Susan Richards Shreve papers

This collection contains the papers of Susan Richard Shreve (b. 1939), a writer and professor at George Mason University. Included are manuscripts, typescripts, proofs, journals, correspondence, contracts, clippings, digital files, and other materials related to her authorship. Shreve is an American novelist, memoirist, and children's book author. She has published fifteen novels, including a memoir Warm Springs: Traces of a Childhood. She has also published thirty books for children, and edited or co-edited five anthologies Also documented is her academic work as a Professor of Writing at George Mason University and as a co-founder of the PEN/Faulkner Foundation (1985) for which she served as a board member and chairman.

The bulk of the collection represents her writings, including notebooks with manuscript drafts of many of her works and typescripts, many with annotations, including original versions of novels and stories with alternate titles and unpublished works.

Also included are book files which are files (organized alphabetically by title) that are rich with correspondence, clippings, reviews, promotional material, and ephemera such as dustjackets.

The correspondence includes letters from Shreve’s agent, publisher, editor, and occasionally readers; letters from fellow writers, faculty members, and colleagues are also common. Also included is a mix of personal and professional letters as the author kept these together in her life; correspondents are writers, editors, publishers, faculty, literary agents, journalists, readers, Washington DC residents associated with publishing, writing, and PEN/Faulkner.

In addition are more than sixty contracts as well as printed articles and newspaper clippings.

The Digital files comprise 911 files. These include a combination of files from her professional writing and teaching career between 2000 and 2020. These files represent a wide range of works, including manuscripts of published and unpublished books and professional writings associated with her novels, her teaching, and her role in the literary community.