Contents

Collection Overview

Biographical Note

Scope and Contents of the Collection

Search Terms

Cynthia Propper Seton Papers, 1951-1982

Finding Aid

Encoding funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

© 2005

Biographical Note

Cynthia Propper was born Oct 11, 1926 in New York City to Charlotte Jansen and Karl Propper. She graduated from the Fieldston School in Riverdale, New York and earned her B.A. from Smith College in 1948. She was married to Paul Seton, the Smith College physician and psychiatrist; the two had five children: Anthony, Julia, Margaret, Jennifer, and Nora. After living in Natick and Stockbridge, Massachusetts the family moved in 1957 to Northampton, where they remained for the rest of Seton's life. Starting in 1956 Seton worked as a journalist, serving for 12 years as a writer for the Berkshire Eagle of Pittsfield, Massachusetts, where she wrote a column on modern motherhood called "Skirting the Issue." Her column was also printed in the Washington Post for a year, from 1959-60. She published three essay collections and five novels. Additionally, Seton also wrote articles for magazines such as The Atlantic Monthly, Redbook, and McCall's, and regularly contributed book reviews to several publications. Many critics praised Seton's work, calling her "a latter-day Jane Austen, writing a comedy of manners." Her third novel, A Fine Romance, was nominated for a National Book Award in 1976. In addition to writing, Seton lectured on literary and feminist topics and taught at the Indiana Writer's Conference. After a decade-long battle with Hodgkin's disease and leukemia, Seton died in Northampton on October 23, 1982.

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Scope and Contents of the Collection

The Cynthia Propper Seton Papers consist of 1 linear foot of material dating from 1946 to 1982, with the majority dating from the later 1960's to the end of Seton's life. The collection consists mainly of Seton's writings, including drafts and finished typescripts of her columns, essays, and novels. Personal papers are less extensive, and are primarily Seton's detailed correspondence to her longtime friend and confidante Frances Richardson, whom Seton met in 1951 while their husbands were both at Yale Medical School. These discuss Seton's views on women's rights, writing, travels, her children, and her later battle with Hodgkin's disease. Seton's search for what it means to live a fulfilling life runs heavily throughout the correspondence, a theme she also discusses at length in her writings.

The collection also contains several photographs and some biographical information, mostly articles featuring Seton's politics and experience as an older feminist and mother, but also obituaries and other materials relating to her death. Major themes addressed in the papers are the social movements of the 1960s (especially the women's movement); the impact of feminism on middle-aged women; Smith College; the city of Northampton; and the writing process.

This collection is organized into three series:

I. BIOGRAPHICAL MATERIALS

II. CORRESPONDENCE

III. WRITINGS

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Search Terms

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SERIES I. BIOGRAPHICAL MATERIALS

SERIES II. CORRESPONDENCE

SERIES III. WRITINGS