Marion Zimmer Bradley papers, 1956-1999

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Summary

Creators:
Bradley, Marion Zimmer
Abstract:
Marion Zimmer Bradley was born June 3, 1930 in Albany, New York during the Great Depression. She was interested in science fiction and fantasy as a teenager, participating in amateur fiction contests as an adjunct and as a contestant, most notably for Fantastic Amazing Stories in 1949. Always promoting and supporting the work of other writers, Bradley not only encouraged and participated in the world of fan fiction, but also became the editor of anthologies and periodicals supporting up-and-coming authors. She became active in the gay and lesbian community not just through her writings and bibliographic work, but also through counseling services. After becoming ordained in the Eastern Orthodox priesthood she volunteered her time at the Gay Pacific Center offering pastoral counseling services. She died on September 25, 1999 after a struggle with heart disease. A year after her death she was awarded with Lifetime Achievement by the World Fantasy Awards, an international award begun in 1975 recognizing outstanding achievement in the Fantasy genre. This collection houses two copies of Marion Zimmer Bradley's Lesbian, Variant and Homosexual Literature annotated bibliography as well as an unpublished manuscript, unedited versions of published materials, her obituary, and brochures from fan gatherings, as well as some of her husband's work.
Extent:
1.2 Linear Feet (3 document boxes)
Language:
Materials are in English.
Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Marion Zimmer Bradley Papers (Collection 1955). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.

Background

Scope and content:

This collection contains two copies of Marion Zimmer Bradley's bibliography of gay and lesbian literature, published and unpublished fiction manuscripts, a program from a fan convention, obituaries, some of her husband's work, and other assorted materials.

Biographical / historical:

Marion Zimmer Bradley was born June 3, 1930 in Albany New York during the Great Depression. She was interested in science fiction and fantasy as a teenager, participating in amateur fiction contests as an adjunct and as a contestant, most notably for Fantastic Amazing Stories in 1949. Her first published story, entitled "Women Only" was showcased in Vortex Science Fiction in 1953.

She married Robert Alden Bradley in 1949. They had one child and divorced in 1964. During their marriage Marion Zimmer Bradley published her first novel The Door Through Space, which launched her writing career. She also became marginally involved with then-burgeoning lesbian activist organization Daughters of Bilitis. During this time she also published several works under various pseudonyms. Many of these publications were gay and lesbian paperback pulp novels, most famously the novel I Am a Lesbian in 1962 under the name Lee Chapman.

1958 brought the first instance of the Darkover world in her novel The Planet Savers. The Darkover novels became one of her more famous and recognizable series. Although she wrote the majority of the novels contained within the series, it was occasionally supplemented by other authors with her blessing and continued after her death.

In 1964, shortly after her divorce from Bradley, Marion married Walter Breen, an American author and numismatist. They collaborated on a bibliography of gay and lesbian literature. They had two children and separated in 1979, but remained married until 1990.

She received her BA from Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene, Texas in 1965. She pursued graduate studies at the University of California at Berkeley until 1967, where she met Diana Paxson, a medieval studies graduate with whom she founded the Society for Creative Anachronism in 1966. During this time in Berkeley and through the 1970s and 1980s, Bradley would consider herself a neo-pagan, including interests in clairvoyance, extrasensory perception and reincarnation. She began the Centre for Nontraditional Religion which hosted various non-traditional groups such as Wiccans. Bradley was raised in the Episcopal tradition and returned to those roots in the 1990s.

In addition to separating from Walter Breen in 1979, Marion published what is ostensibly her most famous and groundbreaking work, The Mists of Avalon. Working within a feminist, revisionist framework, Bradley retells the Arthurian legend through the lens of its female characters, predominantly through the eyes of Morgaine.

Always promoting and supporting the work of other writers, Bradley not only encouraged and participated in the world of fan fiction (publishing her own "The Jewel of Arwen" based on a character in J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings Trilogy), but she also became the editor of anthologies and periodicals supporting up-and-coming authors. In 1984 she began Sword and Sorceress, an anthology series devoted to fantasy stories with non-traditional or challenging heroines. She edited the series until her death, and it continued until 2008. In 1988 she began Marion Zimmer Bradley's Fantasy Magazine, which included short stories and humorous pieces as well as interviews with recognizable science fiction and fantasy authors. She became active in the gay and lesbian community not just through her writings and bibliographic work, but also with counseling services. After becoming ordained in the Eastern Orthodox priesthood (along with her husband) by Mikhail Itkin, she volunteered her time at the Gay Pacific Center offering pastoral counseling services.

She died on September 25, 1999 after a struggle with heart disease. A year after her death she was awarded with Lifetime Achievement by the World Fantasy Awards, an international award begun in 1975 recognizing outstanding achievement in the Fantasy genre.

Missing Title
Date Event
June 3, 1930
Marion Zimmer Bradley born in Albany, New York
1949
Marion wins a science fiction writing contest for AMAZING STORIES
1949
Marion marries Robert Alden Bradley
1953
Marion publishes "Women Only," her first published short story in Vortex Science Fiction
1957
Marion publishes Falcons of Narabedla, her first novel-length work
1958
First appearance of the Darkover world in The Planet Savers
1962
I Am a Lesbian is published under Marion's pseudonym Lee Chapman
1964
Divorces Robert Alden Bradley and marries Walter Breen
1965
B.A. from Hardin- Simmons Unversity in Abilene, Texas
1966
Marion helps to found the Society for Creative Anachronism and coins its name
1979
Separates from Walter Breen, although the two remain married and friendly
1979
The Mists of Avalon is published
1984
Sword and Sorceress Anthology Series begins
1988
Marion Zimmer Bradley's Fantasy Magazine begins
1990
Divorces Walter Breen
September 25, 1999
Dies of heart failure after a long struggle with heart disease.
Acquisition information:

Provenance unknown.

This collection is part of an outreach and collection-building partnership between the June L. Mazer Lesbian Archives , the UCLA Center for the Study of Women (CSW) and the UCLA Library .

Processing information:

Processed by Stacy Wood, 2011. Description enhanced and further physical processing completed by Sabrina Ponce in 2016.

The June L. Mazer Lesbian Archive at UCLA is an outreach and collection-building partnership between the June L. Mazer Lesbian Archives, the UCLA Center for the Study of Women (CSW) and the UCLA Library. These collections expand the pool of primary source materials available to researchers and to the community at large. This partnership was initiated by CSW and is funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to inventory, organize, preserve, and digitize more than eighty Mazer collections pertaining to lesbian and feminist activism and writings.

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Arrangement:

Arranged chronologically.

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.
Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Access and use

Restrictions:

Open for research. All requests to access special collections materials must be made in advance using the request button located on this page.

Terms of access:

Property rights to the 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.

Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Marion Zimmer Bradley Papers (Collection 1955). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.

Location of this collection:
A1713 Charles E. Young Research Library
Box 951575
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1575, US
Contact:
(310) 825-4988
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