Hugh MacNair Kahler Papers, 1900-1964 (mostly 1900-1950)

Contents and Arrangement

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Collection Overview

Creator:

Kahler, Hugh MacNair (1883-1969)

Title:

Hugh MacNair Kahler Papers

Repository:

Manuscripts Division

Permanent URL:

http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/8p58pc95v

Dates:

1900-1964 (mostly 1900-1950)

Size:

9 boxes and 5.4 linear feet

Storage Note:

ReCAP (scarcpxm): Box 1-9

Language:

English

Abstract: Consists of writings, correspondence, documents, photographs, and other miscellanea of the American editor, novelist, and storywriter Hugh MacNair Kahler.

Collection Description & Creator Information

Scope and Contents

The collection consists of manuscripts, correspondence, documents, and photographs of Kahler, with some papers of other persons. Included are an extensive range (1904-1931) of Kahler's letters to his parents, Mr. and Mrs. F. A. Kahler, detailing his personal and professional life; photographs of James Boyd, Kenneth Roberts, Booth Tarkington, and others, as well as photographs taken by Kahler of the 1924 Princeton-Harvard football game; and Joseph Hergesheimer's holograph manuscript "The Triumph of George Royer" (1916), which he inscribed to Kahler. Kahler's own writings include the outline, notes, and various incomplete drafts of an unpublished novel, Joy in Heaven, seven typed installments of Life is Like That, typescripts of two short stories and an article on Princeton University football.

An addition to the papers consists of 115 tearsheets of Kahler's short stories and serialized works (1914-1944) removed from such magazines as the Saturday Evening Post, Ladies' Home Journal, Collier's, and The Country Gentlemen. Many of the stories are accompanied by explanatory notes by Kahler. Also included are letters by George H. Lorimer of the Saturday Evening Post, William Chenery, Bruce Gould, Booth Tarkington, and others, fan mail, and lists of published stories.

A further addition to the papers consists of 57 letters of Kahler, written while he was an undergraduate at Princeton University to his parents, describing his life as a student at Princeton.

The following standard abbreviation is used to identify materials in this collection: TMsS = typed manuscript signed.

Collection Creator Biography:

Kahler

Hugh MacNair Kahler was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on 25 February 1883. He was the son of Frederick A. and Margaret Torbert (MacNair) Kahler. In 1904 he graduated from Princeton University. Kahler married Louise Kingsley on 15 October 1907; together they had one daughter, Kingsley.

Kahler wrote The Collector's Whatnot: A Compendium, Manual, and Syllabus of Information and Advice on All Subjects Appertaining to the Collection of Antiques, Both Ancient and Not So Ancient (1923) both under a pseudonym (Murgatroyd Elphinstone) and in collaboration with Booth Tarkington and Kenneth Lewis Roberts, who also used assumed names (Cornelius Obenchain Van Loot and Milton Kilgallen, respectively). Other published works by Kahler include the novels MacIvor's Folly (1925), Father Means Well (1930), Big Pink (1932), and Bright Danger (1941), as well as the short story collections Babel (1921), The East Wind and Other Stories (1923), and Hills Were Higher Then (1931). Two of Kahler's short stories became motion pictures: The Six Best Cellars (1920) and Fools First (1922).

From 1943 to 1960 Kahler was the fiction editor at Ladies' Home Journal. He contributed over a hundred stories to periodicals such as American, Collier's, Country Gentleman, and Saturday Evening Post.

Kahler died on 10 July 1969; he was eighty-six years old.

Collection History

Acquisition:: Gift of Mrs. Frank W. Hubby
Appraisal: No appraisal information is available.
Processing Information: This collection was processed by Ran Tao, Princeton Class of 2006 in 2004. Finding aid written by Ran Tao, Princeton Class of 2006 in 2004.

Access & Use

Conditions Governing Access

Collection is open for research use.

Conditions Governing Use

Single copies may be made for research purposes. To cite or publish quotations that fall within Fair Use, as defined under U. S. Copyright Law, no permission is required. For instances beyond Fair Use, it is the responsibility of the researcher to determine whether any permissions related to copyright, privacy, publicity, or any other rights are necessary for their intended use of the Library's materials, and to obtain all required permissions from any existing rights holders, if they have not already done so. Princeton University Library's Special Collections does not charge any permission or use fees for the publication of images of materials from our collections, nor does it require researchers to obtain its permission for said use. The department does request that its collections be properly cited and images credited. More detailed information can be found on the Copyright, Credit and Citations Guidelines page on our website. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us through the Ask Us! form.

Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements

For preservation reasons, original analog and digital media may not be read or played back in the reading room. Users may visually inspect physical media but may not remove it from its enclosure. All analog audiovisual media must be digitized to preservation-quality standards prior to use. Audiovisual digitization requests are processed by an approved third-party vendor. Please note, the transfer time required can be as little as several weeks to as long as several months and there may be financial costs associated with the process. Requests should be directed through the Ask Us Form.

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