The collections described below, from the Department of Archives & Special Collections at the University of Mississippi, contain correspondence, manuscripts, and ephemera relating to the literary heritage of Mississippi.
Note: Twentieth Century literary manuscripts and letters may not be photocopied without the written permission of the literary copyright holders.
Nevada Barr Collection. This collection contains manuscripts, galleys, notes, promotional publishing materials, correspondence, and other items concerning the work of this noted mystery author. Materials relating to several of Barr's published works are in the collection including Track of the Cat, A Superior Death, Ill Wind, Deep South, Blood Lure, Hunting Season, Liberty Falling, and others. Typed inventory available.
Henry and Katharine Bellamann Collection. 1923-1958. This collection contains the papers of Heinrich Hauer (Henry) and Katharine Jones Bellamann. Henry, a native of Missouri, authored several novels including King's Row (1940), Crescendo Interludes (1928), The Richest Woman in Town (1932), The Gray Man Walks (1936), and others. He was at work on a sequel to the popular King's Row at the time of his death. Katherine, a native of Carthage, Mississippi, was also a novelist and poet. Among other publications, Katherine wrote My Husband's Friends (1931) and A Poet Passed this Way (1958). Katherine finished her husband's sequel entitled Parris Mitchell of King's Row (1948). This collection contains annotated manuscripts of many of these works, correspondence, and othe rmaterials relating to the life and work of these two authors. 42 boxes. http://purl.oclc.org/umarchives/MUM00031/
Sherwood Bonner (Katherine McDowell) Collection. 1863-1886; 1934-1997. A native of Holly Springs, Mississippi born in 1849, Katherine Sherwood Bonner was the author of several books including Dialect Tales (1883), Like Unto Like: A Novel (1878), and Sewanee River Tales (1884). Our collections contain a few original letters, photocopies of other materials, and the collection of Dr. Anne Gowdy. In 2004, Dr. Gowdy donated to Special Collections the research material she had accumulated while working on her dissertation "The Uncollected Works of Sherwood Bonner (Katherine Sherwood Bonner McDowell, 1849-1993): An Annotated Edition" (University of Mississippi, 1996) and her book A Sherwood Bonner Sampler, 1869-1884: What a Bright, Educated, Witty, Lively, Snappy Young Woman Can Say on a Variety of Topics (Knoxville, TN: University of Tennessee Press, 2000). 3 boxes. http://purl.oclc.org/umarchives/MUM00204/
Henry Herschel Brickell Collection. c. 1920-1950. Born in Senatobia, Mississippi, Herschel actually spent his early years in Yazoo City. He would go on to become a book columnist for New York's Evening Post and later a general editor of Henry Holt and Company Publishing House. He would rise to literary editor of the Post and in 1940 he became the editor of the O. Henry Memorial Prize Short Stories. The Brickell Collection contains correspondence between Brickell and some of the most notable authors of the 20th century, including Eudora Welty and Margaret Mitchell. 61 boxes. Typed inventory available.
Jonathan Henderson Brooks Collection. c. 1934-1939. Born in Lexington, Mississippi in 1905, Jonathan Henderson Brooks was an African-American minister and poet. He wrote for several journals and his posthumously published collection, The Resurrection and Other Poems, appeared in 1948. The collection contains correspondence and annotated manuscripts. 1 box. http://purl.oclc.org/umarchives/MUM00044/
Larry Brown Collection. c. 1982-1993. Born in Oxford, Mississippi, Larry Brown authored several gritty short stories and novels. Among his publications are Facing the Music (1988), Dirty Work (1989), Big Bad Love (1990), On Fire (1993), Father and Son (1996), Fay (2000), and Billy Ray's Farm: Essays (2001). This collection contains original manuscripts, galleys, and promotional materials relating to his work. 21 boxes. http://purl.oclc.org/umarchives/MUM00051/
Will Davis Campbell Collection. c. 1964-1988. Born in Liberty, Mississippi, activist and minister Will Campbell's collection contains manuscripts, publishing materials, and ephemera. Brother to a Dragonfly, The Glad River, and Race and Renewal of the Church are a few of the works represented in the collection. 7 boxes. http://purl.oclc.org/umarchives/MUM00062/
Robert Wilburn Canzoneri Collection. Mississippi author and poet, Robert Canzoneri's collection contains annotated drafts of Barbed Wire and Other Stories (1970), 'I Do So Politely': A Voice from the South (1965), Men With Little Hammers (1969), Watch Us Pass (1986), correspondence, unpublished works, and other materials. 10 boxes. http://purl.oclc.org/umarchives/MUM00064/
David Lewis Cohn Collection. Born in Greenville, Mississippi, David Cohn worked as President and General Manager of Feibleman-Sears Roebuck before turning to the profession of writing. After moving back to Greenville from New Orleans, Cohn wrote several works based on his own experiences, including God Shakes Creation (1935) and Where I was Born and Raised (1948). He also worked on several studies of American history and culture most notably The Good Old Days: A History of American Morals and Manners as Seen through the Sears Roebuck Catalogs 1905 to the Present (1940). The Cohn Collection contains correspondence, drafts of short stories and essays, manuscripts for Love in America: An Informal Study of Manners and Morals in American Marriage (1943), and Combustion on Wheels: An Informal History of the Automobile Age (1944). 26 boxes. http://purl.oclc.org/umarchives/MUM00079/
Miriam Adair Dabbs Collection. c. 1948-1955. A small collection including poetry by Dabbs and correspondence with poet and novelist Katherine Bellamann. 7 folders. http://purl.oclc.org/umarchives/MUM00097/
Henry C. Dalton Collection. c. 1930-c. 1962. Born in Rienzi, Mississippi, Henry Dalton's collection contains manuscripts, unpublished materials, and poetry. 29 boxes. Typed inventory available.
Louis Dollarhide Collection. c. 1950-c. 1980. A Shakesperian scholar, Dollarhide earned a bachelor's degree in English from Mississippi College in 1942, a master's degree from Harvard University in 1947, and a doctorate from the University of North Carolina in 1954. He taught English at Mississippi College for 20 years before joining the University of Mississippi faculty in 1967. He retired from the University in December 1987. Born in America, Kansas, Dollarhide grew up in Kosciusko. His scholarly works and writings of fiction and non-fiction appeared in numerous publications throughout his career. Of Art and Artists: Selected Reviews of the Arts in Mississippi, a collection of some 250 of his newspaper columns compiled in 1981, is one of the many books, short stories, articles and poems he authored. He also co-edited a book of essays titled Eudora Welty: A Form of Thanks. Dollarhide served as editor for the Mississippi Arts Commission and as president of the Mississippi Poetry Society. For many years he chaired the University of Mississippi's Artist Series, and from 1955-1976 he wrote a weekly column and more than 1,000 book reviews and articles for The Jackson Daily News- Clarion Ledger. His collection contains correspondence from Eudora Welty, Carson McCullers, Flannery O'Connor and other 20th century authors. 47 boxes. http://purl.oclc.org/umarchives/MUM00108/
Ellen Douglas Collection. 1962-1988. Writing under the pseudonym Ellen Douglas, Josephine Ayers Haxton has published numerous short stories and novels. Josephine Ayers was born July 12, 1921 in Natchez, Mississippi, and grew up in Louisiana and Arkansas. She attended Randolph Macon Women's College from 1938-39 and the University of Mississippi, from which she earned a B.A. in 1942. In 1945 she married Kenneth Haxton with whom she had three children. Her fiction, published under the pen name Ellen Douglas, includes two collections of short stories--Black Cloud, White Cloud: Two Novellas and Two Stories (1963) and The Magic Carpet (1987)-- and six novels. Her first novel, A Family's Affairs (1962) was named one of the ten best fiction titles of the year by The New York Times, as was Black Cloud, White Cloud. In 1968 she published Where the Dreams Cross, and in 1973 she published Apostles of Light, which was nominated for a National Book Award. She received the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Awards in literature for The Rock Cried Out (1979) and A Lifetime Burning (1982), as well as grants from the National Educational Association for The Rock Cried Out and Can't Quit You, Baby (1988). In 1989, she was honored for her body of work by the Fellowship of Southern Writers. The collection contains annotated manuscripts and research materials. 43 boxes. Typed inventory available.
Wylene Dunbar Collection. 1992-1998. This collection contains drafts, correspondence, and other materials relating to the writing, editing, and publishing of Ms. Dunbar's 1997 work, Margaret Cape. 4 boxes. http://purl.oclc.org/umarchives/MUM00115/
William Faulkner Collections. Contains the Rowan Oak Papers, early Faulkner poetry collections, manuscripts, and correspondence relating to the life and career of William Faulkner. To view our Faulkner Collections, please see the William Faulkner Subject Guide
Shelby Foote Collection. 1968-1999. This small collection contains interviews, magazine articles, and programs relating to the career of this Greenville, Mississippi native. Between 1954 and 1974, he composed the three volume, 1.2 million-word The Civil War: A Narrative, the work for which he is now best known. Dial published Follow Me, Down (1950), an exploration of economic and pschological oppression of poor whites; Love in A Dry Season (1951), which demystifies Southern aristocracy; and finally, on the 90th anniversary of the Battle of Shiloh, Foote's Shiloh (1952). His other publications include Jordan County (1954) and September, September (1977). 1 box. http://purl.oclc.org/umarchives/MUM00187/
Richard Ford Collection. 1961-2000. This small collection contains school publications, newspaper clippings, and magazine articles about Mississippi author, Richard Ford. Ford's publications include The Sportswriter (1986), A Piece of My Heart (1987), Wildlife (1990), Independence Day (1995), Rock Springs (1987), Women With Men: Three Stories (1997), and A Multitude of Sins: Stories (2002). 1 box. http://purl.oclc.org/umarchives/MUM00188/
Edwin Phillips Granberry. 1907-1990. Granberry, a Meridian, Mississippi native, produced several short stories and novels during his lifetime. One of the most famous short stories was A Trip to Czardis. This was first published in The Forum in 1932, and won the O. Henry Memorial Award as that year's best story. In 1966, Granberry produced a novel with the same name, expanidn on the events preceding those of his short story, and incorporating the original story as the book's final chapter. Granberry's other novels were The Ancient Hunger (1927), Strangers and Lovers (1928), and The Erl King (1930). Other notable works include stage and (unfinished) nvoelized version of The Falcon, a screenplay of "A Trip to Czardis" and a long-term partnership with the artist Roy Crane (to be replaced by Henry Schlensker after Crane's death) to produce the comic strip Buz Sawyer. The collection contains correspondence, annotated drafts of works, and ephemera. 16 boxes. http://purl.oclc.org/umarchives/MUM00206/
John Grisham Collection. Three small collections of promotional materials, magazine articles, and interviews of the Mississippi author of such novels as The Firm and A Time to Kill. 3 boxes. Typed inventory available.
Carolyn Haines Collection. c. 1970-2003. Carolyn Haines' first published novel, Summer of Fear appreared in 1993 with Summer of the Redeemers appearing in 1994. Her popular detective series featuring the feisty Southern belle dectective, Sarah Booth began in 1999 with the publication of Them Bones, Buried Bones, Splintered Bones, and Crossed Bones following. The collection contains annotated mauscripts, promotional materials, and photographs taken by Ms. Haines while a photographer for the Mobile Press Register, Mississippi Press, the Hattiesburg American, and The George County Times. 9 boxes and 6 binders of negatives. http://purl.oclc.org/umarchives/MUM00212/
Barry Hannah Collection. 1974-1989. Contains a collection of annotated manuscripts and correspondence from the Clinton, Mississippi native. Hannah is the author of such works as Geronimo Rex (1972), Nightwatchmen (1973), Boomerang (1989) and Bats Out of Hell (1993). 12 boxes. Typed inventory available.
Evans Harrington Collection. c. 1950- 1990. A graduate of Mississippi College and the University of Mississippi, Evans Harrington began working at the University in 1951. He had a long and distinguished career in the Department of English. During his time in the department Harrington was appointed Professor of English (1962), Director of the Faulkner and Yoknapatawpha Conference; Chair of the English Department; and at his retirement in 1991, Professor Emeritus of English. 42 boxes. http://purl.oclc.org/umarchives/MUM00219/
Charlaine Harris Collection. 2002-2003. This small collection contains materials from this Tunica, Mississippi, raised native and mystery author of the popular Sookie Stackhouse, Aurora Teagarden, and Lily Bard series'. The collection contains promotinal materials for Club Dead and an annotated galley page from Living Dead in Dallas. 1 box. http://purl.oclc.org/umarchives/MUM00221/
Beth Henley Collection. c. 1981-1990. Playwright Beth Henley first entered the literary world in 1978 when one of her plays, Crimes of the Heart, went on to win several awards, including the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for best new American play and the Pulitzer Prize for drama. Henley received a Tony Award nomination for best play and an Academy Award nomination for best adapted screenplay. Other works by Henley include, Am I Blue (1982), The Miss Firecracker Contest: A Play (1985), The Debutante Ball (1991), and Revelers (2003). The collection includes annotated and typed manuscripts from several plays, promotional materials and shooting script for Crimes of the Heart and ephemera. 26 boxes. Typed inventory available.
Jere Hoar Collection. 2002. A small collection containing parts of an annotated manuscript, ephemera, and correspondence relating to this University of Mississippi Emeritus Professor of Journalism and noted mystery author of The Hit. Hoar's debute short story collection, Body Parts, was a notable book of the year selection by three publications: the New York Times, Booklist (the journal of the American Library Assocation), and Bookman. 1 box.
Seymour Lawrence Publishing Collection. This archive contains the files of publisher Seymour Lawrence. It contains correspondence to and from his many authors--Rick Bass, Barry Hannah, Frank Conroy, Jayne Anne Phillips, Richard Bausch, Richard Currey, J.P. Donleavy, Tom Drury, Jim Harrison, Gish Jen, Wiliam Kotzwinkle, Thomas McGuane, Susan Minot, Tim O'Brien, Dan Wakefield, Richard Yates, Thomas Berger, Louis-Ferdinand Celine, Robert Coles, Mark Helprin, William Humphrey, Tillie Olsen, Robert B. Parker, William J. Smith, Allen Tate, Katherine Anne Porter, Kurt Vonnegut, Sean O'Faolain, Richard Brautigan, Jorge Louis Borges, Miguel Angel Asturias, Pablo Neruda and Edwin O'Connor--approximately ten thousand letters in all. The collection reveals a publisher at work, dealing with, among many others, author's agents, copy editors, sales, advertising and publicity departments, independent book sellers adn representatives of foreign publishers. Currently in process. 109 boxes.
Willie Morris Collection. 1954-1993. Correspondence, annotated manuscripts, research notes, photographs and other materialas make up this large collection of Yazoo City born author Willie Morris. Morris served as the youngest editor-in-chief of Harper's for several years, creating one of the most exciting periods in the magazine's history. During the course of his career, Morris authored several works including North Toward Home (1967), Yazoo: Integration in a Deep-Southern Town (1971), Good Old Boy (1971), The Last of the Southern Girls (1973), New York Days (1993), and many others. 173 boxes. http://purl.oclc.org/umarchives/MUM00321/
The Oxford American Collection. 1992-c.2002. The Oxford American began publication in the spring of 1992. In the words of publisher Marc Smirnoff, the magazine was "established under the idea that it is time for a good general magazine to originate from the South." The Oxford American publishes fiction, esays, poetry, interviews, reports, commentaries and various forms of graphic art including photographs and drawings. The collection contains typed and holograph manuscripts of these materials as well as correspondence, advertising records, and clippings. Larry Brown, Richard Ford, Jack Bulter, Lewis Nordan, and John Updike are just a few of the charter contributors. Since its first issue, the magazine has published the work of Donna Tartt, William Faulkner, Barry Hannah, Willie Morries, and William Eggleston, among others. 91 boxes. Typed inventory available.
William Alexander Percy Collection. 1922-1941. A small collection of short stories, poems, magazine articles, sheet music, and other materials relating to the life and career of this Mississippi Delta planter, lawyer, poet, and man of letters. A Greenville native, he is well-known for his autobiographical work Lanterns on the Levee (1941). 2 boxes. http://purl.oclc.org/umarchives/MUM00361/
Walker Percy Collection. 1983, 2000. A small collection containing magazine appearances, correspondence, and general information about Percy, author of such seminal works as The Moviegoer (1961) and The Last Gentleman (1966). 1 box. http://purl.oclc.org/umarchives/MUM00360/
Sterling Plumpp Collection. Born near Clinton, Mississippi, Sterling Plumpp's poetry continues to reflect in part upon his southern rural experiences. Often called a "blues poet", the music of blues and jazz have influenced both the phrasing and themes of much of his work. Author of such works as Portable Soul (1969), Half Black, Half Blacker (1970), Black Rituals (1972) among others, Plumpp has taught English and African-American Studies at the University of Illinois in Chicago. The collection contains corrrepondence, ephemera, handwritten and types manuscripts, galleys, proofs, and photographs. Currently in process.
Julie Smith Collection. c.1980-2002. Julie Smith, a native of Savannah, Georgia, attended the University of Mississippi majoring in journalism. After college, Smith worked as a journalist at the New Orleans Times-Picayune and soon after moved to San Francisco and the Chronicle. The author of a successful San Francisco based mystery series centered around a lawyer Rebecca Schwartz, Smith began publishin the New Orleans Skp Langdon series in 1989 with the Edgar winning work New Orleans Mourning. http://purl.oclc.org/umarchives/MUM00414/
Eudora Welty Collection. 1937-1994. While most Eudora Welty manuscripts and photographs are at the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, Special Collections does have significant holdings of Welty letters and representative examples of her literary manuscripts. In addition the department has an outstanding collection of Welty editions and foreign translations, as well as secondary works. 6 boxes. http://purl.oclc.org/umarchives/MUM00471/
Joan Williams Collection. 1952-1996. Williams, a Mississippi born author, wrote five novels, a short story collection, numerous essays and speeches, and several uncollected stories. As a college student, after reading Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury, Williams drove rto Oxford, Mississippi to meet the author. Faulkenr encouraged her writing adn the two established an eduring friendship. Williams was the author of such works as Country Woman, Old Powder Man, and Spring is Now. The small collection contains correspondence and magazine articles.Typed inventory available.
Tennessee Williams Collection. 1928-1975. Born in Columbus, Mississippi, Thomas Lanier "Tennessee" Williams began publishing at the age of sixteen. He went on to write such seminal works as Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Orpheus Descending, and Night of the Iguana, among others. The collection contains signed copies of his early published story "The Vengence of Nitocris," a typescript of his first professionally staged play, Battle of Angels, annotated playscripts of Night of the Iguana, and film related ephemera. http://purl.oclc.org/umarchives/MUM00482/
Richard Wright Collection. 1940- c. 1985. One of America's greatest authors, Richard Wright was born and spent the first years of his life on a plantation, not far from Natchez, Mississippi. His life as the son of a sharecropper was far from affluent. Though he spent only a few years of his life in Mississippi, those years would play a key role in two of his most important works: Native Son and Black Boy. The large Wright Collection, located at Yale University, contains most of his manuscripts but the University of Mississippi does house a small Wright Collection. Original invitations, press releases, signed works, and other materials form the bulk of this collection. http://purl.oclc.org/umarchives/MUM00488/
Stark Young Collection. A native of Como, Mississippi, Stark Young moved with his family to Oxford as a young boy. A graduate of the University of Mississippi, Young received a master's degree in English from Columbia in 1902. He taught at several academic institutions and began publishing poetry and plays. In 1921 Young became the New Republic's drama critic and member of its editorial board. Although most widely known at the time for his prose on the theater, Young also produced six novels. The fourth, So Red the Rose (1934) proved his most successful, and became the basis for the 1935 film. The Young Collection contains original correspondence, manuscripts, and film ephemera relating to the life and career of this Mississippi author.