Finding Aid for the Carey McWilliams Collection of Material about Ambrose Bierce LSC.0277
Finding aid prepared by Manuscripts Division staff, 1977; machine-readable finding aid created by Caroline Cubé.
UCLA Library Special Collections
Online finding aid last updated 2002.
Room A1713, Charles E. Young Research Library
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Contributing Institution:
UCLA Library Special Collections
Title: Carey McWilliams collection of material about Ambrose Bierce
Identifier/Call Number: LSC.0277
Physical Description:
0.5 linear feet
(1 box)
Date (inclusive): 1909-1935
Abstract: Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914?) was born in Ohio. He was a journalist, satirist and author of sardonic short stories based on
themes of death and horror. The collection consists of correspondence, typescript copies of letters, photographs, clippings,
manuscript notes, and ephemera by and about Ambrose Bierce gathered and used by Carey McWilliams for his biography about Bierce.
Physical Location: Stored off-site. All requests to access special collections material must be made in advance using the request button located
on this page.
Language of Material: Materials are in English.
Open for research. All requests to access special collections materials must be made in advance using the request button located
on this page.
Restrictions on Use and Reproduction
Property rights to the physical objects belong to UCLA Library Special Collections. All other rights, including copyright,
are retained by the creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright
and pursue the copyright owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC Regents do not hold the copyright.
- Zeitlin and VerBrugge Booksellers, purchase, 1950.
- Gift of Mrs. Bradford A. Booth, 1968.
UCLA Catalog Record ID:
997093653606533
[Identification of item], Carey McWilliams Collection of Material About Ambrose Bierce (Collection 277). UCLA Library Special
Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.
Processed by Manuscripts Division staff, 1977.
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A collection of the material gathered and used by Carey McWilliams in writing his:
Ambrose Bierce: A Biography. New York, A. & C. Boni, 1929.
At the time McWilliams began this volume, no biography of Ambrose Bierce had been published. The available information consisted,
for the most part, of a brochure by Vincent Starrett and certain autobiographical portions of
The Collected Works. Accordingly, McWilliams gathered this large body of material concerning Bierce.
Ambrose Bierce was born June 24, 1842 in Ohio; journalist, satirist, and author of sardonic short stories based on themes
of death and horror; principal works include
Tales of Soldiers and Civilians (1891), later reissued as
In the Midst of Life (1892),
Black Beetles in Amber (1892),
Can Such Things Be? (1893), and
The Cynic's Word Book (1906);
The Cynic's Word Book was later retitled
The Devil's Dictionary (1911); his death in Mexico, in 1914, remains an unsolved mystery.
Carey McWilliams was born December 13, 1905 in Steamboat Springs, Colorado; J.D., University of Southern California; attorney,
Black, Hammack & McWilliams, Los Angeles, 1927-38; contributing editor, associate editor, and editorial director,
The Nation, 1945-55; editor,
The Nation, 1955-75; some of his books include:
Ambrose Bierce, a Biography (1929),
Factories in the Field: the Story of Migratory Farm Labor in California (1939),
Ill Fares the Land: Migrants and Migratory Labor in the United States (1942),
Brothers Under The Skin (1943),
California Country: An Island on the Land (1946),
A Mask for Privilege: Anti-Semitism in America (1948), and
The Education of Carey McWilliams (1979); died of cancer, June 27, 1980 in New York, New York.
Collection consists of correspondence, typescript copies of letters, photographs, clippings, manuscript notes, and ephemera
by and about Ambrose Bierce. Materials were gathered and used by Carey McWilliams for his biography about Bierce. Includes
of 100 carbon typescript copies from Bierce to Carroll Carrington and Eleanor Vore Sickler, 200 letters to McWilliams about
Bierce (37 letters from H.L. Mencken), and a photo of Bierce at the desk of his mountain retreat at Angwins.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Online resources.
Authors, American -- Archives.
Bierce, Ambrose
McWilliams, Carey
Bierce, Ambrose, 1842-1914?--Archives.
Mencken, H.L. (Henry Louis) -- Correspondence
5. McWilliams Correspondence.
General Physical Description note: ···· More than 200 letters (Autographed letters signed and typewritten letters signed) from over 115 correspondents to McWilliams
and in most cases with carbon copies of McWilliams letters.
Including:
- A.W. Bender
- Benjamin De Casseres
- Adolphe de Castro Danziger
- C. Hartley Grattan
- Jerome A. Hart
- Walter Jerrold
- David Starr Jordan
- Robert Morss Lovett
- H.L. Mencken
- 37 letters from H.L. Mencken to McWilliams, 1925-1935.
- Frank Monaghan
- Walter Heale
- Fremont Older
- Ethen Talbot Scheffauer
- Eleanor Vore Sicker
- Vincent Starrett
- A.J.A. Symonds, etc.
6. Miscellaneous.
- Photostat copy of Bierce's will dated January 5, 1909.
- Business card of H.H. Day, Bierce's father-in-law.
- Pencil drawing of Bierce.
10. Letter to Mrs. H.D. Cowden. Washington, D.C., July 6, 1909.