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University of Texas at Austin

Dvorah Telushkin:

An Inventory of Her Collection of Isaac Bashevis Singer Papers at the Harry Ransom Center

Creator: Telushkin, Dvorah, 1954-
Title: Dvorah Telushkin Collection of Isaac Bashevis Singer Papers
Dates: 1951-1998
Extent: 7 boxes, 2 galley folders (2.94 linear feet)
Abstract: Dvorah Telushkin’s Isaac Bashevis Singer materials date from 1951 to 1998 and include Singer's manuscripts; clippings and tearsheets of his published work; galley proofs, reviews, and correspondence; clippings of articles about Singer; royalty statements, lecture contracts, and receipts; one contact sheet; an award program; notes; and works by other authors.
RLIN Record #: TXRC06-A24
Language: English, Yiddish, Hebrew
Access: Open for research


Administrative Information


Acquisition: Gift, 2002 (G 12122)
Processed by: Katherine Mosley, 2006
Repository:

Harry Ransom Center, The University of Texas at Austin

Biographical Sketch


Dvorah Telushkin was born February 12, 1954, in Brooklyn, New York. She attended the Yeshivah of Flatbush and studied at Bard College and Columbia University. Telushkin met author Isaac Bashevis Singer in 1975, when she was twenty-one years old and unable to afford the cost of a creative writing course that Singer was teaching at Bard College. She wrote to Singer, offering to drive him between Manhattan and the college in return for auditing the class. This led to a position as his personal secretary and assistant that lasted for twelve years.
Telushkin’s first marriage was to photojournalist Abraham Menashe, with whom she has one daughter. She married Rabbi Joseph Telushkin in 1988; they have three children and currently reside in New York. Telushkin, who studied Yiddish at Columbia University, has translated short stories by Singer and other Yiddish writers, and she also performs at storytelling festivals.
Telushkin wrote about her years with Singer in a memoir, Master of Dreams (1998).

Sources:


Dvorah Telushkin; B’nai B’rith International Speaker Biographies, http://www.bnaibrith.org/lbureau/full_bio.cfm?vs=71; and interview by Ron Hogan, http://www.beatrice.com/interviews/telushkin/

Scope and Contents


Dvorah Telushkin’s Isaac Bashevis Singer materials date from 1951 to 1998 and include Singer's manuscripts, clippings and tearsheets of his published work, galley proofs, reviews, and correspondence, as well as clippings of articles about Singer, royalty statements, lecture contracts, receipts, one contact sheet, an award program, notes, and works by other authors. The materials are in seven series: I. Works by Singer, 1958-1989, undated; II. Correspondence, 1951, 1965-1988; III. Financial and Legal Papers, 1972-1986; Series IV. Photographs and Works of Art, 1980, undated; Series V. Personal Files, 1981-1992, undated; Series VI. Works about Singer and His Work, 1973-1998, undated; and Series VII. Works by Other Authors, 1959-1991, undated.
Singer’s works are arranged alphabetically by their English titles. Manuscripts are in English unless described otherwise in the following folder list. Notable manuscripts include Yiddish handwritten fragments and a corrected typescript of The King of the Fields, typescript fragments of The Lost Tribe, and corrected typescript pages of Shosha. Most of Singer’s fiction was first published in the Yiddish newspaper The Jewish Daily Forward (Forverts), and many clippings of the published texts are present. Many of the manuscripts have corrections by Singer, Telushkin, and Singer’s editor, Rachel MacKenzie.
Correspondence includes fan mail, general correspondence, and letters requesting lecture appearances, permissions for publication, and theatrical rights. The correspondence primarily consists of incoming letters, with a few of Singer’s replies, usually drafts written by Telushkin. Among the correspondents are Singer’s nephew Maurice Carr, Henry Miller, and Lottie Robins. A complete list of correspondents may be found in the Index of Correspondents at the end of this inventory.
Financial and legal papers include royalty statements, contracts for lecture appearances, and receipts. An undated contact sheet shows Singer signing books, and an ink drawing of Singer is by Muriel Schmalberg Ullman. Among Singer’s personal files are materials relating to the Compostela Award, clippings regarding a variety of topics, and miscellaneous notes by Singer and Telushkin. Works about Singer and his work include clippings and tearsheets, bibliographies, and typescripts by Richard Burgin, Yaakkov Jacobs, and others.
Works by other authors include photocopy proofs of Lawrence Kushner’s The Book of Letters, a typescript of "A Planet in Exile" by Chaim Potok, various clippings and tearsheets of essays by Lottie Robins, and other materials.

Related Material


Other manuscripts relating to I. B. Singer at the Ransom Center may be found in the Isaac Bashevis Singer archive as well as in the papers of Joann Biondi, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, Paul Kresh, Elizabeth Shub, and Gordon Weel. Artwork by Sylvia Ary, including a portrait of Singer and her illustrations for some of his short stories, are housed in the Center’s Art Collection.

Separated Material


Framed artwork by Mischa Kallis and Zvi Ehrman has been transferred to the Ransom Center’s Art Collection. An issue of Yiddish devoted to Singer has been cataloged separately with the Center’s book and serials holdings.

Index Terms


People

Miller, Henry, 1891-1980.
Robins, Lottie.

Subjects

Singer, Isaac Bashevis, 1904-1991.

Subjects

Authors, American.
Authors, Yiddish.
Jewish authors.
Short stories, Jewish.

Document Types

Awards.
Contracts.
Galley proofs.

Container List