Harriet Wasserman Literary Agency records, [1940s]-2000 and n.d. (bulk 1978-1995).

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Harriet Wasserman Literary Agency records, [1940s]-2000 and n.d. (bulk 1978-1995).

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/84588802

Records of the Harriet Wasserman Literary Agency, spanning the dates 1948-1995; bulk of records date after 1974. Records prior to 1981 are those of writers whom Wasserman also represented for her former employer, Russell and Volkening, Inc. Correspondence, office files, clippings, etc. document activities of a major literary agency on behalf of writers: manuscript submissions, contract negotiations, handling of foreign and reprint rights, publicity, and the different ways affairs are handled for lesser-known or beginning writers and for major authors. Among others, collection includes papers about fiction writers Richard Bausch, Saul Bellow, Frederick Buechner, Oscar Hijuelos, Josephine Humphreys, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Alice McDermott, and Reynolds Price; and historian George F. Kennan and philosopher and historian Allan Bloom. Correspondence is primarily professional, although some sense of personal relationships between Wasserman and long-term clients can be gained, especially with Bellow, whose career is documented for some forty-five years. Among a small sample of his early personal correspondence are a few letters from novelists Ralph Ellison and Wright Morris; but bulk of his papers are Wasserman's professional correspondence about him from 1973 to early 1990s. Addition (99-275) (19,500 items, 32.5 lin. ft.; dated 1974-1999 and n.d) is unprocessed, but expands on all of the collection series, especially materials related to Saul Bellow. Addition (01-050) (816 items, 12 lin. ft.; dated 1974-2000 and n.d.) includes book manuscripts, galley proofs (some inscribed), correspondence, notes, and other materials relating to the authors represented by the literary agency. Other materials include 64 black-and-white photographs, 1 black-and-white negative, 4 color photographs, and 1 audiocassette tape. Authors included in this addition are Richard Bausch, Jay Williams, Suzi-Lori Parks, Laurel Lee, Karla Kuskin, Elinore Clark, Perrin Ireland, Frederick Buechner, John Tyler Bonner, Martha Moody, Eugene Walter, Caroline Winthrop, Paul Lussier, Sharon Flake, Reynolds Price, Josephine Humphreys, Saul Bellow, George Dawson and Richard Glaubman, Julia Markus, George F. Kennan, Carole L. Glickfeld, Mark Winegardner, Michael Stewart, Diane Vreuls, Sandra Gould Ford, Charles McPhee, Mark Smith, and Harriet Wasserman herself. Addition (01-115) (5 items, .1 linear feet; dated 1978-2001, bulk 1997-2001) contains correspondence between Wasserman and Shelley Gruskin. Also includes playbill for performances of IN DREAMS BEGIN RESPONSIBILITIES and GIMPEL THE FOOL, signed by actor David Marguiles (2001) and a copy of IN DREAMS BEGIN RESPONSIBILITIES AND OTHER STORIES (1978), by Delmore Schwartz. Both book and playbill are mentioned in the correspondence.

37,995 items (157 linear ft.)

Duke University Libraries, Duke University Library; Perkins Library

Information

SNAC Resource ID: 8323146

Duke University Libraries, Duke University Library; Perkins Library

Related Entities

There are 29 Entities related to this resource.

Parks, Suzan-Lori, 1963-

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w63z8x7r (person)

Suzan-Lori Parks (born May 10, 1963) is an American playwright, screenwriter, musician and novelist. Her 2001 play Topdog/Underdog won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2002; Parks is the first African American woman to achieve this honor for drama. Parks was born in Fort Knox, Kentucky. She grew up with two siblings in a military family. Parks enjoyed writing poems and songs and created a newspaper with her brother, called the "Daily Daily". Parks attended high school in West Germany, where her ...

Gruskin, Shelley, 1936-....

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6fn45qd (person)

McDermott, Alice

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6z048md (person)

Wasserman, Harriet

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w61r7903 (person)

Ireland, Perrin

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6380835 (person)

Dawson, George, 1898-2001

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6jt2pnm (person)

Vreuls, Diane

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6c8590m (person)

Bonner, John Tyler

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6xh04rw (person)

Bonner earned his Harvard SB in 1941, his AM in 1942, and his PhD in 1947. From the description of Student papers in English A, 1937-1938. (Harvard University). WorldCat record id: 228511920 ...

Bloom, Allan David, 1930-1992

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6dn569h (person)

Hijuelos, Oscar.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6s76h9w (person)

Oscar Hijuelos was born to Cuban immigrants in 1951 in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of New York City. He attended public schools and then Bronx Community College; he later enrolled at The City College of New York and received a B.A. in 1975 and an M.F.A. in 1976. As a graduate student in writing, he worked with Donald Barthelme and Susan Sontag. After completing his studies, Hijuelos earned his living by working during the day in an advertising agency. Before and...

Lee, Laurel A.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6fj5bsq (person)

Ford, Sandra Gould

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w66t3m10 (person)

Glickfeld, Carole L.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6fv1khm (person)

Markus, Julia, 1939-

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6j68b58 (person)

Winegardner, Mark, 1961-

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6b024r6 (person)

Buechner, Frederick, 1926-....

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6xs6wp4 (person)

Born July 11, 1926, Buechner was named for his father, Carl Frederick Buechner. After his father's death, when Buechner was ten, the famiy moved frequently. In 1941 Buechner was sent to the Lawrenceville School, where he built a lasting friendship with James Merrill. Buechner, after his graduation from Lawrenceville in 1943, attended Princeton University. His education there was interrupted by his draft into the army. He later returned to Princeton to graduate in 1947. In 1950 he published his P...

Humphreys, Josephine N.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6z03q9c (person)

Author residing on Sullivan's Island (Charleston Co.), S.C. From the description of Papers, 1946, 1960-1993 (bulk 1983-1987). (Duke University Library). WorldCat record id: 46345001 From the description of Papers, 1960-2000 (bulk 1983-1987). (Duke University Library). WorldCat record id: 79756747 Novelist, of South Carolina. From the description of Rich in love autographed promotional poster [picture] ; [1987]. (University of South Carolina). WorldCat re...

Kennan, George F. (George Frost), 1904-2005

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w67374gm (person)

George Kennan (1845-1924), American journalist and author, was best-known for his writings on Russia. In 1865 he was sent to Siberia as part of a surveying party to find a route for a telegraph line to connect Europe and America. Kennan traveled across Russia and wrote about his experiences in Tent Life in Siberia (1870). He worked as assistant manager of the Associated Press and wrote about the Russian prison and exile system for Century Magazine. In addition to his wor...

Moody, Martha.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w66b039d (person)

Price, Reynolds, 1933-2011

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w60t0cjt (person)

By Source, Fair use, Link Reynolds Price was born Edward Reynolds Price, in Macon, North Carolina, on 1 February 1933. He earned his B.A. degree from Duke University (1955) while on a full scholarship. After graduating, Price won a Rhodes scholarship, which allowed him to attend Merton College, Oxford. In 1958, Price received his Bachelor of letters from Merton College. His thesis focused on the English poet John Milton. Upon his return from Oxford, Price secured a position in the English d...

Bellow, Saul

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6d50m6d (person)

Saul Bellow (1915-2005), novelist. From the description of Saul Bellow drafts of nobel lecture, 1976-1977. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 702194195 Author Saul Bellow was born in Montreal to Russian emigre parents; when he was nine, the family moved to Chicago, where Bellow was educated at the University of Chicago and Northwestern in Sociology and Anthropology. He began writing novels, and gradually built a respected body of work that saw him recognized as one of the most c...

Lussier, Paul.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6bc6zh9 (person)

Harriet Wasserman Literary Agency.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6383b51 (corporateBody)

The Harriet Wasserman Literary Agency (HWLA) was formed in 1981 by Harriet Wasserman, formerly an agent at the Russell and Volkening Literary Agency beginning in 1965. A number of prominent American writers Wasserman represented at Russell and Volkening came with her when she formed her own agency. Thus, while the bulk of the HWLA records document her clients' careers after 1981, a number also reach back into the 1970s and document such early clients as Saul Bellow, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, and Rey...

Jhabvala, Ruth Prawer, 1927-2013

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6mk7ds6 (person)

Ruth Prawer Jhabvala CBE was a German-born British and American author and screenwriter. Born in Cologne, Germany, she fled with her family under the Nazi Regime to Britain. After meeting Cyrus Jhabvala in England, she married him and moved to India in 1951. The couple lived in New Delhi and had three daughters. Jhabvala began then to elaborate her experiences in India and wrote novels and tales on Indian subjects. She wrote a dozen novels, 23 screenplays, and eight collections of short stories....

Kuskin, Karla

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6j96rgj (person)

Born in New York City in 1932, Karla Kuskin (née Seidman) has written and illustrated at least twenty-seven books for children and collaborated on at least eighteen others as author or illustrator. From the description of Karla Kuskin papers, 1965-1966. (University of Southern Mississippi, Regional Campus). WorldCat record id: 48271717 Karla Kuskin was born July 17, 1932, in New York City. She began writing and drawing at an early age. Her first book, Roar and ...

Glaubman, Richard

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6pz88sb (person)

Bausch, Richard, 1945-....

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w61v6ft5 (person)

Richard Bausch is the author of numerous novels and short stories. He teaches creative writing at George Mason University in Virginia. From the description of Richard Bausch papers, 1965-1998 and undated. (Duke University Library). WorldCat record id: 42398653 Author of numerous novels and short stories. He teaches creative writing at George Mason University in Virginia. From the description of Richard Bausch papers, 1965-1998 and n.d. (Duke University Library). ...

Winthrop, Caroline

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w69w3fbk (person)

Flake, Sharon.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w62j9bvq (person)