Found 4 collections related to Authors

Jack Kerouac (1922-1969) was an American Beat novelist, essayist, and poet. Kerouac mentioned plans to write a novel called Beat Traveler as early as 1958, but it was only in January 1960 that he began working on it in earnest. His letter of February 20, 1960 to poet Allen Ginsberg noted that he had made four "false starts on Beat Traveler, about 40,000 words in all, rolled them up and put them away...." A collection of travel writings, some previously published, appeared as Lonesome Traveler later that year. The collection comprises two untitled and undated typescript drafts written by Jack Kerouac, narrating his travel experiences in Europe in 1957, and his trip from Los Angeles, California to Mexico in 1956. These were written, at least in part, for his unfinished novel Beat Traveler, although elements would later appear in Lonesome Traveler and Desolation Angels. The texts are typed single-space on five sheets of paper, rolled together in the form of a scroll. The interior piece (two leaves) recalls the end of his 1957 tour of Europe, and his return home from England as a third-class passenger on the SS Nieuw Amsterdam, departing from Southampton. Each page is a different working of an opening, with a common incident involving the disrespect shown to Kerouac by the ship's dining-room staff because of his appearance. The text is typescript on rectos only; the verso of the first leaf bears Kerouac's pencilled note "BT False Starts," with "BT Rejects" similarly noted on the recto of the second leaf, numbered 2. The outer piece recounts his trip from Los Angeles to Mexico City via Tucson and Nogales in October 1956, ironically noting the money and fame that his writings would bring him "in the next brief 3 years." The text is typescript on the rectos of three leaves numbered 1 to 3 by Kerouac; the verso of the second leaf carries his two-line typed reworking of text on the recto. less

Truman Capote (1924-1984) was a celebrated American author whose major works include Other Voices, Other Rooms; Breakfast at Tiffany's; and In Cold Blood. "Mrs. Willows' Dinner Party," a short story written by Truman Capote, is based on the 1955 accidental shooting death of New York banker William Woodward Jr. by his wife Ann Woodward, under questionable circumstances. As early as 1958 Capote listed persons whose stories would figure in his novel Answered Prayers, the first being Ann Woodward. In 1973 Ladies Home Journal commissioned a two-part series of popular "blind items," brief, thinly-veiled stories from real life. The first set was published in January 1974, but a second set, including the story of "Mrs. Willows' Dinner Party," was rejected. Capote reworked some of the rejected material into "La Côte Basque, 1965," the tale of a gossipy lunch at the well-known New York City restaurant. It incorporates important elements of the Willows story, using the surname Hopkins. "La Côte Basque, 1965" appeared in the November 1975 issue of Esquire magazine as an installment of Capote's novel Answered Prayers. It was republished as "La Côte Basque" in Answered Prayers: the Unfinished Novel (1987), joining two other Esquire installments from 1976. The collection (2 folders in one box), dated circa 1958-circa 1973, comprises an incomplete and untitled autograph manuscript draft (19 pages) of "Mrs. Willows' Dinner Party," a short story written by Truman Capote with his revisions, and a titled carbon copy typescript (9 pages) reflecting the revisions, with additional sentences completing the text. The draft is written in pen or pencil on two varieties of ruled legal-sized paper (19 pages on rectos only, numbered 2, 3, 5-21). The typescript (pages 1-9) contains text not found in the draft: the first three introductory sentences (page 1), and a paragraph (page 2), filling the narrative gap between manuscript pages 3 and 5. "Mrs. Willows' Dinner Party" recounts the circumstances surrounding the shooting death of Mrs. Willows' son Peter B. Willows by his wife Mary Willows, depicted as a case of murder. Although the items are not dated, the fully-developed story can be traced to Capote's writings for the 1973 commission from Ladies' Home Journal, if not to an earlier time. less

Typescript sermon (3 pages), with holograph revisions in ink, by the Anglo-American poet and writer W. H. Auden (1907-1973). Auden delivered this sermon during the Evensong service of October 24, 1965 at Christ Church, Oxford, at the invitation of College Chaplain John Gilling. Auden used the same title for one of four lectures given in memory of T. S. Eliot at the University of Kent, Canterbury, in October 1967. The sermon explores the nature of human speech as a reflection of Divine activity. The lecture incorporates some of the themes and text present in this sermon less