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The Alice Adams papers span her career as a novelist and short story writer. Most
of her
novels and short story collections are represented, including Listening to Billie, Superior Women, and The Last Lovely City. The collection is arranged in three series:
Series I. Works, 1931-2000; Series II. Correspondence, 1950s-1999; and Series III.
Personal
and Career-Related. |
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Series I. Works is subdivided into Subseries A. Novels and Short Story Collections,
Subseries B. Uncollected Short Stories, and Subseries C. Other Writings. Subseries
A.
consists of typescripts, electronic files, proofs, and correspondence relating to
her novels
and collected short stories. There is also a typescript for her travel book, Mexico: Some Travels and Some Travelers There. Of interest is a
typescript draft of an unpublished early novel, The Impersonators, written when Adams
and
her husband were living in Paris in 1947. There are no handwritten drafts of the works
present because Adams destroyed early versions of her works once they had been
transcribed. |
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Subseries B. contains short stories that were not collected in other volumes. Some
stories
are represented only by typescripts, while others include tear sheets or a published
volume
of the periodical containing the story, as well as publication correspondence. There
is one
file of early short stories written in 1946 while Adams was a student at Radcliffe
College. |
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Subseries C. includes non-fiction articles and book reviews written by Adams, as well
as
many of her working notebooks. |
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The correspondence in Series II. is arranged alphabetically by last name or subject,
depending on the original folder titles in Adams's files. The correspondents reflect
both
her personal and business relationships. There is extensive correspondence with her
various
literary agents, including Peter Matson and Lynn Nesbit, as well as Vicky Wilson,
her editor
at Knopf. Many writers are represented, including Saul Bellow, Alison Lurie, Norman
Mailer,
Joyce Carol Oates, and the poet Donald Hall. Many letters and business documents are
addressed to Alice Linenthal. Adams married Mark Linenthal in 1946, and although they
divorced in 1958, she continued to use her married name on government records and
for
business purposes. |
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Series III. Personal and Career-Related includes royalty statements, articles written
about
Adams, and personal clippings files, as well as a collection of photographs and postcards.
The bulk of the photos are travel pictures from Mexico, where Adams often went for
vacation,
and from various trips to Europe, including a trip taken to Portugal as research for
a
magazine article. Most of these date from the 1970s and early 1980s. There are several
files
of personal and publicity photos, including some childhood photographs, as well as
wedding
photographs from 1946 that shows her parents and husband. |