Guid to the the Olive Constant Dougan Collection

Prepared by Special Collections Staff
Ella Strong Denison Library
Libraries of The Claremont Colleges
Scripps College
1090 Columbia Avenue
Claremont, CA 91711
Phone: (909) 607-3941
Fax: (909) 607-1548
Email: denison@libraries.claremont.edu
URL: http://libraries.claremont.edu/den/
© 2005
Claremont University Consortium. All rights reserved.

Finding aid of the Olive Constant Dougan Collection

Collection number: D1983.1

Ella Strong Denison Library

Libraries of The Claremont Colleges

Claremont, California
Processed by:
Special Collections Staff
Date Completed:
2005
Encoded by:
Kelley Wolfe Bachli
© 2004 Claremont University Consortium. All rights reserved.

Descriptive Summary

Title: Olive Constant Dougan collection
Dates: 1915-2005
Bulk Dates: 1920-1963
Collection number: D1983.1
Creator: Dougan, Olive, d. 1962
Collector: Dougan, Robert
Collection Size: 3.58 linear feet (8 archives boxes)
Repository: Claremont Colleges. Library. Ella Strong Denison Library.
Claremont, California 91711
Abstract: Olive Constant Dougan was an author of children's literature and poet who lived and worked in the United Kingdom and in Southern California. The collection at Scripps College contains the author's personal correspondence, manuscripts, newspaper clippings, magazine articles, photographs, drawings by the author, and ephemera. The materials in the collection range from 1915 to 2005, with the bulk of the collection dating from 1920 to 1963.
Physical location: Please consult repository.
Languages: Languages represented in the collection: English

Access

Collection open for research.

Publication Rights

All requests for permission to publish must be submitted in writing to Denison Library.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], Olive Constant Dougan collection. Ella Strong Denison Library, Libraries of The Claremont Colleges.

Acquisition Information

Gift of Robert Dougan, 1983.

Biography / Administrative History

Olive Constant Dougan was born Olive Constant McMicken on September 1, 1904, in North London. She was the eldest of four children. Her mother was Welsh and her father was Scottish but of English birth. Dougan went on to take a degree at the University of London School of Librarianship in 1926. Three years later, she married Robert Ormes Dougan.
During the 1930s and 1940s, Olive C. Dougan began composing poems, short stories and juvenile fiction novels and submitting these for publication.
Dougan had seven books published during her lifetime, all in England during the 1930s and 1940s. They were written mainly for preteen girls. Her first book, The Bendon Bequest: The Story of a Romantic Schoolgirl, was published by Hutchinson and Company in 1934, but the height of Dougan's fame came during the latter half of the 1940s, when her fifth and seventh books were published by one of the leading firms in England, Faber and Faber. She was in high demand at this time.
Sent to Scotland for World War II in 1940, Robert Dougan was joined by his wife in 1941; they lived in Perth until 1952, and then in Dublin, Ireland until 1958, when Robert became a librarian at the Huntington Library in San Marino, California. While living in Southern California (Pasadena, and then Sierra Madre after 1953), Olive Dougan was busy with various manuscripts of stories for juvenile American girls. None of these appear to have been published before her death on January 4, 1963 of heart disease. After her death, Robert Dougan collected some of his wife's poems and had them privately published by the Raccoon Press in Arcadia, California, for distribution among friends and family. Some of the poems in Shadows and Other Poems had previously been published in The Poetry Review in 1936.
Adapted from booklet by Charline Wu.

Scope and Content of Collection

The collection contains personal correspondence, manuscripts, newspaper clippings, magazine articles, photographs, drawings by the author, and ephemera. Letters to and from Dougan, and Dougan's poetry, are supplemented by condolence letters, the author's early writings, and articles and quotes collected by the author. Manuscripts include typescripts of Dougan's poetry from 1933 to 1961, short stories from 1930 to 1940, and fiction novels from 1960. Not all of these short stories and poems were published.

Indexing Terms

The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.
Dougan, Olive, d. 1962
Children's authors
Women Authors
Children's literature
Women poets

Processing Information

Front matter compiled by Caitlin Silberman, 2005.

Box 1 : 1

Biographical Notes (by Robert Dougan)

Box 1 : 2

Early Work (School essays, stories, poems)

Box 1 : 3

Same

Box 1 : 4

Same

Box 1 : 5

Index of Personal Letters (by name)

Box 1 : 6

Personal letters to Olive Constant Dougan undated & 1920 -1949

Box 1 : 7

Same 1950 January 1962

Box 1 : 8

Same December 1962

Box 1 : 9

Same January 1-9 1963

Box 1 : 10

Same January 10-August 17 1963

Box 1 : 11

Personal Letters to Olive Constant Dougan from Vera Brittain

Box 1 : 12

Letters from Publishers 1931-1962

Box 1 : 13

Letters written by Olive Constant Dougan

Box 2 : 1

Information on Kingsley Hall and Children's Home

Box 2 : 2

Society Items: Society of Authors, Poetry Society, etc

Box 2 : 3

Misc. Items

Scope and Content Note

(including photo of Olive Constant Dougan in 1935)
Box 2 : 4

Newspaper clippings about Olive Constant Dougan (publication announcements, etc&)

Box 2 : 5

Newspaper clippings: Source Material for The Ghost Town Inheritance

Box 2 : 6

Newspaper clippings: Assorted Source Material

Box 2 : 7

Newspaper clippings on literary subjects

Box 2 : 8

Newspaper clippings on public interest

Box 2 : 9

Newspaper clippings on the city of Perth and the Perth Saltire Society

Box 3 : 1

Olive Constant Dougan obituary clippings and funeral

Box 3 : 2

Index of Letters of Condolence (by name)

Box 3 : 3

Letters of Condolence, A-B

Box 3 : 4

Letters of Condolence, C-E

Box 3 : 5

Letters of Condolence, F-G

Box 3 : 6

Letters of Condolence, H-J

Box 3 : 7

Letters of Condolence, K-L

Box 3 : 8

Letters of Condolence, M

Box 3 : 9

Letters of Condolence, N-Q

Box 3 : 10

Letters of Condolence, R-S

Box 3 : 11

Letters of Condolence, T-V

Box 3 : 12

Letters of Condolence, W-Z

Box 3 : 13

Letters of Condolence, misc

Box 4 : 1

Poetry by Olive Constant Dougan 1935-1940

Physical Description: typescripts; originals and revisions
Box 4 : 2

Poetry by Olive Constant Dougan 1941-1961

Physical Description: typescripts; originals and revisions
Box 4 : 3

Short Stories by Olive Constant Dougan 1930-1940

Physical Description: typescripts
Box 4 : 4

Short Stories by Olive Constant Dougan Undated

Physical Description: typescripts
Box 4 : 5

Artwork by Olive Constant Dougan

Physical Description: pencil drawings; watercolors
Box 5 : 1

Quotes and Anecdotes collected by Olive Constant Dougan

Box 5 : 2

Booklets of Notes and Story Ideas undated

Box 5 : 3

Booklets of Notes and Story Ideas; fragments of poems

Box 5 : 4

Booklets of Notes and Story Ideas

Box/Folder 6

Manuscripts (typed)

Box 6 : 1

Bridie, Come Home 1960's

Box 6 : 2

Bridie, Come Home (revision; 1962)

Box 6 : 3

A Summer Vacation (revision of Bridie, Come Home, undated)

Box 6 : 4

Myfawny undated

Box/Folder 7

Manuscripts (typed)

Box 7 : 1

The Ghost Town Inheritance undated

Box 7 : 2

The Ghost Town Inheritance (revision; 1962)

Box 7 : 3

The Steadfast Friends or Through Thick and Thin undated

Box 7 : 4

Untitled undated

Box 7 : 5

The Children of the Lost Canyon undated

Box 8 : 1

The Forbidden Friendship undated

Box 8 : 2

Shadows and Other Poems

Physical Description: 3 copies; in memory of Olive Constant Dougan
Box 8 : 3

Proofs of Shadows: One Letter from Robert O. Dougan to Mr. Moult