{"value"=>"<p>The writings are arranged into five subseries: poems; short stories; novels; autobiography; and articles and lectures. The poems consist of an alphabetical file of single poems arranged by title; and a file of books or anthologies of poems, also arranged by title. Included are manuscript and typescript drafts of published and unpublished poems written mainly in the period from the 1920s to the 1950s although a few poems are dated earlier to 1913. Many of the manuscripts are accompanied by working notes or ideas for further development, and notes recording the history of the manuscript, when and where it was written, title changes (if any) and date and place of publication. Several of the poems were written during her sojourns in Germany (1915) and in England (1923-1926).</p> <p>The short stories consist of manuscript and typescript drafts of fifty-three published and unpublished stories arranged alphabetically by title. [SEE: Checklist of Short Stories on pages 16-17 of this inventory]. The bulk of the stories (including the undated ones) were written in the period c1908-1928 while she was residing in Brockton and in Dorchester, Massachusetts and in New York City. Several are dated during her sojourn (1923-1926) in England. The stories (like her novels) appear autobiographical in character reflecting her own personal struggles and experiences as a woman and as a creative artist to earn a living in a world dominated by men and by commercial standards and values. They explore the nature of the love relationship between men and women, a theme which runs throughout her fictional writings and which she struggled to define and elaborate. Numerous notes on this theme are interspersed with or accompany the textual narrative. The earliest story present (\"The Girl with a Hundred Selves\") is in the form of mounted clippings from the New York Evening Journal which published it anonymously in serial form in 1908 as the \"Confessions of an Unknown Girl Writer\". The story, \"The Craving\", includes page proofs from its publication in The Smart Set. Accompanying the manuscript of \"Covenant Fire\" is a letter (Aug. 4, 1910) from Norman Boyer, editor of The Smart Set. A letter from her literary agent, Julia R. Tutwiler, is filed with the manuscript of \"Her Splendid Hour\" which was submitted under the nom de plume \"Southam Blake\".</p> <p>The manuscripts and typescripts of her novels consist for the most part of a chaotic and inchoate mass of notes and suggestions of ideas for further development interspersed with pages of narrative text making the identification and reconstruction of a cohesive narrative sequence virtually impossible. In drafting a manuscript the author retained numerous false starts and utilized several paginations. Included among the three titled drafts (two are untitled) is an autobiographical manuscript entitled \"Northa\", a novel about childhood which evidently draws upon the author's own life experiences. A major theme of these writings is the struggle of the creative artist to overcome the numerous obstacles and impediments to creative work imposed by the routine requirements of everyday life and by marriage when one of the partners is unsympathetic to the artist's needs.</p> <p>The bulk of the autobiographical writings consist of rough and incomplete manuscript drafts of her \"Confessions of a Poet\" which was written at the request of George Horace Lorimer, editor of the Saturday Evening Post. The manuscript describes her life and struggles as poet and author with a few brief allusions to her parents and early childhood. Included also are notes and reminiscences of her sojourn in England (\"I Remember England\"); and manuscript notes and text entitled \"Splendor at the Core\" (dated 1934-35) relating to her spiritual life and development. There is also a draft \"Autobiographical Statement\" (1931) and miscellaneous notes and reminiscences.</p> <p>The articles and lectures (1904-1956) which are arranged chronologically consist of manuscripts and typescripts of published and unpublished articles, lectures, and addresses on a variety of subjects including poets, poetry, war and peace and women and war. Included are drafts of her newspaper articles and notes taken when she was a reporter for the Boston American, relating to desertion and child custody cases, the murder trials of Bessie Wakefield and Anna May Wells, and a strike (c1909?) of garment workers in Boston for which she interviewed the labor leader Gertrude Barnum. Included also are articles written during her stay in England relating to the role of women during the general strike of 1926, and to her interviews with prominent British figures including John Burns, Mrs. Lionel Guest, Lady Malcolm, and Beatrice Ward. There are also clippings (1904-06 & n. d.) of her feature stories published in the Chicago Daily American.</p> <p>The short stories consist of manuscript and typescript drafts of fifty-three published and unpublished stories arranged alphabetically by title. [SEE: Checklist of Short Stories on pages 16-17 of this inventory]. The bulk of the stories (including the undated ones) were written in the period c1908-1928 while she was residing in Brockton and in Dorchester, Massachusetts and in New York City. Several are dated during her sojourn (1923-1926) in England. The stories (like her novels) appear autobiographical in character reflecting her own personal struggles and experiences as a woman and as a creative artist to earn a living in a world dominated by men and by commercial standards and values. They explore the nature of the love relationship between men and women, a theme which runs throughout her fictional writings and which she struggled to define and elaborate. Numerous notes on this theme are interspersed with or accompany the textual narrative. The earliest story present (\"The Girl with a Hundred Selves\") is in the form of mounted clippings from the New York Evening Journal which published it anonymously in serial form in 1908 as the \"Confessions of an Unknown Girl Writer\". The story, \"The Craving\", includes page proofs from its publication in The Smart Set. Accompanying the manuscript of \"Covenant Fire\" is a letter (August 4, 1910) from Norman Boyer, editor of The Smart Set. A letter from her literary agent, Julia R. Tutwiler, is filed with the manuscript of \"Her Splendid Hour\" which was submitted under the nom de plume \"Southam Blake\".</p>"}