Summary
Overview
American Center of
P.E.N.
P.E.N. American Center Records
1922-2008 (mostly 1930-1989)
125.1 linear feet, 282 boxes (258 Hollinger boxes, 2 half-size Hollinger
boxes, 1 record center box, 21 flat archival boxes)
This collection is stored at ReCAP.
This collection is stored offsite at the ReCAP facility. Please see
Access and Use section below for details.
Requests will be delivered to Manuscripts Division, RBSC Reading Room
.
Princeton University. Library. Dept. of Rare Books
and Special Collections
Manuscripts Division
One Washington Road
Princeton, New Jersey 08544 USA
Abstract
Consists of files created by P.E.N. American Center as part of its regular
business operations since its founding in 1922. Includes material on governance and
policies, programs, awards and financial aid granted to authors, and the center's
involvement with International P.E.N. and other P.E.N. organizations worldwide. The
collection is especially notable for its extensive author correspondence and occasional
original manuscripts.
Description
Description
The P.E.N. American Center Records consist of files created by P.E.N. American Center
as part of its regular business operations. They document the history and activities
of the center since its foundation in 1922.
The collection contains files documenting the center's literary awards, grants and
financial aid given by the center, program files, and files pertaining to the
center's advocacy for freedom of expression. Further included are files that document
the center's decision-making processes and policies, including executive and
committee files, fundraising files, and membership files. The conference files and
files on other branches and centers document P.E.N. American Center's role in
International P.E.N. and its interactions with organizations of P.E.N. worldwide. In
addition, the collection contains audiovisual material and publications created by or
under the auspices of P.E.N. American Center.
The collection is especially notable for its documentation of authors' and editors'
creative processes and intellectual leanings, manifest in the executive
correspondence files and the manuscripts and committee files that pertain to the
center's literary awards.
Collection Creator
History
P.E.N. American Center is the U.S. branch of International P.E.N., a worldwide
non-profit organization of writers, editors, and translators that advocates for freedom
of expression, freedom of the press, and "the ideal of one humanity living in peace in
the world" (P.E.N. charter). Founded one year after International P.E.N. in 1922, P.E.N.
American Center is one of two P.E.N. centers currently located in the U.S. (the other is
in Los Angeles) and one of 145 centers worldwide.
P.E.N. American Center sponsors a variety of literary, literacy, and advocacy programs.
Among the center's prominent activities are the advocacy program Freedom to Write, which
defends censored or persecuted authors; the financial aid program Writers' Emergency
Fund, which gives small emergency grants to authors who face acute financial
difficulties; the Prison Writing Program, which promotes writing among prison inmates;
and World in Translation, which recognizes American translators. The center also awards
a number of literary prizes in the categories fiction, nonfiction, drama, poetry,
biography, children's/young adults' fiction, and translation.
P.E.N. American Center currently has a membership of 3,300. The center counts Arthur
Miller, Norman Mailer, Susan Sontag, Salman Rushdie, and Princeton professor Edmund
Keeley among its past presidents. Its current president is Princeton professor Kwame
Anthoy Appiah. In addition, past members include James Baldwin, Willa Cather, Robert
Frost, Langston Hughes, Thomas Mann, Marianne Moore, Paul Auster, and John Steinbeck,
among others.
Collection History
Acquisition
Purchased from P.E.N. American Center in 1994. Additional material was transferred in 1997, 1998,
1999, 2001, and 2009.
Archival Appraisal Information
Approximately 100 linear feet of material was separated in 2010, including duplicate
material, clippings, general administrative and logistical files, general membership
files, general reference files, publications (transferred to Firestone Library
general collections) and extraneous material.
Processing Information
This collection was processed by Jennifer Bowden with
the assistance of Jennifer Watkins in 1994. Finding aid written by Jennifer Bowden with the assistance of Jennifer Watkins in 1994.
Reprocessed by Regine Heberlein in 2010.
Access and Use
Access Restrictions
This collection is open for research with the exception of the P.E.N. Writers' Fund
files, which are closed per request of the P.E.N. American Center due to privacy
concerns.
Access Restrictions
This collection is stored off site. Please consult with RBSC staff about having the
collection recalled to Firestone Library for your use. This process normally requires
48-72 hours notice.
Use Restrictions
Single photocopies may be made for research purposes. No further photoduplication of
copies of material in the collection can be made when Princeton University Library
does not own the original. Permission to publish material from the collection must be
requested from the Associate University Librarian for Rare Books and Special
Collections. The library has no information on the status of literary rights in the
collection and researchers are responsible for determining any questions of
copyright.
Preferred Citation
P.E.N. American Center Records; 1922-2008 (mostly 1930-1989), Manuscripts Division, Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, Princeton University Library.
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