The papers of novelist and biographer Diane Johnson include drafts and production material for eleven of her twelve books, as well as drafts of screenplays, television scripts, book reviews, articles, essays, unpublished manuscripts, correspondence, personal papers, interviews, reviews of her works, and screenplays adapted from her works. The collection ranges from early childhood diaries through the publication of her most recent novel. The papers are organized into five series: I. Works, II. Correspondence, III. Personal Papers, IV. Information about DJ, and V. Works of Others.
The largest series, Works, is arranged in six subseries: A. Books; B. Screenplays; C. Adaptations, Teleplays, and Musicals; D. Reviews; E. Other Writings, and F. Unpublished Manuscripts. The alphabetical arrangement of books in Subseries A includes Johnson's two biographies,
Of the screenplays in Subseries B,
The adaptations, teleplays, and musicals in Subseries C include the PBS production
Nearly all of Johnson's book reviews, from 1972 to 1996, are present in draft and published form, arranged in order by the author of the book reviewed in Subseries D. Johnson reviewed books on a wide range of topics from Patty Hearst and Angela Davis to John Ruskin and Julia Margaret Cameron, from AIDS to Victorian morality, and works by authors such as Margaret Atwood, Saul Bellow, Anthony Burgess, Joan Didion, Erica Jong, John LeCarré, Doris Lessing, Mary McCarthy, Norman Mailer, Joyce Carol Oates, Isaac Bashevis Singer, John Updike, Gore Vidal, and Eudora Welty. She has reviewed extensively for the
Johnson's other writings in Subseries E include articles, essays, lectures, conference papers, letters to the editor, and contributions to books such as the preface to Margaret Gatty's
Subseries F contains drafts of Johnson's Ph.D. dissertation on the poetry of George Meredith, as well as correspondence regarding its potential for publication. It was during the research and writing of the dissertation that Johnson became acquainted with the life of Mary Ellen Peacock which subsequently led to the writing of
Series II contains correspondence from 1951 to 1997 with friends, family, authors, editors, publishers, agents, fans, colleagues at the University of California, and students. Incoming and outgoing correspondence is interfiled. Correspondents of note include editors from A. D. Peters & Co., Alfred A. Knopf Inc., The Bodley Head, Harcourt, Brace & World, and the
Series III includes information about Johnson found in articles, interviews, and reviews of her work. The personal papers in Series IV contain an childhood composition book as well as six diaries sampling three decades from 1943 to 1964, from elementary school to university years. Likewise, coursework from those years are present along with photographs and articles from her 1953 guest editorship at
The last series contains the work of other writers including adaptations of
Johnson's original order was maintained where discernable, especially for production material and drafts of works. Her correspondence was unordered for the most part, so a single alphabetical arrangement was imposed. Material for her reviews was pulled from several groups of drafts and printed versions, which were then combined into a single alphabetical arrangement.
Purchase, Reg. no. 13953
Open for research
Liz Murray, 1997