Patricia Nell Warren papers, 1921-2013

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Summary

Creators:
Warren, Patricia Nell
Abstract:
Writings, correspondence, editorial records, book promotion and distribution records, research files, project files, event records, computer files, photographs, video recordings, and other materials documenting the career of Patricia Nell Warren, primarily from 1971-2011. Warren is a noted activist for human rights, free speech, and youth-oriented causes, but is best known for her eight acclaimed novels, especially her bestselling novel The Front Runner.
Extent:
73.3 linear feet. 67 boxes.
Language:
English and Records are primarily in English, but include publications in Danish, German, Italian, Japanese, Latvian, Mandarin, Spanish, and Ukrainian.
Preferred citation:

[Box/folder #, or item name] Patricia Nell Warren Papers, Coll2013-071, ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives, USC Libraries, University of Southern California.

Background

Scope and content:

Writings, correspondence, editorial records, book promotion and distribution records, research files, project files, event records, computer files, photographs, video recordings, and other materials documenting the career of Patricia Nell Warren, primarily from 1971-2011. The Portfolio series contains clippings, awards, and other records celebrating Warren's history and achievements. The Writings series includes Warren's short stories, novels, essays, and poetry. The Book Publishing Records series consists of editorial records, research files, and administrative records primarily about the production and distribution of books by Warren's independent publishing house, Wildcat Press. The Correspondence series comprises personal and professional correspondence, including fan mail, letters to editors, and manuscript submissions. The Youth Files series consists of student work, promotional materials, and administrative records regarding Warren's work with LGBT youth in the Los Angeles area. The Protester Rights Files series comprises research material for her column in A & U and for her work with Just Dissent. The Research Files series contains subject files of personal and professional interest to Warren. The Project Records series comprises administrative and promotional materials of Wildcat Press, writing, editorial, animal rescue, legal, online, or other projects engaged in independently or collaboratively by Warren. The Event Records series includes travel, promotional, and administrative records about Warren's event appearances, including as grand marshal of numerous pride parades. The West Hollywood City Council Campaign Records series consists of administrative and promotional material regarding Warren's campaign for a seat on the West Hollywood City Council. The Audiovisual and Graphic Materials series includes photographs, drawings, and video recordings of and by Warren and her friends. The Miscellaneous Administrative and Personal Records series comprises computer files, personal files, and other records of Warren's, including Warren's own description of her collection.

Biographical / historical:

Patricia Nell Warren was born in 1936 and grew up on the Grant Kohrs cattle ranch near Deer Lodge, Montana. She has been writing professionally since she was a teenager in the 1950s, and a publishing professional since 1959. She moved to New York in 1955 to attend Manhattanville College. Warren landed a job at Reader's Digest where she worked as a copy editor, 1959-1964, and book editor, 1964-1980.

Warren married a Ukrainian emigre writer in 1960 and wrote four books of Ukranian poetry between 1959-1973. For a few years in the 1960s, Reader's Digest stationed her in Spain. While there, she wrote her first gay novel, a chronicle of the illicit relationship between a Spanish bullfighter and a peasant during the fascist regime of Spain (she would publish the book in 2001 under the title The Wild Man). In Spain, she also took up jogging. She became proficient enough that she was the fourth woman to finish the 1970 Boston Marathon. In 1971, she published her first book The Last Centennial, a set of three short novels that take place in a Montana town during the 1970s. In 1973, Warren divorced her husband.

In 1974, Warren published her most acclaimed work The Front Runner, her first published gay-themed book. This love story about an ex-Marine track coach and his Olympic athlete was the first work of gay fiction to reach the New York Times Best Seller list and has sold an estimated 10 million copies worldwide. The work inspired Front Runners running and walking clubs across the world.

In 1976, Warren published The Fancy Dancer, the first bestseller to portray a gay priest and to explore gay life in a small town. In 1978, Warren published The Beauty Queen, a story inspired by the rise of the homophobic Anita Bryant. In 1991, Warren published her second mainstream title, One Is the Sun, a historical epic about a woman chief of the Montana Territory during the 1800s.

In 1994, Warren completed Harlan's Race, the sequel to The Front Runner. This was the premiere title offered by Wildcat Press, an independent press co-founded by Warren and her business partner, Tyler St. Mark. In 1997, Wildcat Press published the third book in the series, Billy's Boy, which won the Lambda Literary Editor's Choice Award. Wildcat Press would go on to publish the following Warren-authored books: The Wild Man (2001), The Lavender Locker Room: 3000 Years of Great Athletes Whose Sexual Orientation Was Different (2006), and My West: Personal Writings on the American West (2011).

Warren is also known for her hundreds of nonfiction articles and essays on subjects such as youth, mythology, environmentalism, human rights, gay and lesbian life, AIDS, mixed-race prejudice, American history, sports, wild animals, agriculture, and current events. Her short works have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Reader's Digest, San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago Tribune, L.A. Woman, Mythosphere, Foreword and Persimmon Hill, as well as in LGBT publications such as the Advocate, Out, Gay & Lesbian Review, Genre, Philadelphia Gay News, and Lodestar Quarterly. As a columnist, Warren wrote a series about gay pioneers in sports history for Outsports.com and the "Left Field" series on the politics of AIDS and public health in A & U Magazine.

In addition to her literary work, Warren has been a committed human rights activist. Her personal activism started during the 1960s, with her efforts to have the American media recognize the individuality of Ukrainians and other ethnic groups in the USSR. In the 1970s, she became active in women's rights and was the plaintiffs' spokesperson for Susan Smith v. Reader's Digest, a landmark lawsuit that resulted in a class-action victory for women. As a former amateur athlete, she helped lead a group of female distance runners who forced the Amateur Athletics Union to change the discriminatory rules under which women were permitted to run in the mid-1970s.

Later, Warren's activism focused on free speech and issues confronting LGBT youth. In the late 1990s, she taught a GED program for LGBT youth, served on the Gay and Lesbian Education Commission of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), and served on the LAUSD's Human Relations Education Commission. She is one of several dozen plaintiffs in ACLU v. Reno and ACLU v. Reno II, a case-setting lawsuit seeking to stem unwarranted censorship of the Internet. She was also one of the founders of Just Dissent, a California activist group seeking to protect the rights of peaceful protesters.

Warren's passionate activism has drawn her to diverse causes. She has volunteered for SOS Care, a wildcat rescue center, and wrote the script for their promotional video. In 2007, Warren campaigned for a seat on the West Hollywood City Council. Warren's literary and political work has been honored by the Arizona Human Rights Fund's Barry Goldwater Award, the National Cowboy Hall of Fame's Western Heritage Award, the Lambda Literary Award, the Saints & Sinners Hall of Fame, and the Gay and Lesbian Literary Hall of Fame.

Sources:

Wildcat International. "Patricia Nell Warren." http://wildcatintl.com/pnw.cfm.

[Box 5/folders 16-44, Box 40/folder 37, and Box 62] Patricia Nell Warren Papers, Coll2013-071, ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives, USC Libraries, University of Southern California.

Acquisition information:
Donation by Paticia Nell Warren of 78 boxes on August 2011 and 15 boxes on August 2013.
Processing information:

Collection processed by Kyle Morgan, 2014.

Arrangement:

The collection is arranged in the following series:

Series 1. Portfolio, 1971-2006

Series 2. Writings, 1954-2010

Series 3. Book publishing records, 1976-2011

Series 4. Correspondence, 1970-2013

Series 5. Youth files, 1989-2011

Series 6. Protester rights files, 1956-2001

Series 7. Research files, 1986-2013

Series 8. Project records, 1972-2009

Series 9. Event records, 1983-2009

Series 10. West Hollywood City Council campaign records, 2000-2010

Series 11. Audiovisual and graphic materials, 1921-2010

Series 12. Miscellaneous administrative and personal records, 1977-2013

Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Access and use

Restrictions:

The collection is open to researchers. There are no access restrictions.

Terms of access:

All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the ONE Archivist. Permission for publication is given on behalf of ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives at USC Libraries as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained.

Preferred citation:

[Box/folder #, or item name] Patricia Nell Warren Papers, Coll2013-071, ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives, USC Libraries, University of Southern California.

Location of this collection:
909 West Adams Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90007, US
Contact:
(213) 821-2771
askone@usc.edu
Website