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University of Chicago Library

Guide to the James T. Farrell Papers 1930-1948

© 2006 University of Chicago Library

Acknowledgments

Descriptive Summary

Title:

Farrell, James T. Papers

Dates:

1930-1948

Size:

0.5 linear feet (1 box)

Repository:

Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center
University of Chicago Library
1100 East 57th Street
Chicago, Illinois 60637 U.S.A.

Abstract:

James T. Farrell, writer, literary critic. The bulk of the James T. Farrell Papers is made up of periodicals to which Farrell contributed from the early 1930's to the late 1940's. The collection also contains an exchange of letters between Farrell and Clarence Darrow, a copy of one of the final letters of Theodore Dreiser, political pamphlets, a record of Farrell's difficulties with censors, and transcripts of some of Farrell's radio appearances.

Information on Use

Access

No restrictions.

Citation

When quoting material from this collection, the preferred citation is: Farrell, James T. Papers, [Box #, Folder #], Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library

Biographical Note

James T. Farrell (1904-1979), the American novelist and critic, grew up on the South Side of Chicago and attended the University of Chicago for nearly three years in the 1920's. It was at the suggestion of Robert Morss Lovett, a University of Chicago professor, that Farrell transformed a short story about a boy named Studs Lonigan into a novel. The Studs Lonigan trilogy remains Farrell's best-known work.

Scope Note

The bulk of the James T. Farrell Papers is made up of periodicals to which Farrell contributed from the early 1930's to the late 1940's. The collection also contains an exchange of letters between Farrell and Clarence Darrow, a copy of one of the final letters of Theodore Dreiser, political pamphlets, a record of Farrell's difficulties with censors, and transcripts of some of Farrell's radio appearances.

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Subject Headings

INVENTORY

Box 0   Folder 1

Signed letter from Clarence Darrow, May 31, 1929; copy of letter from Farrell to Clarence Darrow, May 7, 1930.

Box 0   Folder 2

Signed letter from Farrell to Director, University of Chicago Libraries, Oct. 30, 1946, with photostat of letter from Theodore Dreiser to Farrell, Dec. 24, 1945.

Box 0   Folder 3

Problems with Canadian censors

  • Mimeographed copy of letter to W. L. Mackenzie King, May 29, 1944.
  • Mimeographed copy of letter to W. L. Mackenzie King, undated.
Box 0   Folder 4

Stenographer's minutes of The People of the State of New York vs. Vanguard Press, Inc. Re: obscenity of A World I Never Made.

Box 0   Folder 5

Radio Appearances by Farrell

  • Transcript of "Of Men and Books," April 18, 1942 on "Sherwood Anderson. Autographed"
  • Transcript of "Invitation to Learning," Nov. 4, 1945 on Zola's Germinal.
  • Transcript of "Invitation to Learning," Dec. 9, 1945 on Dreiser's The Genius.
Box 0   Folder 6

Periodicals with Farrell stories, 1931-1939

  • "Mary O'Reilley," The Midland, May, 1931. Autographed.
  • "A Casual Incident," Story, Sept.-Oct., 1931. Autographed.
  • "Guys from 58th Street," Contempo, May 15, 1933. Autographed.
  • "The Fall of Machine Gun McGurk," The Canadian Forum, July, 1939. Autographed.
Box 0   Folder 7

Periodicals with Farrell stories, 1945-1948

  • "Lunch Hour, 1923," View, Oct., 1945. Autographed.
  • "Accident," Avon Modern Short Story Monthly, 1946. Autographed.
  • "A Day at the Zoo," Briarcliff Quarterly, July, 1946.
  • "Candy from Fairyland," Ammunition, April, 1948.
Box 0   Folder 8

Periodicals with Farrell film reviews, 1943-1947

  • "Mission to Moscow," New Leader, May 15, 1943.
  • "The Open City," The New International, August, 1946.
  • "The Bells of St. Mary," Labor Action, Jan. 27, 1947.
Box 0   Folder 9

Periodicals with Farrell book reviews, 1946.

  • Dreiser's The Bulwark, The Call, July 1, 1946.
  • Jack London's Martin Eden, Labor Action, August 5, 1946.
  • Review of his own Bernard Clare, Chicago Sun, Sept. 8, 1946.
  • James M. Cain's Mildred Pierce, The New International, Dec., 1946. Autographed.
  • The Short Stories of Dostovsky, The New York Times Book Review, Dec. 29, 1946. Autographed.
Box 0   Folder 10

Periodicals with Farrell literary criticism

  • "On the Letters of Anton Chekhov," The University of Kansas City Review, Spring, 1943.
  • "History and War in Tolstoy's War and Peace," The University of Kansas City Review, undated reprint.
  • "Tolstoy's War and Peace as a Moral Panorama of the Tsarist Feudal Nobility," The University of Kansas City Review, undated reprint.
  • "Fiction and the philistine," The University of Kansas City Review, Spring, 1945. Autographed.
Box 0   Folder 11

Periodicals with Farrell literary criticism, 1946-1947

  • "American Literature Marches On," The New International, Sept., Oct. 1946.
  • "The Realist Approach," The Canadian Forum, Sept., 1946.
  • "Art and the Anthropologist," The Commonweal, Nov. 1, 1946. Autographed.
  • "Le Heros de Roman American," La Revue Internationale, Feb., 1947, Autographed.
Box 0   Folder 12

Periodicals with Farrell social commentary

  • "A Summer Morning in Dublin," The Western Socialist, June, 1945.
  • "The Fate of Writing in America," New Directions, 1946.
  • "Stalinist Literary Discussion," The New International, April, 1946.
  • "A Note on the Contemporary Situation in American Culture," The Western Socialist, July, 1946.
  • "The Social Obligations of the Novelist," The Humanist, 1947.
  • "The Pope Needs America," The Nation, undated reprint.
Box 0   Folder 13

Political writings

  • Forward to "Who are the 18 prisoners in the Minneapolis Labor Case?" (pamphlet). Autographed.
  • "Free the 18" (pamphlet).
  • "Witch Hunt in Minnesota" (pamphlet).
  • "The Bill of Rights in Danger!" (pamphlet).
  • "On the Washington Un-American Hearings," undated reprint from The Western Socialist.
  • Mimeographed copy of Leon Trotsky's Literature and Revolution.
Box 0   Folder 14

Political writings, "In Remembrance of Carlo Tresca" from Manet Immota Fides - Omaggio Alla Memoria Imperitura di Carlo Tresca, March 28, 1943.

Box 0   Folder 15

Correspondence with E. Spencer Parsons concerning May 1979 dedication of the James Linn window in Rockefeller Chapel.