Dr. Robert Coles, Harvard University professor and Pulitzer Prize winner, was the founding editor of DoubleTake Magazine. The publication was born out of Coles' long history of teaching and commentary around social ethics. A ten million dollar grant from the Lyndhurst Foundation gave DoubleTake its auspicious start. It was considered a general interest literary quarterly that served to highlight and give voice to the lives of ordinary folks through photography, story, essays, and poetry. Uniquely, the magazine gave equal weight to word and image from both unknown and famous artisans. DoubleTake was anything but ordinary and won the prestigious National Magazine Award for general excellence. From 1995-1999 DoubleTake was published from Duke University's Center for Documentary Studies. In 1999 DoubleTake relocated to Sommerville, Massachusetts where it continued to publish until its end in 2003. The compilation of the DoubleTake Magazine papers includes copies of the published DoubleTake issues, original submitted typescripts of stories, poems, essays, and original and copies of photographs by artists from issues 15-31, disk archives, edited versions of works, galley proofs, letters and email correspondence, awards, educational accomplishments, publicity, marketing, fundraising and advertising efforts, and finally, legal, financial and business records pertaining to the magazine.
