Contents

Collection Overview

Biographical Note

Scope and Contents of the Collection

Organization of the Collection

Search Terms

Carolyn G. Heilbrun Papers, 1846-1979

Finding Aid

Finding aid prepared by Rachel Dwyer.

Encoding funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

2003

Biographical Note

CAROLYN G. HEILBRUN, 1926-

In 1993, Carolyn Heilbrun became Avalon Foundation Professor in the Humanities Emerita at Columbia University, after thirty-three years of teaching there. She has had fellowships from the Guggenheim and Rockefeller Foundations, and from the NEH. In 1984, she was President of the Modern Language Association. She has been a visiting professor at Princeton, Swarthmore, Yale, Union Theological Seminary, the University of California, and at Columbia and Yale Law schools and has received many honorary degrees from colleges and universities. She received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Modern Language Association in 2000, and was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2000. Heilbrun has published: The Garnett Family, Christopher Isherwood, Toward a Recognition of Androgyny, Reinventing Womanhood, Writing a Woman's Life , Hamlet's Mother and Other Women, The Education of A Woman: A Life of Gloria Steinem, The Last Gift of Time, and the University of Toronto Alexander Lectures, Women's Lives: The View from the Threshold. Her latest book is When All Our Models Were Men: My Teachers Barzun, Fadiman, Trilling. She has published numerous articles and reviews. Under the name Amanda Cross, she has published fourteen detective novels. Her latest detective novel, The Edge of Doom, was published in October, 2002.

RICHARD GARNETT, 1835-1906

Richard Garnett was an English librarian and writer. He served on the staff of the British Museum (1851-1899) as keeper of printed books (1890-1899); and director (from 1880). In 1905 Garnett published a general catalogue of the British Museum. He also wrote Relics of Shelley (1862), The Twilight of the Gods (1888, fables), History of Italian Literature (1897), and several biographies. Richard Garnett was the father of Edward Garnett.

CONSTANCE (BLACK) GARNETT, 1862-1946

Constance Garnett was the wife of Edward Garnett and mother of David Garnett. Her translations of many Russian writers, such as Dostoevsky, achieved great popularity in the first two decades of the twentieth century and had a profound influence on modernist writers. Garnett studied classics at Newnham College, Cambridge University, and began to learn Russian in the early 1890s.

EDWARD GARNETT, 1868-1937

Edward Garnett was the father of David Garnett, husband of Constance Garnett, and son of Richard Garnett. As a publisher's reader and critic, he discovered, advised, and tutored many British writers, including Conrad, Galsworthy, Ford Maddox Ford, D.H. Lawrence, and W.H. Hudson. Garnett also authored plays, including The Breaking Point (1907), The Feud (1907), and The Trial of Jeanne d'Arc (1912).

DAVID GARNETT, 1892-1981

David Garnett was the only child of Edward and Constance Garnett, and was known almost universally as "Bunny." Although trained at the Royal College of Science as a botanist, he later turned to a highly successful literary career. Among his twenty-one works of fiction, Lady into Fox (1922) is notable for having won both the Hawthornden and Tait-Black prizes for 1923. The unexpected success of this novel led Bunny to withdraw in 1924 from the bookshop he had established in 1920 with Francis Birell to devote more time to his writing. From 1923 to 1935 he was partner in the Nonesuch Press, and from 1932 to 1935 he was literary editor of the New Statesman and Nation. He wrote several memoirs.

CHRISTOPHER ISHERWOOD, 1904-1986

Christopher Isherwood was an American-English novelist, poet and playwright. He authored autobiographical and quasi-autobiographical works including the short-story collection Goodbye to Berlin (1939), the novels: The World in the Evening (1954), Down There On A Visit (1962), A Meeting by the River (1967), and Christopher and His Kind (1976). His work included screenwriting for various film studios (from 1939). As a convert, Isherwood wrote, edited, and translated works on Vedantism.

Sources:

Hussey, Mark. Virginia Woolf A to Z. New York, 1995.

Merriam-Webster's Biographical Dictionary. Merriam-Webster Incorporated, 1995.

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Scope and Contents of the Collection

The Carolyn G. Heilbrun Papers consist of 1.25 linear feet of material, dating from 1846 to 1979, relating to her works: The Garnett Family (1961) and Christopher Isherwood (1971). Types of materials include correspondence, newspaper articles, photographs of the Garnett family, notes, and interviews. This collection was donated to Smith College by Carolyn Heilbrun in November 1989. The papers are arranged in four series.

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Search Terms

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Organization of the Collection

This collection is organized into four series:

• I. Garnett Family, 1846-1960
• II. The Garnett Family by Carolyn G. Heilbrun, 1955-1960
• III. Christopher Isherwood by Carolyn G. Heilbrun, 1974-1979
• IV. Interview with Alice G. Fredman, 1977

Arrangement of the Collection

The papers are arranged in four series.

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Series I. Garnett Family, 1846-1960 .5 linear ft. (51 items)

Correspondence (transcriptions)

This subseries includes correspondence of the Garnett family. Most extensive is the correspondence of Edward Garnett with authors such as Joseph Conrad (Box 1, folder 6) and D.H. Lawrence (Box 1, folders 9-10). Also included is the correspondence of Richard Garnett (Box 1, folders 3-4) and members of the Patten and Black families (Box 1, folders 1-2). All of the letters are transcriptions. This series does not include original correspondence.

Memoirs

This subseries contains memoirs by members of the Garnett family. Olivia Rayne Garnett recounts the early life of her parents, Richard Garnett and Olivia Narney Garnett (Box 1, folder 13). Constance Garnett writes of the Garnett and Black families (Box 1, folder 11), and David Garnett's "Constance Garnett" contains memories of his mother (Box 1, folder 12).

Newspaper Articles

This subseries includes newspaper articles about members of the Garnett family. These consist of book reviews, obituaries, and related articles. The bulk of the articles are original clippings from the 1950s, along with transcriptions of earlier articles.

Photographs

This subseries includes black and white prints of members of the Garnett family. It contains photographs of Richard Garnett, his wife Olivia Narney Garnett, and their children. Also included are photographs of Constance (Black) Garnett, Edward Garnett, and David Garnett.

This series is organized into four subseries: Correspondence, Memoirs, Newspaper Articles, and Photographs.

Series II. The Garnett Family by Carolyn Heilbrun, 1955-1960 .25 linear ft. (25 items)

Includes material related to The Garnett Family, Heilbrun's dissertation at Columbia University, which was published in 1961.

Correspondence

This subseries includes the correspondence of Carolyn G. Heilbrun concerning The Garnett Family. Many of the letters seek permission to quote correspondence with Edward Garnett. Correspondents include E.M. Forster (Box 2, folder 36), Stephen Spender (Box 2, folder 45), and various publishers. Particularly extensive is correspondence with B. W. Huebesch of the Viking Press (Box 2, folder 41).

Notes

This subseries includes Carolyn Heilbrun's notes for The Garnett Family. Particularly extensive are her notes on Richard, Constance, and Edward Garnett.

Evaluations and Corrections

This subseries includes corrections and evaluations of The Garnett Family by members of the Columbia University faculty.

Publication Materials

This series includes a copyright application for The Garnett Family. It also includes a summary of The Garnett Family for the microfilm publication of the thesis.

This series is organized into four subseries: Correspondence, Notes, Evaluations and Corrections, and Publication Materials.

Series III. Christopher Isherwood by Carolyn Heilbrun, 1974-1979 .5 linear ft. (10 items)

This series includes interviews of and about Christopher Isherwood. All are audio recordings. There are transcriptions of the interviews conducted by Heilbrun and of Isherwood's Modern Languages Association Address, as well as television and radio interviews.

Series IV. Interview with Alice G. Fredman, 1977 (1 item)

The audiotape in this series records an interview with Alice G. Fredman, writer and professor. This interview was conducted by Carolyn Heilbrun. It is one of a series of interviews about women who had careers before the Women's Liberation movement, especially the generation born in the 1920s.

Series I. Garnett Family, 1846-1960

Series II. The Garnett Family by Carolyn Heilbrun, 1955-1960

Series III. Christopher Isherwood by Carolyn Heilbrun, 1974-1979

Series IV. Interview with Alice G. Fredman, 1977