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Creator
Eastman, Max, 1883-1969
Call number
*T-Mss 1994-008
Physical description
.25 lin. ft. (1 box).
Preferred Citation

Max Eastman Papers, *T-Mss 1994-008, Billy Rose Theatre Collection, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.

Repository
Billy Rose Theatre Division
Access to materials
Request an in-person research appointment.Restrictions apply
Portions of this collection have been digitized and are available online.

The Max Eastman papers contain primarily photographs of the silent film stars Florence Deshon and Charlie Chaplin.

Biographical/historical information

Editor, writer and translator, Max Eastman founded and edited The Masses (1913-1917), and The Liberator (1918-1922), and was an editor of the Reader's Digest from 1941.

He published 25 books on a variety of subjects including poetry, the psychology of literature and laughter, and critiques of Marxism. He also translated some of the works of Leon Trotsky and others and compiled and narrated a film history of the Russian Revolution. He was part of the Greenwich Village (N.Y.) leftist, intellectual and artistic circle in the 1910s and 1920s. During this time he met Florence Deshon, a stage and screen actress from Tacoma, Washington. He and Charlie Chaplin competed for her affections. She died of accidental gas asphyxiation in February 1922, despite a transfusion of Eastman's blood. Shortly thereafter, Eastman went to Russia to learn the language and study the Soviet system, but left after an early disillusionment with Stalin.

Scope and arrangement

The collection is primarily photographs of Eastman's silent film star friends, Charlie Chaplin and Florence Deshon.

It contains drawings (undated and unidentified) by Chaplin, personal and family photographs including ones he sent as Christmas cards (1968 and earlier), and negatives and prints from his The Kid (1921). The Deshon material consists primarily of photographs and clippings, particularly relating to her film, Jaffery (1916) with C. Aubrey Smith, and includes a letter from Smith and one (1919) from Samuel Goldwyn concerning her employment in his studio. The collection also contains photographs of Paulette Goddard and other film personalities, an Actors' Equity Benefit Program (1919) annotated by Eastman, and a copy of the Provincetown Plays (1916).

Arrangement

Arranged alphabetically by subject

Administrative information

Source of acquisition

Purchased from Yvette Eastman (Mrs. Max)

Processing information

Processed by Elisabeth Elkind; machine-readable finding aid created by Mary Ellen Rogan.

Using the collection

Location

Billy Rose Theatre Division
New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center
40 Lincoln Center Plaza, New York, NY 10023-7498
Third Floor

Conditions Governing Use

Unrestricted.

Access restrictions

Photocopying prohibited.