Extent:

5.5 Linear Feet 13 boxes

Scope and content:

Series I is organized in chronological order. It includes 295 letters and 20 postcards from Greenberg to his college friend Harold Lazarus. The letters to Lazarus, which begin when the two are still in college and continue for 20 years (1928-1947), offer a rich and detailed record of Greenberg's personal and intellectual development. They include descriptions of his struggles to become a writer, his difficult relationships with women, his extensive reading, and culminate with his triumphant acceptance into the Partisan Review circle. Other correspondence consists of letters from significant individuals in Greenberg's life, such as Marjorie Ferguson, a friend (37 items), John O'Brian, editor of Greenberg's Collected Essays (ca. 50 items), and Helen Frankenthaler, girlfriend and life-long friend (50 items, sealed). Greenberg's correspondence files ( 1984-1994), consisting of letters from artists, colleagues and friends, give a sense of the critic's last decade (ca. 2500 items).

Contents

Access and use