- Collection Overview
- Collection Description & Creator Information
- Access & Use
- Collection History
- Find Related Materials
Expanded View
Collection Overview
- Creator:
- Young, Kathleen Tankersley, 1903-1933
- Title:
- Kathleen Tankersley Young Correspondence
- Repository:
- Manuscripts Division
- Permanent URL:
- http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/tm70mv23z
- Dates:
- 1928-1932
- Size:
- 1 box and 0.2 linear feet
- Storage Note:
- Firestone Library (scamss): Box 1
- Language:
- English
Abstract
Consists chiefly of correspondence of American author and editor Kathleen Tankersley Young with the New York book designer and printer Lew Ney and his wife, Ruth Widen.
Collection Description & Creator Information
- Description:
The collection consists chiefly of correspondence between American author Kathleen Tankersley Young and the New York book designer and printer Lew Ney and his wife, Ruth Widen -- original letters (holograph and typewritten) by Young, carbon copies of answers to Young's letters by Ney and Widen. The letters provide an intimate portrait of Young's private life and her marriage to David Jerome Ellinger, and of some of the literary and artistic figures of the Harlem Renaissance. They also shed light on the social mores of the United States during that time period. Young frequently refers to her friends and business partners Charles Henri Ford and Harrison Parker Tyler, as well as to her circle of literary friends, which included Ezra Pound and Gertrude Stein. There are some letters discussing business matters, including a book project which Young initially intended Ney to publish for her, and money she owed Ney and Widen.
Also included is a typescript of a "Diary. Edward Lennon" (six leaves) which was written for Kathleen Young and Charles Henri Ford by an unidentified author. In addition, there are pencil drawings of different women with captions in French, in an unknown hand; a printed invitation to Young's wedding to David Jerome Ellinger; and a prospectus of the Modern Edition Press announcing the publishing of new pamphlets.
- Arrangement
Correspondence is arranged into two file groups by author.
- Collection Creator Biography:
Young
Kathleen Tankersley Young was an American author and poet, and editor of the Modern Editions Press during the era of the Harlem Renaissance. Originally from Texas, Young joined Charles Henri Ford and Parker Tyler in 1929 to publish the Blues: A Magazine of New Rhymes. Blues included such contributors as Kay Boyle, Erskine Caldwell, Harry Crosby, E. E. Cummings, Oliver Jenkins, Ezra Pound, Laura Riding, Herman Spector, Gertrude Stein, Laurence Vail, William Carlos Williams, and Louis Zukofsky. Although Young is often described in secondary sources as an African American woman, perhaps due to her association with the Harlem Renaissance, census records indicate her race as white.
Collection History
- Acquisition:
Gift of Lew Ney in October 1947 .
- Appraisal
No appraisal information is available.
- Processing Information
This collection was processed by Dina Britain in 2008. Finding aid written in 2008. Folder Inventory added by Hilde Creager (2015) in 2012.
Subject headings and the biographical note for Kathleen Tankersley Young were updated by Kelly Bolding in September 2021 to reflect recent research suggesting that Young was white and not African American.
Access & Use
- Conditions Governing Access
The collection is open for research.
- Conditions Governing Use
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. Inquiries regarding publishing material from the collection should be directed to RBSC Public Services staff through the Ask Us! form. The library has no information on the status of literary rights in the collection and researchers are responsible for determining any questions of copyright.
- Credit this material:
Kathleen Tankersley Young Correspondence; Manuscripts Division, Department of Special Collections, Princeton University Library
- Permanent URL:
- http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/tm70mv23z
- Location:
-
Firestone LibraryOne Washington RoadPrinceton, NJ 08544, USA
- Storage Note:
- Firestone Library (scamss): Box 1
Find More
- Subject Terms:
- Book designers -- New York (State) -- New York -- United States -- 20th century.
Editors -- New York (State) -- New York -- 20th century -- Correspondence.
Harlem Renaissance -- History -- Sources.
Printers -- New York (State) -- New York -- Correspondence.
Women authors, American -- 20th century -- Correspondence.
Women editors -- United States -- 20th century -- Correspondence
Women poets, American -- 20th century -- Correspondence - Genre Terms:
- Correspondence -- 20th century
Drawings -- 20th century. - Names:
- Lennon, Edward
Ney, Lew
Widen, Ruth
Parker, Tyler
Ford, Charles Henri
