{"value"=>"<p>Series I spans the entirety of Plimpton's professional literary career, detailing five decades of his writing and editing work. The Series comprises files from most of the books Plimpton authored or edited; shorter pieces published in books, anthologies, magazines, and newspapers; unpublished and incomplete works; and administrative materials such as contracts, agreements, and royalty statements. The Writing and Editing files primarily hold manuscripts, notes, drafts, and research files, which are arranged within each Subseries by book title or publication name.</p> <p>Subseries I.A. holds files related to books in which Plimpton was the author or co-author. It commences with Plimpton's inaugural publication, the 1955 children's book <span class=\"title\">Rabbit's Umbrella</span>, and concludes with the final book he published in his lifetime, <span class=\"title\"> Ernest Shackleton</span>. The Subseries is arranged chronologically by each book's publication date, and consists mostly of notes, research, drafts, manuscripts, photographs, correspondence, and clippings of book reviews. There is also some fan mail present in the files for <span class=\"title\">Out of my League</span>, legal papers from a court case surrounding <span class=\"title\">Mad Ducks and Bears</span>, a screenplay adapted from <span class=\"title\">The Curious Case of Sidd Finch</span>, and interview transcripts from Plimpton's biography of Truman Capote.</p> <p>The most thoroughly documented book is the Truman Capote biography, which contains alphabetically filed interviews, notes arranged by subject matter, and permission forms for each interviewee and contributor. The interview files contain a mixture of transcripts and excerpted selections that Plimpton considered for the book. Similar excerpts appear in the Notes and Research section, but are arranged by topic or chapter instead of interviewee name. Audio recordings of many of these interviews are held in Series X.</p> <p>The Editing Subseries holds files from the books in which Plimpton served as editor. These files date from 1964 to 2001 and are arranged chronologically by publication date. The Subseries holds a mixture of drafts, manuscripts, notes, research, correspondence, financial documents, permissions, and press clippings. The most comprehensive files are from <span class=\"title\">Edie</span>, the biography of Edie Sedgwick written by Jean Stein, and <span class=\"title\">D.V.</span>, which is fashion editor Diana Vreeland's autobiography. The <span class=\"title\">Edie</span> files are arranged chronologically and grouped by format, while the <span class=\"title\">D.V.</span> files comprise notes, manuscripts, drafts, financial documentation, and press clippings, which are often found in a single folder.</p> <p>Book chapters, book introductions and forwards, magazine and newspaper articles, collaborative projects, and tributes written by Plimpton are all held in Subseries I.C. Most of the files are from newspapers and magazine articles Plimpton authored, which are arranged alphabetically by publication title. These files hold notes, research, notebooks, manuscript drafts, and correspondence with the publications and publishers. Plimpton's writing appeared most frequently in <span class=\"title\">Sports Illustrated</span>, which includes some articles that were later adapted into books, most notably <span class=\"title\">The Curious Case of Sidd Finch</span> and <span class=\"title\">Shadow Box</span>. The <span class=\"title\">Sports Illustrated</span> files contain more notes and research, while the files for the subsequent books held in Subseries I.A. contain full manuscripts and more comprehensive notes and drafts.</p> <p>The Collaborative Projects files include a scrapbook, correspondence, drafts, and mission statements from <span class=\"title\">The Dynamite Museum</span>, which was a loose coalition of writers and artists that Plimpton helped to organize. Another collaborative project, <span class=\"title\">Not the New York Times</span>, contains drafts, notes, and a full issue of the satirical newspapers. Also of interest are notes and scripts from <span class=\"title\">Animal Tales</span>, the children's opera written by Plimpton in collaboration with the composer, Kitty Brazelton.</p> <p>The tributes held in Subseries I.C. contain an assortment of typed pieces, notes, and drafts of accolades, homages, and obituaries Plimpton penned for Timothy Dickinson, Willard Espy, Jimmy Grucci, and Brock Safronoff.</p> <p>Incomplete and unpublished materials are held in Subseries I.D., which consists of Early Writing; Book Projects; and Plimpton's unfinished memoir. Materials include proposals, correspondence, manuscripts, notes, and research. Much of the book projects material is devoted to an incomplete project about Barney Rosset, while much of the early writing comprises typescripts of unidentified short stories.</p> <p>The Administrative Subseries dates from 1964 to 2003, and contains book contracts, correspondence, agreements, and royalty statements. Although there is some administrative materials found with the files for individual books, Plimpton kept most of these items separate, choosing instead to file them all chronologically.</p>"}