Papers of a playwright, producer, screenwriter, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer executive, and activist in Jewish and liberal causes, including general correspondence, scripts, correspondence and stills for films and plays with which Schary was associated, non-dramatic writings, speeches, and scrapbooks. Non-dramatic writings in the collection include newspaper and magazine articles, book reviews, drafts of his books "Case History of a Movie" (1950) and "Heyday" (1979), and speeches, many of which are also present in recorded form. General correspondence contains letters from many people of prominence: Ralph Bellamy, Art Buchwald, William Buckley, Jr., Lionel Barrymore, Winston Churchill, Norman Cousins, Princess Grace of Monaco, Dag Hammarskjold, Moss Hart, Hedda Hopper, Lyndon B. Johnson, C. Estes Kefauver, John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, Sinclair Lewis, Howard Lindsay, Fredric March, William Proxmire, Eleanor Roosevelt, Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., David O. Selznick, Adlai E. Stevenson, Harry S Truman, Earl Warren, and Darryl F. Zanuck. Other files relate to his active involvement with the American Civil Liberties Union, the American Jewish Committee, the Anti-Defamation League, and various Democratic campaign committees. Records of Schary's years as executive producer and vice-president at MGM include reports of executive meetings, 1942-1949 and 1955-1956, and productions, 1941-1942 and 1948-1953; studio records, 1946-1956; and scattered financial records on gross income. The remainder of the collection consists of engagement books, biographical material, personal photographs, and scrapbooks documenting his work and the career of his wife Miriam as painter M. Svet.
