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Guide to the Ambrose Bierce Papers, [ca. 1894-1913]
BANC MSS 75/57 c  
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Collection Details
 
Table of contents What's This?
  • Collection Summary
  • Information for Researchers
  • Administrative Information
  • Scope and Content Note

  • Collection Summary

    Collection Title: Ambrose Bierce Papers, [ca. 1894-1913]
    Collection Number: BANC MSS 75/57 c
    Creator: Bierce, Ambrose, 1842-1914?
    Extent: Number of containers: 8 boxes, 15 volumes
    Repository: The Bancroft Library
    Berkeley, California 94720-6000
    Physical Location: For current information on the location of these materials, please consult the Library's online catalog.
    Abstract: Letters written by and to Bierce; MSS, including introduction to Tales of Soldiers and Civilians, some Little Johnny sketches, an untitled short story and a few poems; clippings of articles and stories, many with holograph inserts, emendations and marginalia, some used as printer's copy for inclusion in the Collected Works; publishing contracts; royalty statements.
    Languages Represented: English

    Information for Researchers

    Access

    Collection is open for research.

    Publication Rights

    Copyright has not been assigned to The Bancroft Library. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Head of Public Services. Permission for publication is given on behalf of The Bancroft Library 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 by the reader.

    Preferred Citation

    [Identification of item], Ambrose Bierce papers, BANC MSS 75/57 c, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.

    Administrative Information

    Acquisition Information

    Most of the material in this collection was originally a part of Ambrose Bierce's archives, the papers which he left to his daughter, Helen Bierce Isgrigg, before he departed for Mexico. The collection was eventually sold to Mrs. Milton E. Getz of Beverly Hills, a private collector, who, in November 1936, sold her library at public auction at the Anderson Galleries in New York. The Bierce archives was thus dispersed, and this segment of the Papers was acquired by the Carl H. Pforzheimer Library of New York, which added a few Bierce items over the years to the collection. In January 1975 The Bancroft Library purchased the papers from Hamill & Barker of Chicago, acting as agent for the Pforzheimer Library, with funds made available by The Friends of The Bancroft Library and the Theodore R. Meyer Memorial Fund.

    Scope and Content Note

    The collection consists of letters written to Bierce; file copies of letters written by him; MSS, including the introduction to Tales of Soldiers and Civilians, some Little Johnny sketches, an untitled short story and a few poems; clippings of articles and stories, many with holograph inserts, emendations and marginalia, some used as printer's copy for inclusion in the Collected Works; publishing contracts; and royalty statements. Housed in eight boxes and fifteen volumes, the papers are described in greater detail in the Key to Arrangement which follows. A list of the major correspondents represented in the collection follows the Key.