent Spirit Award for Best First Screenplay. He collaborated again with Keitel for 1998's Lulu on the Bridge. In 2007 Auster wrote and directed The Inner Life of Martin Frost, based on a fictional movie mentioned in his novel The Book of Illusions. Auster continued to write in the 1990s and 2000s, including the novels Timbuktu, The Book of Illusions, Oracle Night, and The Brooklyn Follies. Also during this time he continued to publish memoir and nonfiction work including The Red Notebook, Hand to Mouth, and The Story of My Typewriter with illustrations by Sam Messer. From 1999 to 2002 Auster collaborated with National Public Radio on the National Story Project, compiling stories from listeners and reading them on-air. These stories were compiled in the anthology I Thought My Father was God. In 2012 and 2013, Auster published the memoirs Winter Journal and Report From the Interior. In 2017, Auster published his longest novel, 4 3 2 1, incorporating themes from across his novels and many aspects from his young adult life. The novel was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2017. In 2021, Auster published Burning Boy, an in-depth biography of Stephen Crane, which won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Biography. Auster died at his home in Brooklyn in 2024."}
custodhist: {"value"=>"The 1987-2001 papers were initially acquired by Columbia University in two installments in 1998 and 2002 from Auster. However, after changes in leadership at Columbia, the collection was offered to the New York Public Library."}
scopecontent: {"value"=>"The Paul Auster papers date from 1963 to 2022 and cover all aspects of his career as a novelist, memoirist, poet, translator, and filmmaker. The collection is represented through typescript and holograph drafts; notebooks; audio and moving image recordings; correspondence; clippings; and photographs. Auster's files are arranged into eight series that address Auster's writings, correspondence, press coverage, adaptations of his work by others, and awards and recognition from throughout his career. The collection details Auster's professional life, writing process, and relationships with artistic peers. Nearly every work by Auster is represented in the first two series of the collection, Written Works and Films and Screenplays. This includes his early writing as a student at Columbia University; his 1970s work as a French translator and poet; his 1980s breakthroughs with the memoir, The Invention of Solitude, and novel, The New York Trilogy; continued work as a novelist and memoirist in the 1990s and 2000s; and his films Smoke, Blue in the Face, Lulu on the Bridge, and The Inner Life of Martin Frost. The Correspondence series details Auster's professional, personal, and business dealings. This includes correspondence related to various publishing and professional matters; vast correspondence with writing and filmmaking peers; fan and reader correspondence; and correspondence with family and friends. The rest of the collection consists of adaptations of Auster's work; dissertations and essays on Auster's work; works inspired by Auster; photographs; ephemera; and printed matter."}

{"value"=>"The Paul Auster papers are arranged in seven series:\n<ul class='arrangement series-descriptions'>\n<li><div class='series-title'><a href='/brg/22208#c1818062'>Series I: Written Works</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1965-2022</div>\n<div class='series-description'>The Written Works series covers all aspects of Auster's writing career, with subseries related to genre or format. Held here are files detailing Auster's novels; memoirs and nonfiction work; poetry; translations; edited volumes and collections; and prose, plays, and essays. The series also contains files addressing Auster's dealings with publishers, including contracts. Files may hold typescript and holograph drafts (some with emendations and edits), notebooks, proofs, correspondence, promotional material, contracts and agreements. Within each subseries files are arranged alphabetically by work. Files for each work are arranged to reflect Auster's writing process, which would often begin with a notebook (usually graph ruled). After a series of handwritten notebook drafts, he would move to typewriter, producing many typescript drafts; these typescript drafts would further be marked up with emendations and inserted typescript or holograph pages before being passed along to an assistant who would type up, on a computer, a final copy to be sent to editors and publishers.</div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/brg/22208#c1819449'>Series II: Films and Screenplays</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1989-2020</div>\n<div class='series-description'>The Films and Screenplays series dates from 1989 to 2020 and covers Auster's career as a filmmaker and screenwriter. Files include drafts, correspondence, promotional material, audio and moving image recordings, contracts and agreements, and press. Much of the series is devoted to the four films Auster is most known for: Smoke, directed by Wayne Wang and written by Auster; Blue in the Face, directed and written by Auster and Wang; Lulu on the Bridge, directed and written by Auster; and The Inner Life of Martin Frost, directed and written by Auster. Also held here are files related to unrealized projects, including collaborations with Wim Wenders and Mike Figgis; and multiple attempts at a Mr. Vertigo adaptation, including drafts with Philip and Belinda Haas, and later drafts with Terry Gilliam. The series also holds files from various film festivals attended by Auster, including his time as a juror at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival, the 2008 Estoril Film Festival, and the 2007 San Sebastian International Film Festival. Files detailing the 1993 film adaptation of The Music Chance are held in Series V: Works and Adaptations by Others.</div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/brg/22208#c1820107'>Series III: Correspondence</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1970-2022</div>\n<div class='series-description'>The Correspondence series dates from 1970 to 2022 and holds incoming and outgoing correspondence from Auster's professional and personal life. Files may contain holograph and typescript drafts, letters, notes, postcards, faxes, email printouts, clippings, and other related material. Auster corresponded widely with many of his artistic peers. Prominent correspondents include writers John Ashbery, Russell Banks, Charles Bernstein, Yves Bonnefoy, Sophie Calle, Peter Carey, J.M. Coetzee, Clark Coolidge, Robert Coover, William Corbett, Robert Creeley, Don DeLillo, Andre du Bouchet, Jacques Dupin, David Grossman, Edmond Jabes, Elmore Leonard, Jonathan Lethem, Rick Moody, Howard Norman, Michael Ondaatje, George Oppen, Ron Padgett, Michael Palmer, Orhan Pamuk, Charles Reznikoff, Philip Roth, Claude Royet-Journoud, Salman Rushdie, Lucy Sante, Charles Simic, and Keith and Rosmarie Waldrop; filmmakers Pedro Almodovar, John Boorman, Henning Carlsen, Mike Figgis, Terry Gilliam, Hal Hartley, Agnieszka Holland, Jim Jarmusch, Mike Leigh, Alexander Payne, Alain Robbe-Grillet, Walter Salles, Paul Schrader, Wayne Wang, and Wim Wenders; actors Steve Buscemi, Willem Dafoe, Michael Imperioli, Ricky Jay, Harvey Keitel, Mandy Patinkin, and Vanessa Redgrave; musicians Laurie Anderson, David Byrne, Robyn Hitchock, Jocelyn Pook, Lou Reed, and Tom Waits; artists John Baldessari, Paul Karasik, Sam Messer, Joan Mitchell, David Reed, and Art Spiegelman; highwire artist Philippe Petit; President of Israel, Shimon Peres; and Weather Underground member and childhood/college friend, Mark Rudd. The correspondence series addresses Auster's business dealings including his agent the Carol Mann Agency; various translators; and publishers such as Actes Sud, Alfred A. Knopf, Anagrama, Faber and Faber, Henry Holt, Penguin Books, Picador, Rowohlt Verlag, Seix Barral, and others. The series also holds fan mail, reader mail, and media requests; and correspondence on Auster's membership with the American Academy of Arts and Letters and PEN International. Filed at the end of the series is correspondence addressed to others about Auster, including Auster's wife, Siri Hustvedt, assistants, and editors. Some correspondence may be addressed to Auster and Hustvedt. A small amount of correspondence may be addressed to Auster and Lydia Davis.</div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/brg/22208#c1822286'>Series IV: Press, Interviews, and Public Events</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1977-2021</div>\n<div class='series-description'>The Press, Reviews, Interviews, and Public Appearances series, dated 1977 to 2021, holds files of press coverage about Auster, interviews with and about Auster, and public events featuring Auster. The series is represented through clippings, printed matter, correspondence, drafts, and audio and moving image recordings. Throughout the series various languages are present including English, French, German, Spanish, Norwegian Japanese, and others. The Press and Clippings files hold printed matter and clippings of reviews and press coverage about Auster and his works. Files are arranged by date, with reviews of specific works arranged at the end. The Interviews and Media Appearances files contain recordings and printed matter featuring interviews with Auster. The Public Events, Speeches, and Lectures files covers public speaking events Auster conducted throughout his life. This includes public panels, academic lectures, introductions, readings, and speeches.</div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/brg/22208#c1822734'>Series V: Works and Adaptaions by Others</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1986-2021</div>\n<div class='series-description'>The Works and Adaptations by Others series dates from 1986 to 2021 and holds various adaptations of works by Auster, theses and dissertations about Auster's work, and other writing, music, art, and film inspired by Auster. The series also hold works by others unrelated to Auster. The Adaptations files hold material related to works adapted from Auster's work. This includes the graphic novel of City of Glass by Paul Karasik; the 1993 film The Music of Chance, directed by Philip Haas, starring James Spader, Mandy Patinkin, M. Emmet Walsh, and Charles Durning; and various stage adaptations of Auster's work. Adaptations that were submitted to Auster that he rejected are held in the Rejected Screenplays files. The Works Inspired by Auster hold files of music, poems, and art installations inspried by Auster and his work. The Essays, Theses, and Dissertations hold various analysis written about Auster's work. The language of this material includes English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, and others. Works by Others includes early manuscripts and proofs by others that were shared with Auster. There are works present by Don DeLillo, John Ashbery, and Ron Padgett.</div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/brg/22208#c1823138'>Series VI: Awards, Photographs, and Ephemera</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1980-2006</div>\n<div class='series-description'>The Awards, Photographs, and Ephemera series dates from 1980 to 2006 and contains various awards received by Auster, as well as photographs, artwork, and ephemera from throughout Auster's life.</div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/brg/22208#c1823167'>Series VII: Printed Matter</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1968-2020</div>\n<div class='series-description'>The Printed Matter series dates from 1968 to 2020 and contains books, magazines, and programs from throughout Auster's career. The printed matter includes works by Auster, contributions from Auster, reviews of Auster, press about Auster, and other material collected by Auster. Also held here are posters advertising works by Auster and events featuring Auster. Items of note include original copies of Auster's early writing in the Columbia Specator, New York Review of Books, and Saturday Review.</div></li></ul>\n", "type"=>"arrangement"}
acqinfo: {"value"=>"The Paul Auster papers were acquired by the New York Public Library in six acquistions. The first acquisition occurred in 1991-1992 with a purchase from Auster, with some additions received at a later date. The second acquisition occurred in 2006-2008 with a purchase from Auster. The third acquisition occurred in 2007-2009 with a purchase from the Trustees of Columbia University. The fourth, fifth, and sixth acquisitions occurred in 2012, 2017, and 2023 with purchases from Auster."}
processinfo: {"value"=>"The 1963-1995 papers were processed by an unknown archivist in the 1990s. This material is held in boxes 207 to 287. The 1999-2006 papers were processed by Anne Garner in 2008. This material is held in boxes 288 to 399. The 1987-2001 papers were processed by Anne Garner and Joan Sherman in the 2010s. This material is held in boxes 1 to 205, and box 610. The 2006-2022 papers were processed by Christopher Arena in 2025. This material is held in boxes 400 to 609. The three original Auster collections, electronic records, audio and moving image, and unprocessed acquisitions were combined, consolidated, and renumbered into a single Auster collection by Christopher Arena."}
userestrict: {"value"=>"The copyright interests in the Paul Auster papers are retained by Paul Auster."}
relatedmaterial: {"value"=>"Barbara Jones editorial files related to Paul Auster, Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature, The New York Public Library"}
revisiondesc: {"value"=>"Boxes 400 to 609, the audio and moving image, and electronic records were processed\n and combined with three previous collections by Christopher Arena in", "date"=>"2025."}
date_start: 1963
keydate: 1963
date_end: 2022
date_inclusive_start: 1963
date_inclusive_end: 2022
prefercite: {"value"=>"Paul Auster papers, Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature, The New York Public Library"}
extent_statement: 185.5 linear feet (610 boxes, 6 oversize folders). 4.3 gigabytes (1,986 computer files). 190 audio recordings. 224 moving image recordings

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Paul Auster papers

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