Scope and arrangement
The Ruthanna Boris papers, which date from 1935 to 2007, consist primarily of manuscript drafts of "Theme and Variations: Stories About Learning," and related supporting material, including correspondence with Marian Chace and Robert Gottlieb, with whom Boris was working to get her book published.
The Draft Manuscript files, dating from the 1990s, comprise the bulk of the collection. These files document Boris's development of her unpublished biographical book about learning, teaching, and dance, centering around her mentors, George Balanchine and Marian Chace. Various draft iterations of the three-part manuscript, often marked with editing notes, and shorter excerpts are included.
The collection includes correspondence between Boris and Chace and between Boris and writer/editor Robert Gottlieb. The Chace correspondence files date from 1965 to 1968, and also include some of Boris's writing about Chace subsequent to Chace's death in 1970. The Gottlieb correspondence files date from the 1990s through 2007 and include Gottlieb's editing notes, Boris's resume, as well as her will. Also held among the Gottlieb files are two publicity photographs of Boris with Ronald Reagan and his young daughter Maureen Reagan, who was appearing in a production of The Nutcracker with Boris sometime in the 1940s.
A few files of clippings, articles, and miscellaneous notes are also present in the collection.
Arrangement
The Ruthanna Boris papers are arranged in the following groups: "Theme and Variations" Draft Manuscripts; Marian Chace files; Robert Gottlieb files; Clipping and Articles; Other Correspondence; and Miscellaneous Notes.