Papers, 1929-1974 (bulk, 1935-1950).

  1. Resources
  2. View Resource

ArchivalResource

Papers, 1929-1974 (bulk, 1935-1950).

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/86164809

The most significant items include: notes toward a biography of Kurt Weill, consisting of interviews or reminiscences from several of his friends, collaborators, and Lotte Lenya herself; a partial typescript of a late draft of Davis's novel The opening of a door; shorter Davis manuscripts, including "Dutchy Schmidt," "Georgette," "The rabbit," and fragments of a planned second novel; letters from W.H. Auden, Katherine Anne Porter, Caroline Gordon, Colin McPhee, Carmel Snow (editor of Harper's Bazaar), Robert Lowry, Edouard de Bay, Grace Mitchell, and members of Davis's family; a holograph manuscript of Auden's; several manuscripts by the poet Harry Roskolenko; clippings and manuscripts on the French artist Christian Bérard; records of Davis's tenure at Columbia University and various writing workshops; photographs of many well-known artists, including Auden, Bérard, Lotte Lenya, and Jean Genet; and an address book possibly belonging to Lenya. The collection is heterogeneous, consisting of well over 100 personal letters; hundreds of pieces of graphic art (mainly photographs, postcards, and advertisements which Davis apparently used for inspiration or esthetic pleasure) including numerous photographs of his friends and family; manuscripts and publications of his own and of other people (several manuscripts on the Brooklyn psychic Mollie Fancher), including published works by Robert Lowry and James Flora; his financial records from the 1940's; documents including his death certificate and Social Security card; and, some records (mainly in the form of correspondence) of his activities as editor, writing instructor, and writer. Although the collection contains personal or business letters from a variety of well-known artists, in only a few cases is such a figure represented by more than one letter. There are few written records of his work with Lenya in the 1950's, although there are a number of photographs from that time.

ca. 3.5 linear ft. (5 boxes).

eng,

fre,

Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison

Information

SNAC Resource ID: 8351835

Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison

Related Entities

There are 19 Entities related to this resource.

Porter, Katherine Anne, 1890-1980

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w69707s7 (person)

Katherine Anne Porter (1890-1980) was one of the most brilliant practitioners of the art of the short story. Her literary reputation rests on the stories in her Collected Stories (1964) rather than on her best-selling novel Ship of Fools (1962). Born Callie Russell Porter on May 15, 1890, she was the fourth of Harrison and Mary Alice Porter's five children. When her mother died in March 1892, her father moved the four surviving children from his farm in the central Texas community ...

McPhee, Colin, 1900-1964

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6jw8g5t (person)

McPhee was born on Mar. 15, 1900 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada; graduated from Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, MD (1921) and studied in Paris with Paul Le Flem (1924-6) and in New York with Edgard Varèse (ca. 1927); he was based in the US from 1926, except for the years he spent in Indonesia; went to Bali in the early 1930s after having heard recordings of Indonesian music, where he composed the toccata Tabuh-Tabuhan; his books A house in Bali (1946), Dance in Bali (1948), and Music in Bali (1...

Lenya, Lotte

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w68g8mvt (person)

Born in Austria, Lenya became an actress in Zürich, then moved to Berlin where she met and married Kurt Weill. They emigrated to the U.S. in 1935, where Lenya lived until her death a few months after this interview was recorded. From the description of An oral history interview with Lotte Lenya / conducted for the Kurt Weill Foundation for Music by Alan Rich, New City, N.Y., 1981 : recording and transcript. (Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison). WorldCat record id: 12258368...

Auden, W.H. (Wystan Hugh), 1907-1973

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6p55kjv (person)

Wystan Hugh Auden (1907-1973), poet, was born in York, England, on February 21, 1907. He attended Christ Church, Oxford, from 1925-1928, then served as a schoolmaster in various institutions in England and Scotland from 1930 to 1935, including The Downs School in Colwell. In 1935 Auden married Erika Mann, a writer and the daughter of Thomas Mann, so that she could gain British Citizenship and escape Nazi Germany. Although the two never lived together, they remained married until Mann's death in ...

Gordon, Caroline, 1895-1981

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w62b9dkw (person)

Not certain if the author is Caroline Gordon, 1895-1981. From the description of Autograph letter signed : [n.p.], to [Richard M. Ludwig?], 1969 Dec. 23. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 270856877 Caroline Ferguson Gordon, born October 6, 1895, grew up on a farm in Kentucky. In 1925 she married Allen Tate, a poet and literary critic who led the charge of the Southern Agrarian literary movement. Together they pursued their careers in writing, forging close bonds with legendary ...

Snow, Carmel, 1890-1961

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w64x6dd0 (person)

Fancher, Mary J., 1848-

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6vh6xbp (person)

Davis, Georgina L

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6nw2j2z (person)

Davis, George, 1906-1957

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w65m677w (person)

George Davis began his career as a writer, publishing his only novel, The opening of a door, in 1931 while living in Paris. He returned to the U.S. shortly thereafter and began working as a fiction editor for various magazines, notably Harper's Bazaar and Mademoiselle, and exerted substantial influence on American taste and popular literary culture, "discovering" such writers as Truman Capote and Carson McCullers. During the 1940's, he and Gypsy Rose Lee established an artists' commune of sorts ...

Lee, Gypsy Rose, 1914-1970

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6bc4tgf (person)

Lee, an American burlesque entertainer, was one of the most famous strippers of all time, and was proclaimed during her lifetime to be the most publicized woman in the world. She starred in theater, 12 films, and eventually her own television show, "The Gypsy Rose Lee Show" (1958). Besides her mystery novels THE G-STRING MURDERS (1941) and MOTHER FINDS A BODY (1942), she wrote an autobiography, GYPSY (1957), which was a bestseller. From the description of Gypsy Rose Lee collection, 1...

Mitchell, Grace L.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6s211r9 (person)

Columbia University. School of General Studies

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6kt2t59 (corporateBody)

The School of General Studies began to formally offer a major in literature-writing for the 1984-1985 academic year. Though the School had offered a creative writing curriculum before this time, this program linked creative writing and literature courses into one cohesive major. This program offered courses in a wide array of types of writing-- poetry, criticism/reviews, screenwriting, creative non-fiction, science writing, and fiction as well as magazine editing and pub...

Flora, James

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6w38b94 (person)

James Flora was a children's author and illustrator, born in 1914 in Bellefontaine, Ohio, who lived in Rowayton, Connecticut from 1946 until his death in 1997. From the description of James Flora papers, 1955-1994. (University of Connecticut). WorldCat record id: 50955346 James R. Flora was born January 25, 1914, in Bellefontaine, OH, and died in Rowayton, CT, on July 9, 1998. He was a magazine and album cover designer and illustrator, and author and illustrator of children'...

Lowry, Robert, 1919-1994

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6806424 (person)

Robert Lowry was born on March 29, 1919, in Cincinnati, Ohio. He began his writing career at the age of eight, by his ninth year he was publishing stories in Cincinnati's daily newspaper. After his graduation from Withrow High School in 1937, Lowry entered the University of Cincinnati, where he founded and edited the magazine The Little Man in between jobs as an apple-picker in nearby orchards and salesman in a downtown dapartment store. Lowry left his hometown in 1938 to "tour the United States...

Bay, Edouard de

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6kw8fn0 (person)

Roskolenko, Harry

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w60w5vkn (person)

Roskolenko was born on the Lower East Side of New York in 1907. He ran off to sea at the age of 13 and at 21 became a Third Mate, sailing between America and Europe. During World War II he sailed as a Second officer with the U.S. Army Transport Service on ships running between Australia, New Guinea and the South Pacific. Roskolenko is the author of various volumes of poetry, novels and travel books. From the description of When the bottle's bloody empty, pet [manuscript]. 1943-1976. ...

Bérard, Christian, 1902-1949

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w65b04t7 (person)

Painter, costume designer, interior decorator and fashion illustrator active in Paris in the 1930's and 1940's. His drawings, loose and unfinished in style, appeared in Harper's Bazaar and Vogue. Known for his fine color sense, he influenced Dior and Schiaparelli, among others. From the description of Christian Bérard sketches, 1936-1946. (Fashion Institute of Tech Library). WorldCat record id: 122516071 French artist, designer and fashion illustrator involved in theatrical...

McCullers, Carson, 1917-1967

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6nc6d7w (person)

Carson McCullers was born in Columbus, Georgia, as Lula Carson Smith on February 19, 1917, the first born of Lamar and Marguerite Waters Smith. Though she moved from the South in 1934 and only returned for visits, most of her writing was inspired by her southern heritage. Her mother felt she had given birth to a genius from the time Carson was very young and always remained her staunchest supporter and strongest ally. When nine years of age, Lula began studying piano and practiced six to eight h...

Weill, Kurt

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6rr1x51 (person)

As a result of the success of his Broadway musical Lady in the dark in 1941, German-born composer Kurt Weill and his wife, the singing actress Lotte Lenya, were able to buy "Brook House," in Rockland County, New York, moving there during their sixth year in the United States. From Brook House, and a couple of addresses in Los Angeles during his trips there, Weill kept in touch, until a month before his death, with his parents, who had emigrated to Israel in 1935. From the description...