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Creator
Klein, Robert, 1892-1958
Call number
*T-Mss 1958-001
Physical description
3.13 linear feet. (8 boxes)
Language
Correspondence is in English and German
Preferred Citation
Robert Klein papers, Billy Rose Theatre Division, The New York Public Library
Repository
Billy Rose Theatre Division
Access to materials
Request an in-person research appointment.

The Robert Klein papers consist of both personal and professional correspondence, papers from organizational affiliations in the United States and Europe, materials regarding projects, articles written by Klein and ephemera documenting his careeer both in the United States and in Europe. The materials are in English and German and there is much in the collection from the 1930s dealing with Max Reinhardt. Later materials in the collection document his career as a professor of drama in United States colleges.

Biographical/historical information

Robert Klein, director, professor and writer was born in Mannheim, Germany in 1892. He received his Ph.D. at the University of Munich by writing a history of the theater. During the 1920s he was well known in the German theater as both an owner of theaters in Berlin and an associate of Max Reinhardt. He left Germany in 1932, settling first in Switzerland and later, in London where he stayed until 1939.

He emigrated to the United States in 1939, arriving in New York City, where he co-founded the studio theater of the New School of Social Research with Erwin Piscator. He continued his career in the United States by teaching at colleges in the eastern United States. Among these were Rollins College, Connecticut College, Goddard College and Cooper Union.

Klein was a Shavian enthusiast and also an acquaintance of George Bernard Shaw. Many of Klein's project ideas reflected his love of Shaw's works. Klein produced and directed many of Shaw's plays both at the professional and college level. Robert Klein died in 1958 in Forest Hills, Queens.

Scope and arrangement

The Robert Klein papers are arranged in seven series:

  • Series I - Personal Papers

    This series contains family correspondence, a biographical sketch of Robert Klein and some business related papers including contracts and other theatrical documents. There are also some unsigned drawings.

  • Series II - Correspondence

    This series contains correspondence to Robert Klein from friends and business associates throughout his life. Included is much correspondence dealing with his years in the German theater with Max and Edmund Reinhardt. Of special note is the correspondence with Erwin Piscator and the Dramatic Workshop. There is some correspondence with George Bernard Shaw due to his extensive work with Shaw plays. Other correspondents include: Elisabeth Bergner, Howard Lindsay, Ferenc Molnar, Hans Rothe, Karl Voll Moeller, and Philip Jordan.

  • Series III - Organizations

    This series contains correspondence, flyers, notes and newsletters pertaining to Robert Klein's association with various organizations. Included are membership groups and corporations, as well as universities where he was employed as a professor and theater director. Most of the papers are from universities where he was a member of the faculty. These include: Connecticut College, Cooper Union, Goddard College, Middlebury College and Rollins College. Also included are notes and correspondence dealing with the Dramatic Workshop and the Open Forum Speakers Bureau in Boston, Massachusetts.

  • Series IV - Projects

    This series contains notes, production ideas, correspondence, clippings, scripts and programs for book projects, curriculum development ideas, ideas for plays, and plays produced by Robert Klein both professionally and at colleges in the United States. Of special note are the files on the play Time For A Change which was an adaptation of Aristophanes' Ecclesiazusae, and the files for Scandal in Assyria. Time For A Change, produced in 1953-1954, caused major controversy at Cooper Union when the president of the college and Lawrence Langner insisted upon censoring part of the text because it was thought to include communist ideology. Scandal in Assyria was written by Axel Kjellstrom (the pseudonym for Robert Klein, Gerald Bullett and Walter Hasenclever) produced in London in 1939 and directed by John Gielgud. The play is a satire and parodies the political situation in Germany at the time. However, much of the correspondence is from 1957 and concerns a later European production. Quite a few of his projects are related to the playwright Bernard Shaw. A Shavian enthusiast, Klein not only produced many of Shaw's works but also planned a book on Shaw and a festival based on the plays of Shaw.

  • Series V - Writings

    This series contains articles, notes and biographical writings by Robert Klein, both in English and in German. Most of his materials relate to theater although some writings of the thirties delve into European politics, England's policy of appeasement, the rise of Adolph Hitler and the nazi movement.

  • Series VI - Ephemera

    This series contains newsletters, clippings, programs, photographs and miscellaneous materials documenting Robert Klein's life and career. Most of the clippings are from German newspapers and are in German. English language clippings are in the Billy Rose Theatre Collection clipping files.

  • Series VII - Scrapbooks

    This series contains one scrapbook belonging to Robert Klein. The scrapbook has been disassembled and preservation photocopying has replaced the original materials when appropriate. Original sketches, by Robert Klein have been encapsulated, preserved in their original form.

Administrative information

Source of acquisition

Gift, Estate of Robert Klein, 1958

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