Preferred Citation	William Goyen Papers (Manuscript Collection MS-01681). Harry Ransom Center, The University of Texas at Austin.
	Acquisition:	Purchases, 1974-1976 (R6315, R6316, R6785).
	Processed by:	Courtney Welu, 2024. Note: This finding aid replicates and replaces information previously available only in a card catalog. Please see the explanatory note at the end of this finding aid for information regarding the arrangement of the manuscripts as well as the abbreviations commonly used in descriptions.

Repository:

Harry Ransom Center, The University of Texas at Austin

	The papers of the Texas-born American novelist, playwright, and poet Charles William Goyen include manuscripts for his writings, notebooks, correspondence, and works by others about Goyen. The papers, 1924-1978, 1994, comprise 22 boxes of manuscripts and correspondence related to Goyen's life and literary career. This collection was previously accessible only through a card catalog but has been re-cataloged as part of a retrospective conversion project.
	The material is organized into four series: I. Works (20 boxes), Correspondence (1 box) in series II. Letters and III. Recipient, and IV. Miscellaneous (1 box). Within each series, the material is arranged alphabetically by title or author. See the Indexes for Works, Letters, Recipient, and Miscellaneous in this finding aid to further identify titles of works and correspondent names present in this collection.
	Series I. Works is the most extensive series; it includes drafts, typescripts, proofs, notes, and fragments of poems, plays, screenplays, essays, stories, and novels, both published and unpublished. The collection begins with several early attempts at writing in his teenage and college years, including material that he wrote while attending Rice University in Houston, Texas. There are also journals and diary entries written from different locations around the world, including during his World War II service on the U.S.S. Casablanca.
	Notable published novels included in the collection are The House of Breath (1951), Ghost and Flesh: Stories and Tales (1952), The Fair Sister (1962), A Book of Jesus (1973), Come, The Restorer (1974), and Half a Look of Cain (1994). Notable play productions include The House of Breath (1957), The Diamond Rattler (1960), and Aimee (1973).
	Correspondence in Series II. and III. is more limited in its scope, including only a handful of letters he sent, most notably to Flora Armitage. The incoming correspondence is primarily from various literary publishers and magazines, including The Atlantic Monthly Press, The Bookworks, Dodd, Mead & Company, Doubleday & Company, Harper's Bazaar and Harper's magazine, Houghton Mifflin Company, Morris (William) Agency, Random House, Inc., Simon and Schuster, Inc., and the Southwest Review. There is also some personal correspondence between Goyen and his literary acquaintances, friends, and family members, and official correspondence from the U.S. government.
	Series IV. Miscellaneous includes work from other authors about Goyen, including a 1962-1963 dissertation on Surrealism in William Goyen by Michel Lucazeau. The material in this series also includes Goyen's high school diploma, itineraries, financial papers, reviews, programs, and memory work collected in his childhood.

	Harry Ransom Center: Reginald Gibbons Collection of William Goyen and Thomas McGrath (12 boxes)
	Harry Ransom Center: Clyde L. Grimm Collection of William Goyen (5 boxes); no online finding aid available
	Rice University (Houston, Texas): William Goyen Papers, 1937-1968
	East Carolina University (Greenville, N.C.): Stuart Collection: William Goyen Papers, 1935-1999

	Additional William Goyen materials at the Ransom Center can also be found in his Literary File Photography Collection (5 boxes), Art Collection (18 items), and Library Collection (153 books formerly owned by Goyen). There are also 55 boxes of uncatalogued manuscript material.
	Seventy-five audio cassettes were moved to the Ransom Center's Sound Recordings Collection, the Shelton Family Movies, 1947-1952 were moved to the Moving Images Collection; 5 items were moved to the Objects Collection, and printed ephemera (5 boxes and 2 scrapbooks) were moved to the Vertical Files Collection. The latter items are described separately in databases available onsite.

	Subjects
		Authors, American
		American fiction—20th century
		American Literature—Texas
		Lesbian, Gay, Transgender, Bisexual, and Queer Studies
		Playwrights
		Short stories, American