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Creator
Robbins, John Jacob, 1895-1950
Call number
MssCol 2585
Physical description
5 linear ft.(12 boxes)
Language
Some items in Yiddish, Russian and French; English
Preferred Citation

John Jacob Robbins Papers, Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations.

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

Collection consists of correspondence, writings of Robbins and others, personal and legal papers, photographs, sketches, and printed matter. Correspondence, 1911-1953, concerns literary, theatrical and translating work as well as personal matters. Robbins's writings, 1910s-1940s, make up the bulk of the collection and include manuscripts and typescripts of his articles, plays, poems, stories, and parts of novels, and his translations of writings of other authors in Yiddish and Russian. Also, family papers and documents, photographs, sketches, and programs and printed materials from theaters with which Robbins was affiliated.

Biographical/historical information

J.J., or Jack, Robbins was an author, editor, poet, stage director, teacher of theater, and translator (chiefly from Russian and Yiddish) in New York. He was affiliated with the Actors' Ensemble Theater, American Theater Ensemble, Impromptu Theater, Leonardo da Vinci Art School (theater department), New Theater School, the Professional School of the Theater at the 92nd Street YMHA, and other theaters and theater schools. He edited literary and theatrical journals including East and West, Impromptu, J.R.'s Magazine,and others. From approximately 1917-1918 Robbins served as head of the translation department of the Jewish Daily Forward,a New York Yiddish language newspaper. His published translations include: A Sheaf From Lermontov(1923), Azure Cities: Stories of New Russia(1929), and Constantin Stanislavsky's My Life in Art(1952). During the 1920s, apparently during trips to Russia, Robbins was an assistant to Constantin Stanislavsky at the Moscow Art Theater, USSR. From 1921-1936 he was assistant to Nikita Balieff at Balieff's La Chauve-Souris.

Robbins was involved with the Ferrer Colony, Stelton, New Jersey, from 1918-1920s, serving as the principal of the Colony's Modern School, editor of its magazine Modern Education,and founder and director of the theatrical group the Stelton Players. His family appears to have had a house at the “Jewish Colony” at Chatham, New Jersey.

Scope and arrangement

Correspondence, 1911-1953, some undated, consists primarily of letters and postcards received by Robbins, in English, with some in Russian and a few in French. A few drafts of Robbins' letters are included. Letters post-dating his death are addressed to his widow, Constance. Correspondence concerns literary, theatrical, and translating work, and personal matters. Some Ferrer Colony matters are also discussed. Letters are from literary and theatrical colleagues; magazine editors; book publishers; authors' representatives; friends; and family members. Frequent or prominent correspondents include: Leonard D. Abbott, Scholom Asch(authorizing Robbins to sell five of his one-act plays, 1915), William Rose Benet, Richard Boleslavsky,H.W.L. Dana, Ossip Dymow, Frances M. Gill, B.W. Huebsch, Alexander Koiransky, Maxim Lieber,David Liebovitz,Edwin Markham,Ralph R. (“Wad”) Perry,Constantin Stanislavsky, Lewis Untermeyer,Abraham Yarmolinsky,Stark Young,Marya Zaturenska,others.

Also included are programs and other printed material from theaters with which Robbins was affiliated; theater mailing lists; statements and legal documents relating to various theater projects; stage design sketches. Personal material includes: portrait photographs of Robbins and of Bertha Robbins,his mother; a portrait sketch of Robbins; minutes of an investigation, 1927, probably at the Jewish Colony, Chatham, N.J.; letters and documents, in Yiddish, of Robbins' father, Shmolovitch Rabinovitch; and a document, 1893, in Russian, certifying that Daba Shliomovna Rabinovitchof Minsk Province is Jewish. The document is signed by a rabbi, and was part of an application for higher education.

Robbins' writings, both original writings and English translations, make up the bulk of the collection. They include manuscripts and typescripts of Robbins' articles, plays, poems, stories, and parts of novels, in English, ca. 1910s-1940s. Articles are on literary, theatrical, and musical topics, and include Robbins' impressions of Chaim Soudeikine and Constantin Stanislavsky. Plays, A Breath of Life, and Children Never Forget, were written in collaboration with Stanley Lewis and Z. Libin, respectively. Robbins' English translations of stories, plays, poetry, essays, and other writings are chiefly from Yiddish and Russian. Authors translated include: Scholom Asch, Chaim Nachman Bialik, Alexander Blok, Boris Baykoff, Mikhail Bulgakov,Ossip Dymow,Ilya Ehrenberg,Viacheslav Ivanov,Vsevolod Ivanov,Jehoash (pseud.),I.A. Krylov, Simeon Frug,I.L. Peretz,Mikhail Prishvin,V.I. Shishkov,M. Volkov,Maximilian Voleshin,and Panteleimon Romanov. Of note are manuscript and typescript versions of Robbins' translation of the complete poems of the Yiddish poet Abraham Liessinin three volumes (the third is incomplete).

Unidentified writings in Yiddish and Russian; typescript excerpts, in Russian, of My Life in Art; and unsigned writings and writings by other authors (Sandro Corona, Alexander Koiransky, others) are included.

The J.J. Robbins papers are arranged in three series:

Administrative information

Source of acquisition

Gift of Mrs. Cesare Stea (Florence Robbins, sister), 1958; 1962; 1968

Processing information

Processed by Julie Miller; machine readable finding aid created by APEX data services and revised by Chatham Ewing.

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