Jeff Adams collection on Don Marquis

Content Description

This collection contains research materials, correspondence, and manuscripts compiled by collector and scholar Jeff Adams documenting the life and literary career of American author, humorist, and journalist Don Marquis (1878-1937). Marquis was best known for creating the characters Archy and Mehitabel and for his long-running newspaper columns "The Sun Dial," "The Tower," and "The Lantern." The collection encompasses original manuscript and typescript materials, purchase records, correspondence of Adams and Marquis, printed ephemera, scrapbooks, and audiovisual items. Much of the collection consists of original literary manuscripts by Marquis in both holograph and typescript formats, including drafts, corrected copies, and multiple iterations across nearly all genres of his output. Short fiction is extensively represented, with typescripts and manuscripts for dozens of published and unpublished stories, many in multiple draft versions with corrections and annotations, including works that appeared in Collier's, the Saturday Evening Post, American Magazine, and other prominent periodicals. Poetry materials are also present, encompassing serious verse, column poetry, verse written under Marquis's pseudonym "Tiber," and poems exchanged with literary associates such as Christopher Morley and Franklin Pierce Adams. Playscript materials include typescripts and manuscripts for both published and unpublished works, among them "The Dark Hours," "Everything's Jake," "Towards Dawn," "Dr. Faust," and "An International Marriage," as well as a teleplay adaptation of a Marquis story. Novel materials include working drafts for Master of the Revels, Chapters for the Orthodox, Danny's Own Story, Sons of the Puritans, and the unpublished O'Meara Through the Ages. Materials relating to Marquis's "Archy and Mehitabel" and "The Old Soak" characters include typescripts of column pieces, a CBS radio script, and annotated issues of Oliver Sayler's publication The Light. Paragraph and column material consisting of miscellaneous prose drafts for newspaper use is also present throughout. Correspondence includes letters written by Marquis to a wide range of recipients. Among them are Christopher Morley, Franklin Pierce Adams, the Marx Brothers, Katharine Lee Bates, James B. Pond, Nelson Doubleday, and various editors and theatrical figures, as well as incoming letters to Marquis from actors, editors, and literary colleagues. Also present are significant correspondence files assembled by Adams himself, particularly his exchanges with Walter A. Vonnegut (Marquis's stepson, 1982–2012) and Ruth V. Carroll (Marquis's stepdaughter, 1981), which document Adams's research process and provide family perspectives on Marquis's life and legacy. Several present scrapbooks include both original newspaper clippings and photostatic copies of Marquis's "Sun Dial" column running from 1914 through 1922, as well as clippings of "The Tower" and "The Lantern" columns from 1922 through 1925, obituaries and published appreciations from 1937–1938, and magazine tearsheets. Ephemera includes playbills for Broadway and regional productions of Marquis's plays; privately printed broadsides, pamphlets, and greeting items; promotional materials; photographs of Marquis and his family; movie stills; and a variety of inscribed and association copies of published works. Audiovisual materials include audiocassettes, VHS cassettes, LPs, and CDs relating to adaptations of Marquis's work, including recordings connected to Shinbone Alley and productions of Archy and Mehitabel material. The collection also includes materials by or relating to members of Marquis's family and social circle, including original writings by his first wife Reina Melcher Marquis, his daughter Barbara Marquis, and his second wife Marjorie Vonnegut Marquis; the diary of Marjorie Marquis (1932–1935); excerpts from the boyhood diaries of Walter A. Vonnegut; and critical writings by Walter Vonnegut and Ruth V. Carroll. Adams's own research files contain inventories of Marquis holdings at Indiana University, the University of Texas, and the University of Oregon. Additional items of note include a near-complete run of The Don Marquis Newsletter (1980–1983); the 810-page typescript used in production of Edward Anthony's biography O Rare Don Marquis; a 1-page typed letter from Groucho Marx (May 1, 1931); a 1-page letter from E. B. White to Adams (March 17, 1981); a 3-page letter from Christopher Morley to Vincent Starrett (October 19, 1939) regarding the writing of Pandora Lifts the Lid; and a 2-page autograph letter by Barbara Marquis written approximately one week before her death at age 13 in 1931.

Acquisition Type

Gift

Provenance

Gift of Jeff Adams, 21 February 2018.

Language of Description

English

Script of Description

Latin

Restrictions Apply

No

Use Restrictions

This collection contains some in-copyright material. Visit our Permissions and Publishing page for more information about use of Special Collections materials. The library can provide copyright information upon request, but users are responsible for making their own determination about lawful use of collections materials. InC: In Copyright – https://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/