Preferred Citation:	Merle Armitage Papers (Manuscript Collection MS-00120). Harry Ransom Center, The University of Texas at Austin.
	Acquisition:	Purchases, gifts, and transfers 1962-2020 (62-09-005-P, 64-02-002-P, 64-02-003-P, 68-02-024-G, 68-04-072-G, 73-04-001-G, 98-09-10-T).
	Processed by:	Joan Sibley, 2024

Repository:

Harry Ransom Center, The University of Texas at Austin

	The papers of Merle Armitage—an American author and editor best-known as a book designer and as an art director at Look magazine (1948-1953)—include manuscript works, correspondence, and other materials. The varied career of Armitage and his many interests, including art, art collecting, book design, cookery, dance, music, opera, photography, publishing, and railroads, are well-represented in his papers and in the Center’s Library and Art, Photography, and Vertical File collections.
	This collection was previously accessible only through a card catalog but has now been re-cataloged as part of a retrospective conversion project. The material remains as originally organized into four series: I. Works, II. Letters, III. Recipients, and IV. Miscellaneous, with materials arranged alphabetically by title or author. See the Indexes for Works, Letters, Recipients, and Miscellaneous in this finding aid to further identify titles of works and correspondent names present in this collection.
	Series I. Works, 1930-1961, undated (1 box):
	This series includes Armitage’s manuscripts for articles, essays, forewords, introductions, notes, prefaces, and speeches; the only two book-length works represented are Operations Santa Fe (1940) and Pagans, Conquistadors, Heroes, and Martyrs (1960). Also present is a projected book of stories for his daughter, Chama. See the Index of Works for a complete list of titles present, and see also related material for works (designs, illustrations, lists, notes, etc.) in Series IV. Miscellaneous filed under Armitage, Merle.
	An Appendix at the end of this finding aid provides a complete list of works that Armitage authored, edited, contributed to, and/or designed (113 items). Because materials related to his works are held in multiple Ransom Center collections (Art, Manuscripts, Library, Photography, and Vertical File), this list is a useful starting point to identify titles of interest and then seek related items. See the Separated Material segment below for more information on the separate Armitage holdings.
	Series II. Letters (Outgoing), 1936-1965, undated (1 box) and Series III. Recipients, (Incoming), 1915-1973, undated (6.5 boxes):
	Correspondence dominates the Armitage papers and documents collaborative book projects involving a variety of artists, authors, bibliographers, composers, dancers, designers, editors, musicians, performers, photographers, and publishers. There is also correspondence related to Armitage’s World War II service with the Army Air Corps, with persons at Look and other magazines, and with railroad companies and railroad enthusiasts. See also additional correspondence in the Miscellaneous series for Merle Armitage: two scrapbooks of letters (1918-1936), a folder of letters of appreciation (1927-1946), and a folder of letters of recommendation (1954).
	Notable correspondents in the Armitage papers include Ansel Adams, W. H. Auden, George Balanchine, John Cage, Alexander Calder, Truman Capote, Marc Chagall, Fleur Cowles, Gardner Cowles, Russell Cowles, Joan Crawford, E. E. Cummings, Merce Cunningham, Walt Disney, John Dos Passos, Marcel Duchamp, Todd Duncan, Charles Eames, Erle Stanley Gardner, Norman Bel Geddes, Ira Gershwin, Martha Graham, Robinson Jeffers, Rockwell Kent, Lincoln Kirstein, Boris Lovet-Lorski, Alfred Lunt, Darius Milhaud, Henry Miller, László Moholy-Nagy, Anaïs Nin, Clifford Odets, Dorothy Parker, Edward G. Robinson, Lilian Swann Saarinen, Leopold Stokowski, Igor Stravinsky, Gloria Swanson, Virgil Thomson, Edgard Varèse, H. Cady Wells, Brett Weston, and Edward Weston. Family correspondents include daughter Chama Armitage (1946?- , later Friedman) and fourth wife Isabelle Armitage (1922-2000). See the indexes for Letters and Recipients to see a complete list of correspondent names.
	Series IV. Miscellaneous (Third-party Works and Correspondence, 1918-1964, undated (3.5 boxes).
	Additional papers for Merle Armitage in this series range from works-related designs, illustrations, and plans for books to contracts, financial papers, lists, notes, and two scrapbooks of letters. Prominent are materials for Operations Santa Fe, Pagans, Conquistadors, Heroes, and Martyrs, Robert Marks’s Merle Armitage bibliography, and pieces written for books on George Gershwin and Igor Stravinsky.
	Among Armitage’s collaborators represented by writings and/or correspondence in this series are Eric Barker, Edwin Corle, Erna Fergusson, Ira Gershwin, Robinson Jeffers, and Henry Miller. There is also correspondence written by or to family members, including third wife Elsa Armitage (1918-1989) and Chama Armitage, as well as material for Fit for a Queen, co-written by Isabelle Armitage. See the Index of Miscellaneous for a detailed list of items in this series.
	Additional Acquisitions; Not Described in the Card Catalog:
	Additions to the papers include a transfer from the Ransom Center Library (six folders, 1938-1971) in 1998, and a transfer from the Performing Arts Collection. (10 scrapbooks, ca. 1911-1960) in 2020.
	The Library transfer includes articles by Armitage, correspondence between Armitage and Isabelle Armitage (1953-1954), plus ephemera and printed materials. The scrapbooks transferred from Performing Arts mostly document Armitage’s early career activities as a concert manager (most notably for George Gershwin and Igor Stravinsky), opera tour manager (Scotti and Russian Grand Opera companies), co-founder and manager of the Los Angeles Grand Opera Association (1924-1930), and manager of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Auditorium (1933-1939).

	Harry Ransom Center: Merle Armitage is well-represented in the George Macy Companies, Inc.: Limited Editions Club and The Heritage Press files for Carmen, Death Comes for the Archbishop, The Dolphin, Leaves of Grass, and Looking Backward.
	Smithsonian Archives of American Art: Oral history interview, 1964
	University of Arizona: Merle Armitage papers, 1930-1974 (MS 234)
	University of California, Los Angeles: Merle Armitage Collection 1919-1971
	University of Iowa: Merle Armitage papers, 1932-1965 (MsC558)

	Art Collection: 127 items. Armitage's personal collection of paintings, drawings, printed magazine page spreads, and placemats. Many of the prints ran in Western Family and Look magazines. There is a series of eagle drawings and landscape paintings of the Southwest in the collection. Additional materials for Armitage’s unfinished "Desert book," Fit for a Queen, one of his Gershwin books, and an unfinished Hamlet book appear in an accessions list that is available on request.
	Books: 113 items. Books authored, edited, contributed to, and/or designed by Merle Armitage. The Ransom Center Library holds 101 of these titles and seven others are available at other University of Texas at Austin campus libraries. See the Appendix of Merle Armitage Books, 1929-1974, at the end of this finding aid for a complete list.
	Artist Elise Cavanna (1902-1963), Armitage’s second wife, often contributed to Armitage books; her translations, drawings, designs, and logos appear in at least nine books published between 1932 and 1941: Picture Book, Elise, Millard Sheets, Modern Dance, Valdemar, So-called Abstract Art, Have We an American Art, Fit for a King, and Looking Backward.
	Objects Collection: 1 item. A standing ashtray with engraved inscription "To Merle Armitage / From his friends at Look / For his loyal service," ca. 1953.
	Photography Collection: 700 items. The Merle Armitage Literary File consists of approximately 700 photographs, many of which are images of books written, edited, and/or designed by Armitage. Also included are portraits of Armitage and various other people, as well as views of the Grand Canyon and various places in Europe. In addition, there are numerous images of petroglyphs, as well as some pertaining to the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe railroad system. The images of Armitage books represent an estimated 40 published titles plus work on unfinished projects including "Desert book," and possibly other unpublished or unfinished works.
	Vertical File Collection: 6 boxes, 12 scrapbooks, 2 oversize boxes, 1 flat file. The Merle Armitage Vertical File contains ephemera removed from manuscript collections or withdrawn from books during cataloging, such as advertisements, clippings, programs, and reviews. However, the Armitage materials also include a significant amount of book design material as well as book cover and dust jacket designs. Present are paste-ups showing a book’s design, title pages, tables of contents, sample pages, font samples, paper samples, drawings, graphic designs, rough design sketches, or reproductions of art, proofs, etc. The Vertical File material is described in a database that is accessible only onsite; an exported list of holdings may be requested.
	The type of design materials and their completeness varies widely among the estimated 59 published and 17 unpublished books or incomplete projects represented. Among the titles or subjects of the unpublished and incomplete projects are America in pictures; a book on chamber music; Carmen; Death Comes for the Archbishop; The Desert of the Southwest United States (aka Desert book); Edgard Varèse; Edward Biberman; Europe in pictures; Isadora Duncan; Petroglyphs; Ronald Firbank, Shakespeare: Hamlet, Macbeth, Othello; and a Zen anthology by Nancy Wilson Ross.

	Subjects
		Art and Art History
		History of the Book & The Book Arts
		Literature: American
		Music
		Opera
		Performing Arts
		Publishing
		Stage Producers, Managers, and Agents