Collections in Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature

Paul Auster (b. 1947) is a Brooklyn-based novelist, screenplay writer, poet, essayist and translator. The archive comprises material related to the publication of six novels in preparation by Auster during this period; material related to the publication of five nonfiction monographs; and material related to the production of several films. Also here is material related to the National Public Radio broadcast of The National Story Project. The stories submitted for this project were later collected in I Thought My Father Was God, edited by Auster, and also documented here. Additional material includes drafts of four plays, material related to the composition of two poetry monographs, material related to several works of translation, and a baseball game Auster invented. Material written by others, including creative adaptations and scholarly analysis of his work, is also included here. less

The archive contains material related to the publication of four novels and one unpublished novel written by Auster during the period 1999-2005; material related to the publication of volumes of collected poetry, novels, and prose published in the period 1999-2006; and material related to the genesis of five film projects: the HBO project "I Thought My Father Was God," based on Auster's collection of reminiscences published in 2001; "In the Country of Last Things," based on Auster's novel published in 1987; and "Lulu on the Bridge." Also present are materials related to four nonfiction works, an illustrated fiction project ("Auggie Wren's Christmas Story," first published in 1990); contributions, prefaces, interviews from the period 2000-2005, and material related to reissues of translations completed mostly during the 1970s but published 2002-2005. Additional material includes promotional artwork; programs featuring Paul Auster; and public remarks made by Auster and those introducing him at these events. Also present is material written by others, including creative adaptations of Auster's work and scholarly analyses of his work. The archive is rich in both incoming and outgoing correspondence, and includes letters to and from writers and friends, agents and publishers, as well as translators, readers, students, and organizations. Writers and recipients of correspondence include Pedro Almodóvar, Russell Banks, William Corbett, Don DeLillo, Jonathan Safran Foer, Jonathan Lethem, Sam Messer, Michael Ondaatje, Ron Padgett, Claude Royet-Journoud, and others. less

Comprises 48 autograph letters and postcards, signed, from Quentin Bell, to Alexander (Derry) and Jeanne Jeffares (1968-1987); with 15 autograph letters, signed, from Anne Olivier Bell to the Jeffares (1967-2001); and with 13 autograph letters and postcards, signed, from Julian, to the Jeffares (1968-1969); accompanied by clippings and miscellaneous correspondence, chiefly Christmas and birthday cards to the Jeffares, and by 8 autograph letters, signed, from Mott Betts to the Jeffares (1996).​. less

The Allen Ginsberg interview file and correspondence with Jan Castro contains correspondence, an interview transcript, notes, press, and an audio recording collected by Castro in preparation for her interview of Ginsberg, published in 1982 in her literary magazine River Styx. less

Amy Clampitt (1920-1994) was an American poet who started seriously writing poetry in her forties. The Amy Clampitt papers include drafts of her work in various stages of completion, related correspondence, and material from her times as writer-in-residence at various institutions. The collection also has extensive personal materials, such as correspondence, family papers, photographs, and material from Clampitt's education. less

The collection heading provides a starting date of 1953, which represents the earliest document located in the archive. The collection documents Friedman's later plays, novels, short stories and is particularly strong in his later works of non-fiction, including many articles and essays. The varied genres of Friedman's writing are represented in the archive as well as incoming and outgoing correspondence, interviews, teaching materials, contracts, permissions, royalty statements, photographs, printed material and some multi-media. less

Bruce Jay Friedman (1930-2020) was an American novelist, short story writer, screenwriter, and playwright who pioneered black comedy as a literary genre in the United States. The Josh Alan Friedman collection on Bruce Jay Friedman, dating from 2018 to 2021 and compiled by Friedman's son, contains several of Friedman's writings, including short story notes from the final two years of his life. The collection also includes obituaries and remembrances of Bruce Jay Friedman in the weeks following his death. less

Angelica Garnett (b. 1918), the daughter of the artist Vanessa Bell (Virginia Woolf's sister) and the artist Duncan Grant, believed until the age of 17 that her father was Clive Bell, her mother's husband and the man whose surname she bore. In 1942, she married the writer and publisher David Garnett (1892-1981), the former lover of her biological father, Duncan Grant. They had four daughters before separating. Her memoir Deceived with Kindness (London: Chatto and Windus/Hogarth Press, 1984), often highly critical of her mother and of Grant, won the 1985 J. R. Ackerley Prize for Autobiography. Collection consists of 55 t.l.s., 28 a.l.s., and 10 a.n.s. from Angelica Garnett to Richard Lipsett and one photocopy of a letter from Lipsett to "Milbs and Mollie." Subjects include Virginia Woolf; Vanessa Bell; the Berg Collection letters written by Virginia Woolf and Vanessa Bell to each other; Charleston, the East Sussex country home of Vanessa Bell, her husband, Clive Bell, and her lover, Duncan Grant, which became a meeting place for the Bloomsbury Group; Duncan Grant; art historian Quentin Bell (Garnett's half-brother); biographers of Bloomsbury Group members and scholars of their works; and Angelica Garnett's personal life. less

The M. B. Goffstein papers document the life and work of award winning American author and artist Marilyn Brooke Goffstein (1942-2017). The collection consists of original illustrations, artist's proofs, notebooks, photographs, paintings, print books, miniatures, and realia. The papers provide insight to Goffstein's penchant for knowledge and life, while offering a glimpse of the artist's process and rich thematic exploration. less

Philip Levine (1928-2015) was an American poet who won the 1995 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry for his work The Simple Truth (1994). He served as U.S. Poet Laureate from 2011 to 2012. Rick Campbell (1952-) is an American poet and former director of the poetry publishing firm Anhinga Press. The collection comprises nine items written by Philip Levine to Rick Campbell: three computer-generated typed letters signed and two autograph letters signed, dated 2001 May 24 to 2011 April 11; three autograph postcards signed, dated or postmarked 2000 to 2005; and an undated autograph letter signed, written on two unstamped postcards; also, a four-page document capturing email exchanges between Levine and Campbell, 2014 May 27 to 2015 February 7, regarding the publication of a poem by Levine in the journal Kestrel. A re-typed printout of the letter dated 2011 April 11, returned from an unidentified recipient with a note thanking Campbell for it, is included. The collection charts the epistolary friendship of the two poets, originating in Anhinga Press's publication of work by winners of the Philip Levine Prize for Poetry, sponsored by California State University at Fresno. Levine's letters and postcards discuss the Prize and thank Campbell for sending him Anhinga Press imprints and volumes of Campbell's own poetry. Levine makes positive remarks about their work and that of other poets, while sharing brief reminiscences of his time in Iowa, Florida and California less

Samuel Menashe (1925-2011) was an American poet. The collection comprises two autograph letters signed by Samuel Menashe to American author Meredith Hall (1949-), a recent acquaintance, dated April 17 and May 14, 2007. The letter of April 17 (one page with envelope), with his poem "April" written at top, thanks Hall for a book. His letter of May 14 (three pages with envelope), commenting briefly on her memoir Without a Map, contains two poems, "Consider the Buttercup" and "Nothing New." Both envelopes bear Menashe's home address in New York City and are addressed to Hall in Pownal, Maine less

David Robert Plante (born 1940) is an American novelist, memorist, poet, and diarist currently residing in Lucca, Italy. The David Plante papers, dated from 1940 to 2022, chronicle Plante's daily life and creative works. The collection holds address books, correspondence, datebooks, diaries, drawings, ephemera, notes, photographs, poems, and printed matter. less

Comprises typescript, manuscript, email and post-card correspondence between author Annie Proulx and Joel Connaroe, author of books and essays about American poetry and fiction, editor of Six American Poets, and president of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation from 1985 to 2002 ; with 143 color photographs. less

Annie Proulx is a novelist, short fiction writer, historian, and essayist. She was born in Norwich, Connecticut, in 1935, to Lois Nellie Gill Proulx, a painter and amateur naturalist, and George N. Proulx, the vice-president of a textile mill. Her first collection of short fiction, Heart Songs and Other Stories, was published in 1988. In 1990, she completed her debut novel, Postcards, for which she won the 1993 PEN / Faulkner Award for Fiction. Her second novel, The Shipping News, won the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, the Irish Times International Fiction Prize, and the Heartland Award for Fiction. Accordion Crimes, her third novel, was published in 1996. In 1997, she was awarded the Dos Passos Prize for Literature. In 1998, her story “Brokeback Mountain” won the National Magazine Award, The New Yorker Award for fiction, and the O. Henry Prize. It was adapted, in 2005, for a Paramount Pictures film by Larry McMurtry and Dianna Ossana, and was directed by Ang Lee. Her second collection of short fiction, Close Range: Wyoming Stories, was published in 1999; the lead story, “The Half-Skinned Steer,” was selected by John Updike for the Best American Stories of the Century (1999). In 2000, Proulx’s short story collection Close Range: Wyoming Stories won The New Yorker Award for fiction. Her fourth novel, That Old Ace in the Hole, was published in 2002. This was followed by two collections of short stories: Bad Dirt: Wyoming Stories 2 (2004) and Fine Just the Way It Is: Wyoming Stories 3 (2008). In 2008, she also published and edited Red Desert: A History of a Place, a collection of 38 essays of which she wrote 10. Bird Cloud: A Memoir, was published in 2011, and is named for the painstakingly designed and hand-crafted home she had built for herself in Wyoming, on a 640-acre nature preserve through which runs the North Platte River. Organized into 23 series: Series 1: Writings by Annie Proulx ; Series 2: Artwork by Annie Proulx ; Series 3: Correspondence ; Series 4: Research ; Series 5: Other Projects Series 6: Works by Others ; Series 7: Photographs ; Series 8: Genealogical Papers ; Series 9: Personal Records ; Series 10: Address Books and Monthly Planners ; Series 11: Ephemera ; Series 12: Material related to the estate of Lois Gill Proulx ; Series 13: Publisher’s Artwork and Promotional Material ; Series 14: Material Related to Scheduled Literary Events ; Series 15: Awards ; Series 16: Property Records ; Series 17: Publishing and Other Contracts ; Series 18: Miscellaneous Printed ; Series 19: Electronic Records ; Series 20: Audio Cassettes, VHS, DVDs, CDs ; Series 21: Restricted Material ; Series 22: Realia ; Series 23: Financial Papers. less

For almost 30 years, John Updike maintained a professional and personal relationship with Herb Yellin (1935-2014), proprietor and founder, in 1976, of the Lord John Press. Yellin published fine press editions of many of Updike’s stories and poems. Their professional relationship soon developed into a warm friendship, and Updike even asked Yellin, who was familiar with Los Angeles and Hollywood, to supply and clarify details about the city’s neighborhoods and their socio-economic characteristics and sub-cultures for a fictional work that Updike was writing. Updike’s letters combine the personal, literary, and professional, and reveal his appreciation of Yellin’s careful attention to typographic excellence and book design. Even Updike’s postcards are replete with substantive content, as are the letters. The galleys and proofs, as well as several typescripts, show Updike reworking his material and becoming deeply engaged in typographic and design decisions, as well as the commercial aspects of marketing fine press editions. less

Lewis Warsh was an American poet, visual artist, professor, prose writer, editor, and publisher. He is most prominently known as a member of the second generation of the New York School poets. The Lewis Warsh papers, dating from 1957 to 2022, cover his personal and professional life, represented through correspondence, his notebooks and journals, drafts of his work, the work of other writers, and material related to events. The collection encompasses the whole of Warsh's career and is particularly strong in detailing his personal relationships and relationships with other writers. less

Helen Weaver (1931-2021) was a literary translator, author, and astrologer. The Helen Weaver papers include research files, correspondence, and manuscripts related to the publication of her book The Awakener: A Memoir of Kerouac and the Fifties. The book describes Weaver's brief romantic relationship with Jack Kerouac, and friendships with Allen Ginsberg and Lenny Bruce. less

Organized into 8 Series: 1. Works by Naomi Replansky; 2. Watercolors by Naomi Replansky; 3. Correspondence; 4. Documents, clippings, and papers about Naomi Replansky; 5. Clippings; 6. Photographs; 7. Original Folders; 8. Correspondence by and to others, and writing by others. less

Susan Jaffe Tane is a philanthropist and collector of Walt Whitman manuscripts, photographs, books, periodicals, and ephemera. The collection chronicles Whitman's legacy through manuscripts, photographs, music scores, sound and video recordings, ephemera, and LGBTQ-related materials associated with Whitman's life and poetry. less