Contents and Arrangement
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Series 1: Correspondence, 1943-2013

19 boxes
Collection Creator:
Frank, Joseph, 1918-2013
Dates:
1943-2013
Extent:
19 boxes
Scope and Contents

This series, which comprises the majority of the collection, consists of Joseph Frank's personal and professional correspondence with various writers, academics, poets, friends, and family members from the 1940s through the early 2000s but primarily from the 1950s through the 1980s. Most correspondence is incoming, though occasional files also contain outgoing correspondence from Joseph Frank and his wife, Marguerite Straus Frank. A small group of family correspondence between members of Frank's family is also included following the alphabetical correspondence, including condolence letters addressed to Marguerite Straus Frank following Joseph Frank's death. Of note is a significant group of letters to Joseph Frank from poet Elizabeth Bishop from the 1950s and early 1960s describing her writing and her experiences while living in Brazil with her partner Lota de Macedo Soares. Correspondence files from poets Yves Bonnefoy and Allen Tate are also sizable. While most of Frank's correspondence is in English, a significant amount is also in French, with smaller quantities in German and Russian.

Access Restrictions:
The collection is open for research.
Credit this material:

Series 1: Correspondence; Joseph Frank Correspondence, C1515, Manuscripts Division, Department of Special Collections, Princeton University Library

Storage Note:
Firestone Library (mss): Boxes B-000638; B-000899; B-000090; B-000091; B-000092; B-000093; B-000094; B-000095; B-000096; B-000900; B-000097; B-000098; B-000099; B-000100; B-000901; B-000101; B-000102; B-000103; B-001317
System Identifier:
/repositories/5/archival_objects/945888

Collection Overview

Collection Description & Creator Information

Description:

The collection consists Joseph Frank's personal and professional correspondence with various academics, artists, poets, and writers, including Lionel Abel, Hannah Arendt, Janice Biala, Djuna Barnes, Robert Belknap, Saul Bellow, Elizabeth Bishop, R. P. Blackmur, Yves Bonnefoy, Pierre Bourdieu, Kenneth Burke, Alain Clément, Edward Cone, Malcolm Cowley, Louis Dumont, Ralph Ellison, Maurice English, Robert Fagles, Francis Fergusson, Georges Florovsky, Carlos Fuentes, Edwin Honig, Irving Howe, Erich Kahler, Walter Kaufmann, Alfred Kazin, Edmund Keeley, Richard Kostelanetz, James Laughlin, Richard W. B. Lewis, Elizabeth Lowell, Jean Malaquais, Mary McCarthy, Frederick Morgan, Julian Lane Moynahan, Joyce Carol Oates, Jean Piel, John Crowe Ransom, Richard Rorty, Karl Shapiro, Carl E. Schorske, Katharine Strelsky, Arthur Szathmary, Allen Tate, Tzvetan Todorov, Ian Watt, Paul Zweig, and others, as well as some family correspondence. Other materials include annotated offprints and reprints of writings by others, a notebook with Frank's reading notes on Russian literature, a small amount of writings by Frank, personal documents, and a few photographs. Much of Frank's correspondence regards relationships he developed with scholars associated with the Gauss Seminars in Criticism.

Arrangement

Arranged alphabetically by name of correspondent, followed by correspondence from unidentified senders and a small file group of family correspondence. Additional correspondence received after 2017 is arranged by accession at the end of the series.

Collection History

Archival Appraisal Information:

Nothing was removed from the collection during 2015-2019 processing.

Access & Use

Access Restrictions:

The collection is open for research.

Conditions for Reproduction and 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:

Series 1: Correspondence; Joseph Frank Correspondence, C1515, Manuscripts Division, Department of Special Collections, Princeton University Library

Location:
Firestone Library
One Washington Road
Princeton, NJ 08544, USA
(609) 258-3184
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Storage Note:
Firestone Library (mss): Boxes B-000090 to B-000103, B-000638, B-000899 to B-000901, B-001317