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Creator
Wilder, Alec
Call number
MssCol 3324
Physical description
.3 linear feet (1 box
Language
English
Preferred Citation

Alec Wilder Papers, 1939-2000, Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations.

Sponsor
Encoding funded by the generous support of the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation.; Encoding funded by the generous support of the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation.
Repository
Manuscripts and Archives Division
Access to materials
Request an in-person research appointment.

Alec Wilder (1907-1980), the composer and songwriter, lived at the Algonquin Hotel in New York City for most of his life. He wrote several hundred popular songs, composed sonatas, operas, a concerto, and a ballet, and was the author of one book and co-author of another. The collection contains incoming letters to Alec Wilder from fifty-eight friends and acquaintances (including John Cheever, Harper Lee, S. J. Perelman, and Frank Sinatra), letters from Wilder to his friend and collaborator William Engvick; correspondence between Engvick and Wilder's biographer, Desmond Stone and James Dean's biographer, Val Holley and others; and printed matter concerning Wilder.

Biographical/historical information

Alexander LaFayette Chew Wilder was born on February 16, 1907, in Rochester, New York. He grew up in New Jersey, Long Island, and New York City, and attended the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, where he studied composition and counterpoint. His career as a composer began in 1930, when he was one of the co-writers of the song “All the King's Horses” for the musical revue Three's a Crowd.

Over the next fifty years, Wilder wrote several hundred popular songs, among them “It's so Peaceful in the Country,” “I'll Be Around,” and “All the Cats Joined In.” (Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Marlene Dietrich, and Anita O'Day are among the artists who recorded Wilder songs.) He also composed sonatas for the bassoon, flute, and tuba, works for the piano, a concerto for saxophone and chamber orchestra, five operas, and a ballet; and published two books: Letters I Never Mailed(1975), and, with James T. Maher, American Popular Song: The Great Innovators, 1900-1950(1972).

Wilder lived at the Algonquin Hotel in Manhattan for nearly fifty years. He died of lung cancer in Gainesville, Florida, in December 1980.

Scope and arrangement

This collection consists of about 200 letters and several folders of printed material, mostly clipings of articles and newsletters by and about Alec Wilder. Series 1 consists of incoming letters from various people to Wilder, preserved by William Engvick; Series 2 contains letters from Wilder to Engvick; Series 3 is printed matter; Series 4 consists of the correspondence between Wilder and Stone, and Engvick and Holley; and Series 5 contains letters to Engvick from Stone, Dudley Frasier, Ronald Prather, and Thomas M. Hampson.

The Alec Wilder papers are arranged in five series:

  • Series 1. Letters to Alec Wilder.

    The nearly 100 letters in this series were written between 1947 and 1972, with the bulk of them dating from 1955 to 1972. (There is also a clipped New York Timesobituary from 1992 for the actress and director Margaret Barker.) Many of these letters, such as those from Harper Lee and Muriel Spark, are brief, polite acknowledgments of fan letters from Wilder about their work; others, such as the correspondence from Peter DeVries and Frank Sinatra, are more substantive, lengthy, and personal. In most cases, the letters concern the correspondents' or Wilder's achievements in the fields of literature, music, and drama.

  • Series 2. Letters from Alec Wilder to William Engvick.

    These letters date from 1939 to 1979, and mainly concern their musical collaborations and related topics. Engvick has also included his comments on them, on separate typed sheets of paper.

  • Series 3. Printed Matter.

    Folder 13 contains clippings of articles by and about Alec Wilder, 1941-1994. Materials created after Wilder's death include Vols. 1-6 of the newsletter Friends of Alec Wilder.

  • Series 4. Desmond Stone/Val Holley materials

    Correspondence between Engvick and Wilder's biographer, Desmond Stone, 1986-1997 (ten folders); copies of two letters from Alec Wilder to a fan, Donald Velsey, 1977 and 1980; correspondence between Engvick and Val Holley, 1992-1993; and printed matter, including a copy of Edward Gorey's The Bug Book, signed by Gorey and given to Wilder.

  • Series 5. Additions to the Collection

    Letters to William Engvick from Dudley Frasier, 1963-1965; additional letters from Desmond Stone, 1996-1997 (including copies of his correspondence with others); letters from Ronald E. Prather regarding his work on an article "The Popular Songs of Alec Wilder" and a bio-bibliography of Wilder, 1990-1992; and a letter from Thomas M. Hampson enclosing a letter containing biographical information about Wilder.

Administrative information

Custodial history

Alec Wilder's collaborator of many years, William Engvick, not only saved and gave to the New York Public Library his correspondence from Wilder, but was also primarily responsible for the preservation of the letters to Wilder that comprise Series 1 of this collection. As Engvick recalled it in a letter to the New York Public Library:

The collection began when I found that Wilder had discarded a letter from Albert Schweitzer in my waste basket. When I criticized his cavalier discard, Wilder said, "Why not? I had read it." After that, he gave most of his more interesting correspondence to me.

Engvick donated these letters to Wilder to the Library in October 1994. In 1995, he added to the collection over thirty letters from Alec Wilder to him, and a folder of printed items. Since 1998, he has donated his correspondence about Wilder with Desmond Stone, Val Holley, and others.

Source of acquisition

Gift of William Engvick, 1994-2000.

Processing information

Laura K. O'Keefe; machine readable finding aid created by APEX data services and revised by Chatham Ewing and Melanie Yolles.

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

Alternative form available

Letters to Alec Wilder (box 1) available on microfilm; New York Public Library; *ZL-497