Scope and arrangement
The Bill Gunn Papers (1948-1994) document the extent of his career as a playwright, screenwriter and filmmaker, and contain material about his acting and directing accomplishments. Included in the collection are annotated drafts and final versions of play scripts, screenplays, teleplays, novels and short stories, and related programs, reviews, flyers and clippings, and letters.
The Personal series, ca. 1948-1994, features biographical information about Gunn, including bibliographies, interviews, and clippings, as well as obituaries and memorial programs. There are files for Gunn's parents, Louise and William Harrison Gunn, Sr., personal correspondence and writing notes, and information about Gunn's estate.
The Professional series, ca. 1954-1986, offers a glimpse at Gunn's early career as an actor as well as his general professional endeavors beyond his work as a writer, and includes professional correspondence.
The Writing series, ca. 1959-1991, comprises the bulk of the collection and is organized into six sub-series: Novels, Short Stories, Playscripts, Screenplays, Teleplays, and General. The series encompasses the complete oeuvre of Gunn's work, demonstrating his creativity and experiences in each medium. The material includes drafts, galleys, annotated manuscripts, play scripts, and teleplays, production material, correspondence and notes pertaining to Gunn's four decades in show business, and contains both published/produced and unpublished/unproduced work. Of note are the playscripts for Black Picture Show (1975), Family Employment (1985), The Forbidden City (1989), Johnnas (1968), Marcus in the High Grass (1959), and Rhinestone (1982); and the screenplays of Ganja and Hess (1973), I Am the Greatest: The Life of Muhammad Ali, the original script of The Greatest (1977), The Landlord (1970), and the unreleased Stop (1970).
The Collected Materials series, ca. 1969-1986, consists of screenplays, teleplays and essays by other writers and actors, including Janus Adams, Wesley Brown, Dwayne McDuffie, Joe Morton, and Anthony Regusters. Notable material includes two screenplays for Shaft by John D. F. Black and Ernest Tidyman.
The Bill Gunn papers are arranged in four series:
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ca. 1948 - 1994
This series includes files for Gunn's parents, Louise Gunn and William Harrison Gunn, who met as theatrical actors and were married for sixty years. Louise Gunn's file contains correspondence with Gunn, as well as general correspondence, her collected material, certificates and awards recognizing her financial and civic contributions to community organizations such as Zion Baptist Church and the Opportunities Industrial Center, and clippings from 1948 to 1994. William Harrison Gunn's file consists of his handwritten poetry for his wife and friends, obituaries and funeral material, and information about his military career in the Army and Navy in World War I and II, respectively.
The series also comprises of Gunn's writing notes and personal correspondence with family, friends, and fans. Notable material includes exchanges with Charles "Chiz" Schultz, a producer of Ganja and Hess, and a letter to "David" in which Gunn articulates the importance of authenticity when portraying African Americans, a philosophy that informed his own film and theatrical and film work for nearly three decades. The Estate file features material about the establishment of a scholarship in Gunn's name by the Rockland Negro Scholarship Fund for St. Thomas Aquinas College (1990-1992), and the estate's work in assessing Gunn's literary work and other properties. Additionally, the series contains an address book and a 1950 appointment book, which served not only as a schedule and telephone directory but as a writing journal with excerpts from a story Gunn was writing in 1950.
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ca. 1954 - 1986
This series, ca. 1954-1986, offers a glimpse at Gunn's early career as an actor as well as his general professional endeavors beyond his work as a writer. The Acting Career sub-series features a play script and programs for The Immoralist, written by Ruth and Augustus Goetz and produced at the Royal Theatre in 1954, in which Gunn made his Broadway debut as Dolit, an Arab boy. There is also a general acting folder that contains programs, residuals stubs and clippings for Gunn's other appearances in theatrical and television productions such as The Member of the Wedding, Carmen in Harlem, Sign of Winter, The Interns, and Strange Companion, including a program for The Member of the Wedding signed by co-star Richard Ward.
There is a file of professional correspondence about Gunn's film and theatrical work as well as exchanges with people seeking advice or opportunities to work with him, and letters from the Emmy Awards, the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, NPR Radio, and Writers Guild of America, East. Additionally, there is a folder containing organizational information about the Delphic Corporation, a potential film company established by Gunn, and a file with an unsigned contract with Camera News, Inc. to produce an untitled twenty-minute dramatic short film/teleplay dated 1982.
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ca. 1959 - 1991
This series, ca. 1959-1991, comprises the bulk of the collection and is organized into six sub-series: Novels, Short Stories, Playscripts, Screenplays, Teleplays, and General. The series encompasses the complete oeuvre of Gunn's work, demonstrating his creativity and experiences in each medium. The material includes drafts, galleys, annotated scripts, production material, correspondence and notes pertaining to Gunn's four decades in show business, beginning with his early efforts at writing novels, playwriting and screenwriting.
The Novels sub-series, ca. 1964-1982, contains the publisher's galleys for Gunn's first novel, All the Rest Have Died (1964), and an original manuscript and typescript fragments for Rhinestone Sharecropping (1981), his second book. There are also annotated manuscripts for his unpublished novels Amon and the Sword, Egyptian Murals (or the Further Experiences of Sam and Cleola Dodd), and The Odyssey of the Rose, as well as fragments of stories.
The Short Stories sub-series, ca. 1967-1970s, consists of annotated manuscripts of published and unpublished short stories, including The Bedlamite, Loneliness, Passion, and Somehow the Amnesia Victim Stumbles Upon a Familiar Face As I Stumbled Upon Your Love.
The Playscripts sub-series, ca. 1959-1991, consists of annotated drafts and play scripts of Gunn's produced plays Black Picture Show (1975), Family Employment (1985), The Forbidden City (1989), Johnnas (1968), Marcus in the High Grass (1959), and Rhinestone (1982), as well as related production notes, programs and promotional material, clippings, reviews, and correspondence arranged alphabetically by title. The sub-series also features annotated drafts and play scripts of Gunn's unproduced plays, including The Caftan Caper, The Celebration, Doubleganger, Father: The Harmer Street Communion (An American Story), Games: A Play with Music, Lebensbilder (Pictures of Life), The Owlight (or The Communion), Prayers at the Foot of the Alter: Two One-Act Plays, Renaissance, Samba of Roses, See Naples and Die (Vedi Napoli e Poi Mori), and That's Gustavo (A Love Story), in addition to related notes and correspondence arranged alphabetically by title.
The Screenplays sub-series, ca. 1967-1991, contains annotated drafts, screenplays and shooting scripts for Gunn's produced films Ganja and Hess (1973), I Am the Greatest: The Life of Muhammad Ali, the original script of The Greatest (1977), The Landlord (1970), and the unreleased Stop (1970) arranged alphabetically by title. Related material includes production notes, correspondence, contracts, clippings and reviews. Of note is a copy of the screenplay for I Am the Greatest: The Life of Muhammad Ali signed by Gunn, who would go uncredited in the final version of the script, The Greatest. The sub-series also includes treatments, annotated drafts and screenplays of Gunn's unproduced films, such as Doubleganger, Egyptian Murals, The Go-Between, Home Again, Home Again, The House of Flowers, Jeanne Duval, Kristine, The Last Cruise of the Spitfire, Marcus in the High Grass, Men of Bronze, The Owlight, Prancer, and Territory, as well as fragments of screenplays and related correspondence, arranged alphabetically by title. Many of the screenplays are based on Gunn's other novels, play scripts and teleplays.
The Teleplays sub-series, ca. 1975-1981, features annotated screenplays of The Alberta Hunter Story, a five-part miniseries co-written with Chris Albertson, along with notes and research. The series also contains Gunn's annotated script for the "Sojourner Truth" episodes of The American Parade (1975), and material for Personal Problems (1980), including a synopsis, correspondence, reviews, and research and notes. The sub-series also includes synopses, treatments, annotated drafts and teleplays of Gunn's unproduced television series, such as Bessie, based on the book by Chris Albertson, The Big Apple, Bring It All Home, The Caftan Caper, Change at 125th Street, The Harmer Street Communion (An American Story), The Lena Horne Show, Manhattan Serenade, Men of Bronze, Oye Willie, and WBLK, as well as related correspondence, research and notes.
The General sub-series, ca. 1970s-1980s, contains general material related to Gunn's writing career, including teaching material for his term at Indiana University's Department of Afro-American Studies in 1984, research material, and notebooks for project ideas.
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ca. 1969 - 1986