Description
Description
This collection primarily consists of papers of Noël Riley Fitch relating to her two
books Sylvia Beach and the Lost Generation: A History of
Literary Paris in the Twenties and Thirties(1983) and Walks in Hemingway's Paris: A Guide for the Literary Traveler(1990), as
well as her thesis, dissertation, and other writings about Sylvia Beach (1887-1962),
the American proprietress of the bookshop Shakespeare and Company in Paris, France.
Included are research files, notes, typescripts, and galleys for Fitch's biography of
Beach; correspondence and transcripts of interviews with former friends and
associates of Beach, such as Berenice Abbott, Morrill Cody, Malcolm Cowley, Janet
Flanner, Marcelle Fournier, Maurice Saillet, and others; correspondence with Richard
McDougall, the poet and writer on the life of Adrienne Monnier, and typed copies of
McDougall's A Selection of Poems(1957); as well as
audiotapes (1969-1982) of Fitch's interviews with Elizabeth Bishop, Frederic Dennis,
Helen Eddy, Marthiel Mathews, François Valéry, Priscilla Veitch, and others
reminiscing about Beach and Paris in the 1920s and 1930s. There are also notes,
manuscript drafts, and galleys of Fitch's Walks in Hemingway's
Paris: A Guide for the Literary Traveler, and a cassette tape of an
interview with Dutch journalists about the book and Ernest Hemingway (1990).
Furthermore, the collection includes articles and book reviews concerning Djuna
Barnes; assorted articles and lectures by Fitch; a copy of Lisa MacFarlane's
Princeton University thesis on Sylvia Beach entitled "For Who is Silvier" (1979);
four unpublished writings by Fitch (1988); additional correspondence between Fitch
and her literary agents, friends, and fans primarily relating to Fitch's books
concerning Lost Generation authors; and a photograph of photographs hanging in
Shakespeare and Company.
The original papers of Sylvia Beach include letters by Beach to her parents and
sisters (1898-1952); letters by other family members and friends (1858-1954); a
photograph album showing Sylvia and Holly Beach in Italy and Serbia (1917-1920);
scrapbook pages of photographs and memorabilia (ca.1932-1949); a typescript draft,
with autograph corrections (removed from Fitch's research files), and revised galleys
for Beach's book Shakespeare and Company(1959); reviews
of the book; cassette tapes of Beach's interview with Jackson Mathews for the Kenyon
Review (1960); a scrapbook of obituaries(1962); letters sent to Holly Beach (Mrs.
Frederic Dennis) (1962-1964); and correspondence regarding Sylvia Beach's estate
(1962-1962).
An additional accession consists of several typescript versions of "Voyage to Ithaca:
William Carlos Williams in Paris," with holograph corrections, annotations, and
additions by Fitch; and correspondence with Else Albrecht-Carrie, Donald Gallup,
James Laughlin, Marilyn V. Schuler, Emily Wallace, and Mrs. William Carlos Williams,
regarding the above manuscript, which was published in the Princeton University Library Chronicle (spring 1979).
Collection Creator
Biography
Noël Riley Fitch was born on December 24, 1937, in New Haven, Connecticut, and educated
at Northwest Nazarene College (B.A. 1959) and Washington State University (M.A. 1965 and
Ph.D. 1969). She was a professor of literature from 1971 to1987, and chair of the
department of literature and modern languages from 1982 to 1985 at Point Loma College.
Currently Fitch lectures at both the University of Southern California and the American
University of Paris. She has written several biographies of influential women and is a
frequent contributor of articles to journals and periodicals. Most of Fitch's writings
reflect her fascination with American expatriate writers in Paris in the 1920s and
1930s, and include the following: Sylvia Beach and the Lost
Generation: A History of Literary Paris in the Twenties and Thirties(1983),
Literary Cafés of Paris(1989), Walks in Hemingway's Paris: A Guide for the Literary Traveler(1990), and
Anaïs: The Erotic Life of Anaïs Nin(1993). Her most
recent work is Appetite for Life: The Biography of Julia
Child(1997).
Note
Location of Printed Books Removed for Cataloging
Ex Balzac: La Femme de Trente Ans(1912), front cover
torn off, inscribed "To Sylvia with love from Mother, Christmas 1913."
Ex Balzac: Ursule Mirouët(1913), front cover torn torn
off, inscribed "Eleanor Beach from Sylvester, Christmas 1913, Princeton."
Ex Balzac: La Fausse Maitresse(1912), poor condition,
signed "Sylvia Beach, Princeton, 1915."
Ex Beckett, Samuel and others: Our Exagmination Round His
Factification for Incamination of Work in Progress(London: Faber and Faber,
1961), inscribed "For Holly with the ex-publishers love, Sylvia, February 1962."
Ex Beach Comité Walt Whitman de Paris: "Exposition Walt Whitman, du 20 avril au 20
juin 1926" (Paris: Shakespeare and Co., 1926).
Ex Mervine, William M.: Harris, Dunlop, Valentine and Allied
Families: Compiled for Mary (Harris) Morris(Philadelphia: Edward S. Paret
Co., printed for private circulation only, 1920), copy no. 21 of 100 printed; [Mary
(Harris) Morris was SB's aunt, from the library of Holly Beach Dennis].
Ex Archives Record of the Class of Eighteen Hundred and
Seventy-Six of Princeton College, No. V. 1876-1891 (Rev. Sylvester W.
Beach).
Archives Record of the Class of Eighteen Hundred and
Seventy-Six of Princeton University, No. VII. 1876-1901 (Rev. Sylvester W.
Beach).
Ex Weld, John: Fly Away Home(Santa Barbara: Mission
Pub., 1991), presentation copy to NRF by the author.
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