Holger Cahill Papers

1907-1983 [bulk 1942-1959] D

Holger Cahill (born Sveinn Kristjan Bjarnarson in Iceland) was an American novelist, curator of important art exhibitions at the Newark Museum and the Museum of Modern Art, folklorist, and national director of the Federal Arts Project, 1935-1943. The papers chiefly document Cahill's career as a novelist during the 1940s and 1950s. They consist of general correspondence with writers, artists, publishers and others. There is also family correspondence, 1907-1983, between Cahill and his sister Anna Johnson, his mother Vigdis Bjarnsdottir, and his second wife Dorothy Canning Miller, who was a long-time colleague at the Museum of Modern Art. In this series there is also correspondence of extraordinary interest between Anna Johnson and Dorothy Canning Miller which contains information about Cahill's birth, name and age, which is fundamentally different from the official biography. Also included are manuscript drafts of his novels, short stories, and articles; story ideas and notes; research notes; poetry and playscripts; writings by others, including Josephine Herbst and Robert A. Andrews; photographs of Cahill, members of his family and friends; and biographical material, interviews, miscellaneous clippings, and some annotated books and magazines.