The Grants and Financial Aid Series documents the efforts of P.E.N. American Center to give financial assistance to writers in need. Major programs represented in this series include the Fund for Intellectual Freedom, the P.E.N. Refugee Fund, the P.E.N. Relief Fund, and the Writers' Emergency Fund. In addition, the series contains files regarding the International P.E.N. Emergency Fund as well as aid programs to Chinese and Latin American writers.
Researchers interested in the P.E.N. American Center's Translation Grant are advised to consult the Translation Committee files in the Committees series.
Divided into the following subseries: Fund for Intellectual Freedom, P.E.N. Refugee Fund, P.E.N. Relief Fund, Writers' Emergency Fund, Miscellaneous Financial Aid Programs.
The Fund for Intellectual Freedom came under International P.E.N.'s management shortly after its founding in 1950 by Graham Greene, Arthur Koestler, John Dos Passos, James Farrell and Aldous Huxley to support refugees from Communist countries. This subseries consists of correspondence, case files, reports, and financial information.
Arranged alphabetically.
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The P.E.N. Refugee Fund assisted exiled writers by asking the P.E.N. membership to provide affidavits of support and sponsoring visas on an individual basis. This subseries includes affidavits, case files and correspondence, and specific files on German, Hungarian, and Spanish Refugees. The German file consists of correspondence by Erika and Thomas Mann on behalf of German authors.
Arranged alphabetically.
The P.E.N. Relief Fund sent food and books to writers overseas during the postwar period. This subseries includes committee files, requests for assistance, author correspondence, and financial files.
Arranged alphabetically.
The P.E.N. Writers' Emergency Fund gives grants of up to $2,000 to professional writers in acute financial crisis. It also administers the P.E.N. Fund for Writers and Editors with HIV/AIDS, which gives grants of up to $2,000 to professional writers and editors for financial emergencies due to HIV or AIDS-related illness.
This subseries contains the alphabetical files of Writer's Emergency Fund recipients as well as subject files, including bequests and contributions, inquiries by writers, rejection files, and New York State Council for the Arts (NYSCA) grant files.
Arranged chronologically by year.
This subseries contains the files of various short-term aid programs, including programs to aid Chinese, Latin American, and Polish Writers.
Arranged alphabetically.