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The materials in the Steve Katz Papers span his career as a writer from the 1950s
to the
2000s and contain drafts of his novels and short stories, as well as personal and
professional correspondence and a small amount of material associated with his college
and
teaching years. The collection is organized into four series: I. Works, 1940s-2007;
II.
Correspondence, 1942-2005; III. Personal and Career-Related, 1935-2006; IV. Works
by Others,
1940s-1991. |
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Series I. Works comprises the bulk of the collection. It is divided into three subseries:
A. Novels and Short Story Collections; B. Short Works; and C. Journals and Notepads.
Subseries A. contains drafts of all of Katz's published works, as well as many unpublished
works, including his first novel, The Steps of the Sun, and a travel book about
China called Jade Pork. The drafts are primarily typescripts, although there are
some handwritten sections and corrections included. There are often multiple copies
and
versions of individual stories and novel sections. The works are arranged alphabetically
by
title. |
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Subseries B., Short Works, contains drafts and tearsheets of short stories, poetry,
and
short non-fiction pieces. |
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The journals and notepads in Subseries C. represent the early drafts and include notes
for
many of Katz's works. The notebooks contain story ideas, draft sections, and journal
entries
and are arranged in rough chronological order, although there are a number of undated
journals. Along with the undated notebooks the collection contains the yellow legal
pads
Katz used while writing early longhand drafts of his works. These notepads do not
have
titles or dates, and are arranged in the order in which they were received. |
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Series II. Correspondence is divided into two subseries: A. Family Letters; and B.
Personal
and Professional. Subseries A. includes many letters sent by Katz and his wife Pat
to his
mother during the late 1950s when he was working on his first (unpublished) novels,
and the
early 1960s while the family lived in Italy and Katz taught at various universities
and army
bases. Also present are letters sent by his father to his mother. |
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Subseries B. Personal and Professional contains correspondence from his agents, including
Lurton Blassingame and Georges Borchardt, as well as correspondence from other writers,
artists, and personal friends. Of note is a letter written by Véra Nabokov for Vladimir
Nabokov, who was a professor at Cornell during Katz's time as a student. Some of the
authors
and artists represented are A. R. Ammons, Peter Dean, B. H. Friedman, Jerome Klinkowitz,
Harold Schimmel, Primarosa Cesarini Sforza, Ron Sukenick, and Richard tum Suden. These
files
are filed alphabetically by last name. Katz also kept a large amount of miscellaneous
correspondence, some of which was labeled with titles such as "Friendly fire," and "Friendly fun." These files
were placed at the end of the alphabetical files and are arranged roughly by date.
The
correspondence in these files is primarily from friends and acquaintances, some of
whom may
be represented in the alphabetical files; there are some career-related materials
present as
well. |
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The materials in Series III. Personal and Career-Related contain professional awards,
reviews of Katz's works, and photographs. The photographs include several folders
of
pictures taken for an "aborted car photograph piece," Katz
in his Boy Scout uniform, and slides taken on family vacations to Spirit Lake at Mt.
St.
Helens, and Ashland, Oregon, in the late 1950s. Also included are Katz's diploma from
Cornell University, and reading announcements. |
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Series IV. Works of Others includes works by friends, colleagues, and students, such
as
Mark Leyner, as well as interviews with and works about Katz. Also present are notebooks
containing an apparent autobiography written by his father, Alexander Katz, and one
folder
with drawings by Katz's youngest son, Rafael. |
