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Download PDF Series 6: Sylvia Beach's Circle and Collections
31 boxes (4 partial)
This collection is stored at Firestone Library and Firestone Library.
This collection is stored on site at Firestone Library. Ernest Hemingway material is stored in special vault facilities.
Requests will be delivered to Manuscripts Division, RBSC Reading Room .
Collection Creator: Beach, Sylvia..
Dates: 1874-1999.
Extent: 31 boxes (4 partial)
Languages: English.
Access Restrictions
Access to the photographs is restricted because surrogates are available for reference use. Researchers who feel they have a compelling reason to be granted access to the original photographs must request permission in advance from the Curator of Manuscripts ( http://www.princeton.edu/~rbsc/contact/index.shtml ).
Original Hemingway is restricted. Surrogates are available for use.
Description
Sylvia Beach's Circle and Collections consists of items collected by Sylvia Beach, documenting two overlapping collecting activities: Sylvia Beach's incidental files on artists in her circle (not directly relating to her publication activities, which are documented in the Shakespeare & Company series), and her more formal literary and art collections. The boundary between the two collection activities is fluid, and there are several documented cases in which Beach later formalized collections that were originally created out of personal interest or for reference or business purposes (most notably, her collection of Joyce material, which she largely sold to the University of Buffalo, and her collection of Whitman manuscripts, originally keepsakes she inherited from her aunt and which she later exhibited and offered for sale). The series further contains information on exhibitions of Beach's collections and on the sale of collection items to various cultural institutions.
Due to some overlap between Beach's collecting activities and the publications and exhibitions conducted at Shakespeare & Company, researchers are advised that the Shakespeare & Company series may contain additional material Beach would have considered a part of her collection.
While a number of James Joyce items are represented here, researchers may be interested to know that Sylvia Beach sold the better part of her Joyce collection, including manuscripts and correspondence, to the University of Buffalo Library in 1959, where it is available for research.
Arrangement
Arranged alphabetically by name or topic.
Preferred Citation
Series 6: Sylvia Beach's Circle and Collections; 1874-1999; Sylvia Beach Papers, Manuscripts Division, Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, Princeton University Library.