Contents

Collection Overview

Biographical Note

Scope and Contents of the Collection

Organization of the Collection

Search Terms

Ball Family Papers, ca. 1869-1931

Finding aid prepared by Graham Leach-Krouse, Peter Nelson.

Encoding funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

© 2003

Biographical Note

Reverend Albert Horton Ball was born in Amherst, New Hampshire, on March 10th, 1843. He graduated from Amherst College in 1866, and continued his education at Madison University at Hamilton, New York, where he studied Divinity and Theology, graduating in 1869. He married Helen M. Savage in 1870. He died on December 3, 1937.

Albert Ball's son, Allan Perley Ball, was born in Greenfield, Massachusetts, on December 17, 1871. He graduated from Amherst in 1892, and received a Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1903. He began as a tutor in Latin at the City College of New York in 1901, and was made a professor of classical languages there by 1926. He married Vergie Allen in 1916. His book The Satire of Seneca was published in 1902, and The Essays of Seneca, which he edited, was published in 1908. Allan Ball died on October 9, 1971.

The other son of Reverend Albert Horton Ball, Walter Savage Ball, was born in Windsor, Vermont, on September 20, 1876. He graduated in 1897 from Amherst and received his master's degree in 1902. He worked at the North Adams (Mass.) Transcript, Springfield (Mass.) Republican, Sun, Providence Journal, and Evening Bulletin variously as a reporter, staff writer, editor, and chief editor until his retirement in 1931. His novel, Carmella Commands received the Harpers Prize in 1929; he published other works, mainly serial fiction, throughout his lifetime. He married to Marion Kimball Hadley in 1923 and died on May 1, 1937.

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Scope and Contents of the Collection

Personal papers of three Amherst College alumni, the Rev. Albert H. Ball (AC 1866) and his two sons Allan (AC 1892) and Walter (AC 1897). The collection includes alumni notes, notebooks, manuscript writings, and printed matter. Reverend Albert Ball's materials consist of chronicles of his alumni class of 1866 and a commonplace book; Allan and Walter Ball's papers chiefly document their professional lives, as classical teacher/scholar and fiction writer, respectively.

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Search Terms

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Organization of the Collection

This collection is organized into three series:

• 1. REV. ALBERT HORTON BALL (AC 1866) PAPERS
• 2. ALLAN PERLEY BALL (AC 1892) PAPERS
• 3. WALTER SAVAGE BALL (AC 1897) PAPERS

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Series 1: THE REVEREND ALBERT HORTON BALL (AC 1866) PAPERS

Series 1, REV. ALBERT HORTON BALL (AC 1866) PAPERS contains three issues of the chronicles of the class of 1866 and a partially filled copy of Todd's Index Rerum, a commonplace book for useful references and quotations.

Series 2: ALLAN PERLEY BALL (AC 1892) PAPERS

Series 2, ALLAN PERLEY BALL (AC 1892) PAPERS contains handwritten and mimeographed notes on lectures in political economy, probably kept as an Amherst undergraduate; two essays on Greek culture; 11 copies of outgoing correspondence, 1890-1891; and a small card from the Beloit College Gymnasium outlining a program of exercise.

Series 3: THE WALTER SAVAGE BALL (AC 1897) PAPERS

Series 3, WALTER SAVAGE BALL (AC 1897) PAPERS contains typescripts of the following short fiction works: "Yes, Mrs. Storey," "Officer Ten," and "More Money." A number of notes and story fragments are also preserved, as well as a letter from the Providence Journal Information Bureau detailing stock fraud statistics for "More Money."