Scope and arrangement
The James Baldwin Papers document Baldwin's career as an African American writer, intellectual, and activist in the United States and abroad. Dating to 1938, this archive of writings and related documents is indispensable to understanding the significance of Baldwin's career as a writer and an engaged public man of letters. The archive will enable researchers to trace the textual evolution of virtually all of Baldwin's writings. Each of his novels, essays, screen treatments (including the treatment for an unproduced film about Malcolm X) and dramatic adaptations of his novels, divided into published and unpublished subseries, are present in the form of detailed manuscript notes, heavily reworked manuscript drafts or significant manuscript fragments, and typescript drafts with his often copious manuscript annotations and emendations. The archive contains draft manuscripts and typescripts of his poetry and his important reviews. In addition, there are also personal papers and business records produced by Baldwin and his estate.
The James Baldwin papers are arranged in four series:
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1938-19874.2 linear feet
This series is divided into eight subseries consisting of materials collected primarily by Baldwin and his estate. Biographical Files (.8 lin. ft.) includes a copy of The Douglass Pilot (1938), a school literary journal edited by Baldwin when he was 13 or 14 years old, featuring four articles written by him. Additional early writings include an untitled essay about his life and a bibliography of his works. The file also contains stenographer's minutes for a 1954 case against Baldwin and four others for disorderly conduct. Other items of note include a transcription of Take This Hammer, a 1963 documentary film featuring Baldwin which was produced by NET and KQED-TV in San Francisco, as well as tributes to Baldwin, among them a program for "Evensong and a Celebration Honoring James Baldwin" (1974). Lastly, a small group of research materials, artwork and works by others including a play script for To Be Young, Gifted and Black: Lorraine Hansberry in Her Own Words, edited by Hansberry's former husband, Robert Nemiroff, complete this section.
Correspondence (1.6 lin. ft.) consists of incoming and outgoing letters (some of Baldwin's letters are unsigned and undated), and telegrams from friends, family, business associates and admirers. Significant correspondents include friends, colleagues and collaborators Alex Haley, filmmaker Elia Kazan, and Toni Morrison. There are also letters received from Maya Angelou, Lorraine Hansberry, Marlon Brando, Owen Dodson, Jean Blackwell Hutson, Harold Jackman, Coretta Scott King, Jacqueline Onassis, Bobby Seale, Nina Simone and William Styron, although Baldwin's responses are not included. Other correspondents include Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Louise Meriwether, Robert Nemiroff, and publisher Sol Stein.
The Interviews (.4 lin. ft.) files contain several substantive and unique documents that illuminate Baldwin's thoughts on a variety of /various topics including race, history and literature. The interviews are comprised primarily of transcriptions with edits and copies of published versions. Although this series includes interviews featured in James Baldwin: A Legacy (1989) and James Baldwin: The Last Interview and Other Conversations (2014), it appears that several/many of the interviews have not been collected in any published volume. Among the most significant interviews are "Revolutionary Hope: A Conversation between James Baldwin and Audre Lorde," published in Essence Magazine (1984?) and "Is There a Case for Segregation," a segment for the NBC television show, The Open Mind, in 1962.
The Organizations and Projects (.4 lin. ft.) files provides a snapshot of Baldwin's activities and interests, although his activism is recorded throughout the collection (see WRITINGS series, particularly nonfiction work such as The Fire Next Time, The Evidence of Things Not Seen, among others). Among these files is a file of correspondence, flyers and other materials related to the appeal and conviction of six Harlem youth, known as the Harlem Six, for the murder of Margit Sugar (1966). Baldwin's file for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) (1961-1967) is comprised of letters, copies of Student Voice newsletters and information about a benefit held in 1967 where Baldwin raised funds for the Harlem Six and civil rights work in Dorchester County, South Carolina. Groups he sponsored such as National Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy, Inc. (SANE) (1961-1964) and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (1961-1967) are filed here. The Recommendations File (.1 lin. ft.) include letters supporting candidates for The Black Scholar's annual W.E.B. DuBois Essay Awards, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, among others.
The Travel File (.1 lin. ft.) documents some of his travel for speaking engagements/ appearances and is comprised of a small number of itineraries, receipts for air travel, accommodations and car rental and other expenses. (Evidence of Baldwin's other travels is represented across the collection, most prominently in the BUSINESS RECORDS series.) The Fan Mail File (.4 lin. ft.) includes letters from admirers of Baldwin's across the world. The Awards File (.8 lin. ft.) contains files for honorary degrees, awards and citations Baldwin amassed during his lifetime and posthumously.
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1938-ca. 1992
The largest and most substantive series, Writing, is divided into the following two subseries, Published and Unpublished; each subseries is further divided into subgroups (novels, plays, nonfiction, short stories, poetry, screenplays, and reviews). The published subseries has an additional subgroup, collaborative work, while the unpublished subseries includes other work and other writing. Materials within each subgroup are arranged by order of composition moving from handwritten manuscripts, multiple drafts or notes, to annotated typescripts and galleys. Baldwin seldom dated his handwritten or typed scripts, so files have been placed intellectually within each subgroup. Published and unpublished works mostly include the following formats: handwritten drafts, typed scripts, galleys, correspondence, reviews, and other related materials. Early in his writing career, Baldwin often composed on orange Rhodia notebooks and letter and legal yellow pads, which are included as well.
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1940s-ca. 19928.6 linear feet
The final series, Business records, (1940s-ca.1992, 8.6 lin. ft.) remarkable for its depth and expansiveness, records Baldwin's career as a writer and public speaker spanning over four decades. Along with the Writing series, this series provides a complex look at Baldwin's relationships with publishers, literary agents, lawyers, and other business associates. The files include contracts, correspondence, proposals, royalty statements, telegrams, carbons of Baldwin's letters, and other records.
With few exceptions, this series has been kept primarily as it was organized by the Baldwin Estate. Some of these files were possibly maintained by Baldwin's representatives, his sister and secretary Gloria Smart, author David Leeming, secretary Bernard Hassell, and literary agent Robert P. Mills.
Invitations to Speak. (1.4 lin. ft.) The subseries features hundreds of letters and telegrams requesting Baldwin to speak from various high schools, colleges and universities, arts councils, libraries, civil rights organizations, religious institutions, and book clubs, to name a few. The letters are often dated and annotated (e.g., "replied," "out of town," "cancelled," etc.) and sometimes include a carbon copy of Baldwin or his representative's responses. These records at best illuminate the author's busy writing, traveling and speaking schedule. In one note to David, Baldwin's brother, an unnamed secretary writes: here are the two lectures Jimmy consented to do. There are about 30 or 40 that we turned down…" (1963). A sample of requests includes letters from the American Civil Liberties Union, Dartmouth College, Frederick Douglass Junior High School, Harlem Youth Opportunities Unlimited (HARYOU), Howard University, Mensa, The Poetry Center, Temple Beth Emeth of Flatbush, and the University of Washington.
Agents and Agencies. (1.2 lin. ft.) The agents and agencies are filed alphabetically and include short and long term representation. Included in this series are files for Edward Action (1980s), Rodlphe Ankaoua (1970s), Beldock, Levine and Hoffman (1980s), Eugene C. Braun-Munk, Bruna and Zoons (1970s), Conference Speakers International, Inc., (1980s), Cohen and Meyohas (1970s), Enterprise Unlimited (1970s), Robert Lantz (1965-1970s), Ruth Liepman (1970s), Michael Joseph Ltd (1964-1966), Robert Mills Ltd (1967-1971), and the William Morris Agency (1948-1970s). It is not known whether these files constitute a comprehensive record of Baldwin's business associates, but cover the late 1940s until his death in the 1980s. There is also considerable overlap within the subseries, as there is correspondence involving two or more parties related to a specific publication, lecture or project.
The bulk of the Publishers Files (1 lin. ft.) concern Dial Press and include contracts, publicity materials, flyers, clippings and original letters and carbons of Baldwin's letters to publisher's representative Donna Schrader for the publications Go Tell It On the Mountain, Tell Me How Long the Train's Been Gone, as well as a guest book for a party at Small's Paradise in 1962 to celebrate the publication of Another Country.
Other publishers include Doubleday, Knopf, Inc., Lippincott, McGraw-Hill (a photocopy of a signed contract for "Remember This House," also known as "Death Come Creeping in My Room"), Open Gate Books, and magazines and journals such as Daedalus, Harper's, The Nation, Preuves, and Saturday Review. The files contain correspondence, contracts, clippings, fan mail, and other items. The Lawyers Files (.2 lin. ft.) for the firms Ramseur and Witofsky, and Shanks, Davis and Remer, include letters, fee schedules and other related items.
Invitations to Speak. (1.4 lin. ft.) The file contains requests for speaking engagements, and responses from Baldwin's literary agents and secretaries. The bulk of the letters dated 1963, the year he published The Fire Next Time and participated in the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. There are letters from Brandeis University, Dartmouth, Congress of Racial Equality, Columbia University, New York University, among for hundreds of others, filed in this section.
A separate file for Contracts (.2 lin. ft.), maintained by the Estate, includes original but mostly photocopies of contracts for publishers, appearances, an unsigned photocopy of an option for the screen rights to Giovanni's Room, some correspondence, and clippings. Similarly, the Permissions Files (.2 lin. ft.) includes contracts for the use of his works for anthologies, textbooks, and documentaries. Notably, there is a 1982 letter from Oxford University Press thanking Baldwin for granting permission to convert The Fire Next Time into computer-readable form.
The very last section, Business Correspondence (1.2 lin. ft.) is organized chronologically (1955-1989) and includes inquiries for projects such as "Bessie" by Michael Wilcox, the NAACP, Herbert Kline Productions, and a file of letters concerning dramatic productions for Giovanni's Room, Blues for Mister Charlie, and The Amen Corner.