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Register of the Sargent (Shirley) Papers, 1950-1971
Mss150  
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Description
This collection contains some fifty of Shirley Sargent's published and unpublished book drafts as well as correspondence, primarily to and from her editors.
Background
Shirley Sargent (b. 1927) is a publisher and author who writes both fiction and non-fiction for adults and children. Many of her works focus on the history of Yosemite National Park or use Yosemite as a setting. When she was nine years old, her father, jobless because of the Depression, brought his family there while he worked as an engineer during construction of the modern Big Oak Flat and Tioga roads. Although confined to a wheel chair since age fourteen by a rare crippling disease, Sargent received an A.A. from Pasadena City College (1947) and worked for eleven years as head teacher at a Nursery School (1948-1959) in Pasadena, Calif. Since 1961 she has lived just outside Yosemite National Park on her Flying Spur Ranch. Sargent founded the Flying Spur Press with author Hank Johnston to gain more effective financial control of her publications. She is the recipient of a number of awards including: Honorable Mentions in the Dodd, Mead Prize Competition (1955) for Pipeline Down the Valley and the James D. Phelan Award (1964) for Galen Clark, Yosemite Guardian; and Awards of Merit from the Conference of California Historical Societies (1971) and the California Historical Society.
Availability
Collection is open for research.