Guide to the Ruth Comfort Mitchell collection Mss 84

Special Collections Staff, 2003. Revised by Zachary Liebhaber, 2022.
UC Santa Barbara Library, Department of Special Research Collections
University of California, Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara 93106-9010
special@library.ucsb.edu
2003; 2022


Title: Ruth Comfort Mitchell collection
Identifier/Call Number: Mss 84
Language of Material: English.
Contributing Institution: UC Santa Barbara Library, Department of Special Research Collections
Physical Description: 2.25 Linear Feet (2 document boxes, 1 flat oversize box)
Creator: Mitchell, Ruth Comfort, 1882-1954
Date (inclusive): approximately 1879-1961
Date (bulk): approximately 1930-1949
Abstract: Correspondence, typescripts of articles and speeches, research files, photographs, and ephemera of American author Ruth Comfort Mitchell.
Physical Location: Special Research Collections, UC Santa Barbara Library

Access Restrictions

The collection is open for research.

Use Restrictions

Copyright has not been assigned to the Department of Special Research Collections, UCSB. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Head of Special Research Collections. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the Department of Special Research Collections as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which also must be obtained.

Preferred Citation

[identification of item], Ruth Comfort Mitchell collection. Mss 84. Department of Special Resarch Collections, UC Santa Barbara Library, University of California, Santa Barbara.

Biographical Note

Ruth Comfort Mitchell, perhaps best known for her novel Of Human Kindness, which she wrote as a counterpoint to John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath, had a long and successful career as a writer, producing numerous novels, poems, short stories, and one-act plays.
Born on July 21, 1882 in San Francisco, Mitchell spent a good deal of time in Los Gatos, California, where her parents owned a summer home. It was here that her first poem was published in the local newspaper, when she was 14 years old. She pursued a literary career after her marriage to Sanborn Young in 1914, when the couple moved to New York City. Within two years, she had a play opening on Broadway and a published volume of poems, to be followed soon after by her first novel.
The Youngs soon returned to Los Gatos and began building their elaborate Chinese-styled home, which they dubbed Yung See San Fong, on a hilltop ranch. In 1925, Sanborn Young was elected to the California State Senate, where he would serve until 1938, becoming a close friend to President Herbert Hoover. Ruth proved to be a tireless campaigner and was active in a number of conservative organizations, even serving twice as a delegate to the Republican National Convention.
Sanborn Young returned to life as a cattle rancher after retiring from the Senate and, as such, he and his wife were upset by Steinbeck's novel The Grapes of Wrath, which appeared soon after, in 1939. Ruth Comfort Mitchell determined to tell their side of the story, the result being her novel Of Human Kindness, in which a gentleman farmer's family must overcome the tribulations brought by migrant workers, union organizers, liberal academics, and Communists.
Ruth Comfort Mitchell continued to write throughout the 1940s and was an active member of the Christian Science Church of Los Gatos. She died at home on February 17, 1954 of heart failure.

Acquisition Information

Gift of William Wreden, 1966.

Scope and Content

The collection contains correspondence, typescripts of articles and speeches, research files, photographs, and ephemera of American author Ruth Comfort Mitchell. Correspondents include William C. Morrow, Robert W. Service, and Wendell Wilkie. Much of the collection relates to Mitchell's research and writing on the migrant question of the late 1930s, after the publication of The Grapes of Wrath, as seen from the perspective of the area farmers and ranchers.
The collection also contains a number of books, including some by Ruth Comfort Mitchell, which have been cataloged separately and which may be searched in the UC Santa Barbara Library online catalog.

Subjects and Indexing Terms

Novelists, American -- 20th century -- Political and social views
Migrant labor -- United States
Correspondence
Ephemera (general object genre)
Legal documents
Photographs
Research notes
Scrapbooks
Speeches (documents)
Typescripts
Writings (documents)
Mitchell, Ruth Comfort, 1882-1954 -- Archives
Young, Sanborn

 

Correspondence

 

Incoming

box 1

Anslinger, Harry J.(to Sanborn Young) undated

box 1

Atlantic Monthly 1943

box 1

Council for Social Action 1939

box 1

D. Appleton - Century Co. 1923

box 1

Garrette, Eve 1943

box 1

Morrow, William C. 1900-1915

box 1

Rooney, Alicia L. 1939-1940

box 1

Shepard, Arthur C. 1939-1940

box 1

U.S. Department of Labor 1939

box 1

Wilkie, Wendell 1943

box 1

Miscellany

box 1

A-F approximately 1921-1955

box 1

G-L approximately 1939-1943

box 1

M-R approximately 1940-1943

box 1

S-Z 1921-1940

box 1

Unidentified approximately 1908-1940

 

Outgoing 1935 1945 1928

box 1

Hill, Mary 1928 April 26

 

Legal Documents

box 1

Legal Documents (includes writing contracts) 1908-1913

 

Writings and Speeches

Scope and Content

Includes typescripts, publisher notices, and related material.
box 1

Lists of Writings (stories, novels, plays) undated

box 1

Analysis of The Grapes of Wrath approximately 1939

box 1

Novel - Of Human Kindness 1940

box 1

Plays (includes Flags of California and Please Stand By) undated

box 1

Poetry (typescripts and printed copies) approximately 1916-1937

box 1

Reviews 1939 undated

box 1

Screenplay - "Perjury" 1922

box 1

Short Stories undated

box 1

Speeches undated

box 2

Stories and Articles (printed copies) 1917-1941

 

Research Files

box 2

Migrant Question

box 2

Clippings approximately 1939-1940

box 2

Reports and Speeches approximately 1939-1940

box 2

Mitchell Family (clipping, theatre programs) approximately 1879-1880s

 

Ephemera

box 2

Guest Book approximately 1922-1947

box 2

Miscellany (includes biographical sketch) undated

box 2

Christmas greeting cards from Yung See San Fong and two clippings 1926-1954

 

Photographs

box 2

Photographs - Robert W. Service (two items, including postcard with note from Service) approximately 1910

 

Oversize

box 3

Scrapbook - mainly clippings relating to migrant issues 1939-1940

box 3

Writings

box 3

Copies of stories for newspapers and magazines such as Ladies' Home Journal 1928-1937

box 3

List of Stories undated