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Creator
Kiernan, Frances, 1944-
Call number
MssCol 1644
Physical description
.83 linear feet (3 boxes)
Language
Materials in English
Preferred Citation

Frances Kiernan papers, Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library

Repository
Manuscripts and Archives Division
Access to materials
Request an in-person research appointment.

Frances Landau Kiernan (1944- ), editor and author, worked at the New Yorker magazine from 1966 to 1987 as an editor in the fiction department. She later was a senior editor at Houghton Mifflin and has written about literary matters. Collection contains correspondence and manuscripts received by Kiernan between 1976 and 1988. Correspondence consists primarily of letters from writers who were submitting manuscripts for publication in the New Yorker or having their manuscripts edited by Kiernan. Also, notes from colleagues at the New Yorker. Manuscripts include annotated handwritten and typed versions as well as galley proofs.

Biographical/historical information

Frances June Landau Kiernan was born in Louisville, Kentucky in August of 1944. She was raised in New York City where she attended P. S. 87, Hunter College High School, and the Bronx High School of Science. She received a B. A. from Barnard College in 1966.

In September of 1966, Kiernan went to work for The New Yorker as the twentieth-floor receptionist. In December, she began to work for William Maxwell and Roger Angell in the fiction department. As a fiction editor, she edited such writers as Mark Helprin, Peter Taylor, Edna O'Brien, John Gardiner, Alice Adams, and Cynthia Ozick. Kiernan left The New Yorker in 1987 to become a senior editor at Houghton Mifflin. When editor Cork Smith, Kiernan's boss, was dismissed in 1989, Kiernan resigned in protest. She later wrote a cover story for Seven Days on what she perceived to be the dismal state of book publishing. She also wrote an article on The Group, which was published in The New Yorker in June of 1993. She continues to write on literary matters.

Kiernan married Howard A. Kiernan in 1967. She has no children.

Scope and arrangement

The papers of Frances Kiernan span the years of 1976 to 1988 and document her career as a fiction editor at The New Yorker. The collection consists primarily of correspondence (approximately 550 items) from writers who were either submitting material for publication or responding to editorial queries; many of the letters are fairly informal in nature. Also present are notes to and from Kiernan's New Yorker colleagues discussing the merits of various submissions. In addition, the collection includes twenty-three fiction manuscripts (annotated by both Kiernan and the authors), some handwritten, some typed, and some in the form of galley proofs. The correspondence is arranged alphabetically solely by the first letter of the author's last name; the papers remain in the order in which Kiernan arranged them. The manuscripts are also in the same order in which they were received from Frances Kiernan.

While the collection contains letters and manuscripts from approximately sixty-five writers, the most extensive correspondence comes from the following people: Alice Adams, Alan Cheuse, Laura Furman, John Gardiner, Mark Helprin, John McGahern, W. S. Merwin, Edna O'Brien, Cynthia Ozick, Lore Segal, and Peter Taylor.

Administrative information

Source of acquisition

Gift of Frances Kiernan, November 10, 1994

Processing information

Compiled by Beth Kleber, September 1995

Using the collection

Location

Manuscripts and Archives Division
Stephen A. Schwarzman Building
Fifth Avenue at 42nd Street, New York, NY 10018-2788
Brooke Russell Astor Reading Room, Third Floor, Room 328