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Waldo Frank Papers, 1879-1977.
LIBRA - Manuscripts Storage Ms. Coll. 823
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- Format:
- Other
- Author/Creator:
- Frank, Waldo David, 1889-1967.
- Language:
- Czech
- English
- French
- German
- Portuguese
- Russian
- Spanish
- Subjects (All):
- American literature--Latin American influences.
- American literature.
- American literature--Spanish influences.
- Authors, American--20th century.
- Authors, American.
- United States--Intellectual life--20th century.
- United States.
- Intellectual life.
- Genre:
- Articles.
- Clippings (information artifacts)
- Contracts.
- Correspondence.
- Diaries.
- Notebooks.
- Photographs.
- Poems.
- Scrapbooks.
- Typescripts.
- Manuscripts, American.
- Penn Provenance:
- Gift of the estate of Waldo David Frank, 1965, with later additions by Jean Klempner Frank.
- Physical Description:
- 132 boxes, 1 oversized folder (63 linear feet)
- Arrangement:
- Organized into 8 series: I. Correspondence (44 boxes); II. Writings (42 boxes); III. Publicity (2 boxes); IV. Writings by others (3 boxes); V. Memorabilia (3 boxes); VI. Photographs (21 boxes); VII. Scrapbooks (11 boxes); VIII. Newspaper and magazine clippings (4 boxes).
- Place of Publication:
- 1879-1977.
- Language Note:
- Primarily in English with Spanish and French. There is some Portuguese, German, and Russian. Some articles are translations into Spanish.
- Biography/History:
- Waldo Frank was born on 25 August to Julius J. and Helene Rosenberg Frank in Long Branch, New Jersey. He was the youngest of four children. He had one brother Joseph Julius, born 1884, and two sisters, Edna, born 1885 and Enid, born 1888. Frank attended high school in New York and Switzerland. He then went to Yale University, where he graduated in 1911 with a bachelor of arts and masters degrees. Frank was a prolific writer throughout his life. He published novels, works of nonfiction, short stories, plays, articles and essays. Frank worked as a reporter from 1911 to 1913 and published his first work of fiction in a magazine. Frank was passionate about social injustice particularly taking on political causes of laborers. In one incident he was assaulted while helping striking miners in Harlan County, Kansas. He had personal and professional friendships with many writers, artists, and publishers, including Alfred Stieglitz, Van Wyck Brooks, Lewis Mumford and Victoria Ocampo. These relationships helped widen his world view and enhanced his career. For example, Frank was founder and co-editor with Van Wyck Brooks of the Seven Arts literary magazine where he met and forged friendships with many writers including Jean Toomer and Sherwood Anderson. Frank traveled through the United States, Europe, Central and South America, Mexico, and Cuba. He lectured and attended many conferences while traveling. Frank was particularly passionate about Latin American history and culture, becoming popular in several countries. He had a syndicated series of articles published in Latin America under the banner Voz de America. His personal life included three marriages and five children. Frank married art therapy pioneer Margaret Naumburg in 1916 and they had one son, Thomas, in 1922. He married Alma Magoon in 1927, and they had two daughters, Michal, born in 1930 and Deborah, born in 1931. In 1943 Frank married Jean Klempner; they had two children, Jonathan, born in 1947 and Timothy, born in 1953. Frank lived in relative obsurity by the end of his lifetime, he died 9 January 1967 in White Plains, New York.
- Summary:
- The papers document the literary career and the personal and professional life of twentieth-century American novelist and writer Waldo David Frank. Comprising correspondence, writings, publicity, writings by others, memorabilia, photographs, scrapbooks, and clippings spanning from 1879 to 1977, the collection contains 132 boxes and 3565 folders. The correspondence documents Frank's personal and professional relationships with writers, editors, artists, friends, and family. Letters from friendships with other writers and artists such as Jean Toomer, Sherwood Anderson, Alfred Stieglitz, Lewis Mumford, Van Wyck Brooks, and Hart Crane document congenial collaborations, sharing of ideas, and disagreements. The writings contain his notebooks, major works, articles, essays, and early writings tracing Frank's works and ideas of society and culture with psychological and social themes of man and his environment. Frank's passion for the culture and study of Spain, Latin America, and Mexico is apparent in correspondence and his research, preserved through notes and photographs of South America and Mexico. Letters and photographs display Frank's relationships with family members, his wives, and children. The materials in this collection divulge not only the writings of Waldo Frank, but the struggles of the writer and his encounters with himself and society as he seeks his vision of truth in the world. He was courageous in the face of his critics and his political enemies even when experiencing both written and physical attacks. Even though Frank claimed he was an outsider he was embraced by the people and cultures he championed and studied. Although largely forgotten by the end of his lifetime, his correspondence, writings, and ideas remain, providing insight into literary circles, political ideas, and historical events in the United States and Latin America during the early- to mid-twentieth century.
- OCLC:
- 877822439
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