URL:	http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/research/fa/farrar.singer.html
	Acquisition:	Gifts,1994 (G9961); 1995 (G10202); 1997 (G11024); 1998 (G11289)
	Processed by:	Katherine Mosley, 2004

Repository:

Harry Ransom Center, The University of Texas at Austin

The publishing firm Farrar, Straus & Giroux was founded as Farrar, Straus & Company in New York City in 1945 by Roger W. Straus and John Farrar. Straus originally served as president and chief executive officer; Farrar was chairman. The company changed names several times over the years, eventually becoming Farrar, Straus & Giroux in 1964. Robert Giroux had joined the company in 1955, serving as editor-in-chief and vice-president. He had previously worked at Harcourt Brace & Company, and many of its important authors followed him to the new firm, helping to establish its reputation as a quality publishing house.

Isaac Bashevis Singer was one of thirteen Nobel laureates published by the firm between 1945 and 1985. Farrar, Straus & Giroux became Singer’s primary English publisher in 1960 after merging with Noonday Press, which had published Satan in Goray. The first of Singer’s books published by the company was The Spinoza of Market Street in 1961.

	Because the Isaac Bashevis Singer papers received from Robert Giroux and his publishing firm, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, are similar to those found in the Ransom Center’s primary Singer archive, they are arranged in the same manner. The collection has been arranged in seven series: I. Works by Singer (1925-97), II. Correspondence (1979, 1982-94), III. Financial and Legal Papers (1984-85), IV. Photographs (1960-80), V. Personal Files (1978-87), VI. Works about Singer and His Work (1977-97), and VII. Works by Other Authors (1984).
	Among Singer’s works are photocopy tearsheets from some of his earliest short stories, "Abandoned,"  "In Old Age,"  "In the World of Chaos,"  "The Way Back," and "Remnants." Also present are handwritten manuscripts and corrected typescripts of other short stories, many with additional corrections by Dvorah Menashe Telushkin and other translators. Jewish Daily Forward serialization clippings include those of Meshugah, Scum, and Shadows on the Hudson. Playscripts of Play for the Devil (based on the short story "The Unseen"), Shlemeil the First, and Teibele and Her Demon are present, along with some programs and other production material. Review clippings of many works may also be found in the works series, which is arranged alphabetically by English title.
	Correspondence consists mainly of fan mail and requests for lecture appearances, although letters from translators Marie-Pierre Bay and Mirra Ginsburg, publishers, and others are also present. Financial and legal papers are limited to contracts with Centre Saidye Bronfman and the Festival International de la Culture Juive. Photographs of Robert Giroux with Singer, Rachel MacKenzie, and Singer’s son Israel Zamir date from 1960 and 1978; additionally, Polish subjects include reprints of early 20th century photographs of Singer’s brother Israel Joshua Singer, staff, and residents at a children’s home. Clippings about Singer’s receipt of the Nobel Prize are filed with other award material and a brochure for a YIVO exhibition on Singer in Personal Files. Among works about Singer and his work are clippings of various articles about Singer from 1978 until 1997; clippings of interviews; a transcript from an interview with an unidentified person, and reviews and tearsheets of works about Singer. Tearsheets of works by Arthur J. Magida and Kurt Vonnegut are housed in the final series, Works by Other Authors.

	People
		Bay, Marie-Pierre.
		Friedman, Eve.
		Singer, Alma Haimann Wasserman.
	Organizations
		Farrar, Straus & Giroux.
		New Yorker.
	Subjects
		Authors, American.
		Authors, Yiddish.
		Jewish authors.
		Jewish literature.
		Jews, Polish.
		Short stories, Jewish.
		Yiddish literature.
	Document Types
		Photographs.

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