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Scope and Contents |
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The Peter Glenville Papers embrace correspondence, business records, address books,
appointment books, photographs, clippings, and personal documents. Spanning the
years 1914 to 2001, the collection is largely in its original order, with the
material in each series arranged alphabetically by original file title. The
subseries of clippings and photographs lacked systematic descriptions and was
organized at the Ransom Center. |
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The papers described herein comprise four series: Series I. Works and Productions,
1944-72 (9 boxes); Series II. Business Files, 1945-76 (4.5 boxes); Series III.
Personal Papers, 1914-2001 (26 boxes); and Series IV. Hardy William Smith Materials,
1920-99 (1.5 boxes). |
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The Works and Productions series includes correspondence, business records, and a
few
scripts for plays and films, realized or projected, in which Glenville was involved
between 1944 and 1972. The materials included are in most cases selective rather
than exhaustive, although the files relating to Becket (play and film versions), The
Comedians, Dylan, and Hotel Paradiso (both versions) contain a significant amount of
correspondence. |
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The Business Files contain communications from Glenville’s accountants and principal
legal representation, along with some general correspondence created during the
years 1945-76. A number of scripts not related to any specific project in which
Peter Glenville had involved himself are present in the series. |
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The Personal Papers series is the largest in the Glenville Papers and is broken down
into six subseries, documenting various aspects of Peter Glenville’s personal
life,
avocational interests, household, and career. The subseries are A. Correspondence,
B. Financial Files, C. Household Files, D. Personal Records and Related Material,
E.
Clippings, and F. Photographic Prints and Slides. |
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The final series, Hardy William Smith Materials, contains a significant amount of
personal correspondence for the period from the 1950s to 1999, as well as the
business records relating to the house at 18 East 68th Street, and a collection
of
personal and family photographs covering the years 1920 to 1952. |
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Series Descriptions |
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Series I. Works and Productions, 1944-72 (9 boxes) |
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The series contains correspondence, contracts, and other documents relating
to works directed by Peter Glenville. In general there is little material
present covering Glenville’s career in the 1940s and early 1950s, and a
number of plays from the later period (e.g., Rashomon and Tchin-Tchin) are not
represented in the series. |
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Among the works documented is his own 1944 adaptation of Turgenev’s novel
A House of Gentlefolk. Scripts for Becket, Me and the
Colonel, and an unrealized project, Bridget Boland’s The Bull
from the Sea, based on the Mary Renault novel are also present in the
series. A substantial amount of material relating to Glenville’s involvement
in the film version of Man of La Mancha is
found here, the majority of it from the lightly-mold-damaged portion of the
papers. |
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A considerable number of other unrealized projects, including the films Tower
of Babel and John Collier’s Paradise Lost
adaptation are documented in the series, as is Glenville’s effort to stage
Waiting for Godot. The material relating
to Godot in this series and elsewhere in the
papers suggests Peter Glenville regarded his inability to secure an
agreement with Samuel Beckett one of his major professional disappointments. |
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Correspondents found in the series include Jean Anouilh, Lillian Gish, Graham
Greene, James Salter, and Peter Ustinov. A complete index of correspondents
present in this series (and in the other series) has been compiled and is
included in this finding aid. |
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Series II. Business Files, 1945-76 (4.5 boxes) |
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Peter Glenville’s correspondence with Denise Tual in the years 1953-61 is
perhaps the most significant material in the series, though a small group of
letters between Glenville and Hardy Smith gives insight into the director’s
handling of relationships in day-to-day work in the theater. Otherwise,
apart from the correspondence with Glenville’s accountants (A. T. Chenhalls
& Co.) and legal representation (Weissberger & Frosch), most
of the material in the series is fragmentary. |
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A group of scripts is also present in the series, of which only Anouilh’s To
Kill a King appears to represent a seriously-considered property. To Kill a
King is based on a Philippe Erlanger novel and is related to the Galigai
file in Series I. |
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Series III. Personal Papers, 1914-2001 (bulk 1952-93) (26
boxes) |
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Subseries A. Correspondence, 1950-96 (3.5 boxes) |
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The personal correspondence present is fragmentary and largely absent for
the years before the mid-1950s, but it does even so appear to represent
the wide range of Peter Glenville’s social contacts rather well,
including as it does theater people, Catholic intellectuals, members of
the American conservative establishment, and family. Glenville himself
appears here in the form of his own carbons as a thoughtful and
enthusiastic correspondent. |
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Correspondents in this subseries include Geoffrey Bennison, Christopher
and William F. Buckley, Philip Caraman, Alec Guinness, William Loverd,
Dotson Rader, Oliver Lemuel Smith, Roger L. Stevens, Bernard Treneman,
and the John Ward family. See the Index of Correspondents for additional
persons represented. |
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Subseries B. Financial Files, 1955-80 (1.5 boxes) |
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The papers in this subseries are a very fragmentary collection of
miscellaneous financial records; many records of similar significance
are located in Series II. Business Files. |
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Subseries C. Household Files, 1952-79 (2 boxes) |
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While not an extensive group of materials, this subseries does contain
significant correspondence and related records on houses and apartments
rented by Glenville in the 1960s, as well as for his house in London at
24 Brompton Square. |
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Subseries D. Personal Records and Related Material, 1935-2001 (5
boxes) |
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Peter Glenville’s appointment books survive for most years from 1969 to
1994, and a number of address books apparently dating from the 1960s and
1970s are also found in the subseries. Copies of his 1976 and 1981
wills, as well as some miscellaneous writings (including his translation
of Feydeau’s Le Dindon) are also
present. |
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Subseries E. Clippings, 1933-64 (8 boxes) |
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Clippings representing Glenville’s career in theater from his Oxford days
into the mid-1960s comprise Subseries E. Of particular interest are
clippings relating to Peter Glenville’s early activity in the theater
and to various unrealized film and stage projects. |
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Subseries F. Photographic Prints and Slides, 1914-90 (5.5
boxes) |
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Included here are a small number of early and family-related images,
along with theatrical prints, film stills, and travel-related prints and
slides from the mid-1960s to about 1985. |
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Series IV. Hardy William Smith Materials, 1920-99 (bulk 1943-99) (1.5
boxes) |
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Personal correspondence present in the Hardy William Smith series includes
letters from Isabel Eberstadt, George S. Kaufman, Leueen MacGrath, and Irene
M. Selznick. The sizeable quantity of correspondence and other papers
relating to the house on East 68th Street provides a remarkable view of the
challenges involved in maintaining, staffing, and dealing with tenants in a
large Manhattan residence. |