{"value"=>"<p>S. N. Behrman's correspondence files contain incoming and outgoing letters, postcards and telegrams which document the playwright's professional activities and personal life. The files are arranged alphabetically by the name of the correspondent, organization and in a few cases by topical heading. While the bulk of the correspondence dates from 1930-1973, there are some important items from Behrman's earlier career. These include: letters from various publishers and editors regarding short stories written during the 1910s and '20s, correspondence with such friends and colleagues as Kenyon Nicholson and Siegfried Sassoon, and a few letters from Behrman's childhood mentor Daniel Asher. Manuscripts of poems and a novella by Siegfried Sassoon are also included in this series. As Behrman achieved success in the late 1920s and '30s, the circle of his correspondence widened to include many renowned figures in the arts and letters. Among the most prominent were critics Brooks Atkinson, St. Clair McKelway and Alexander Woollcott; editors Harold Ross and Katharine White; playwrights Maxwell Anderson and Robert E. Sherwood; authors Edna Ferber, F. Tennyson Jesse and Jesse's husband and collaborator Harold Harwood, W. Somerset Maugham and Maugham's secretary and companion Alan Searle, and Edmund Wilson; lyricists and composers Cole Porter, Ira Gershwin and Kurt Weill; philosopher Isaiah Berlin; and U. S. Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter. During the 1930s and '40s Behrman wrote numerous letters (filed in this series under \"Refugees from Europe\") on behalf of European Jews fleeing Nazi terror and sought to win them entry into the United States. In later years, Behrman exchanged letters with Bernard Berenson, Richard A. Cordell, Alfred and Blanche Knopf and Rebecca West. Behrman also corresponded with many important figures from the theatre and film worlds, including George S. Kaufman, Joshua Logan, Sonya Levien (whose letters are filed with those of her husband, Carl Hovey), Laurence Olivier, Harpo Marx, Joseph Verner Reed, Gottfried Reinhardt and Salka Viertel. Additional letters documenting Behrman's work in the film industry are contained in the \"Hollywood studios\" folders filed in this series. Financial and business concerns connected with all of Behrman's literary projects are discussed in great detail in his correspondence with the Brandt & Brandt agency, and with Harold Freedman. Those interested in the critical response to Behrman's writings will find useful information in the hundreds of fan letters Behrman received over the years, interfiled in this series alphabetically by the title of the work concerned. Finally, there is some editorial and production correspondence regarding several of Behrman's works, also interfiled alphabetically by title.</p>"}