Eve Babitz papers, 1917-2016, bulk 1943-1997

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Summary

Creators:
Babitz, Eve
Abstract:
Materials documenting the life and career of writer and artist Eve Babitz. Collection includes writings, personal and biographical items, photographs, and artwork.
Extent:
49.9 Linear Feet (42 boxes, 2 oversize folders)
Language:
Materials are in English.
Preferred citation:

[Identification of item]. Eve Babitz papers, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.

Background

Scope and content:

Materials documenting the life and career of writer and artist Eve Babitz. Writings includes drafts and galleys of her books Slow Days, Fast Company (1977), Sex and Rage: Advice to Young Ladies Eager for a Good Time (1979), L.A. Woman (1982), Black Swans (1993), and Two By Two: Tango, Two-Step, and the L.A. Night (1999); as well as articles and stories; screenplays; unpublished manuscripts; and collected clippings and publications. The Personal series includes incoming and outgoing correspondence with friends, family, and publishing contacts; biographical and family items; and Babitz's notebooks and datebooks. Photographs are of Babitz, her friends and family, and the Los Angeles area, including hundreds she took with a Brownie camera documenting her friends and social sphere from 1968 to 1971. Artwork primarily consists of collages Babitz made between 1967 and1970, some commissioned for publication or album artwork. Collage subjects include musician friends and acquaintances including Jim Morrison, Mick Jagger, Stephen Stills, Ginger Baker, and Noel Harrison; commissioned work featuring Marilyn Monroe and Liza Minnelli; and pastoral and abstract scenes. There are also drawings and paintings dating from the early to mid-1960s.

Biographical / historical:

Eve Babitz was born in Los Angeles in 1943. Her parents were Sol Babitz, a classical violinist, and Mae Laviolette Babitz, an artist. She grew up in Hollywood with her sister Mirandi Babitz and attended Hollywood High School. After high school Babitz spent time in Rome and New York City, then returned to Los Angeles where she began to write, make art, and take photographs, inspired and influenced by her artist friends and the environment of 1960s-1970s Los Angeles. First recognized as Marcel Duchamp's nude chess opponent in the iconic photograph by Julian Wasser, Babitz distinguished herself as a working artist when Ahmet Ertegun hired her at Atlantic Records, where her photography and collages were incorporated as album artwork for Black Oak Arkansas, Buffalo Springfield, the Byrds, Linda Ronstadt, and others. In the early 1970s she focused on writing, publishing articles and short stories in Rolling Stone, the Village Voice, Esquire, and Coast magazine. In 1976 she created Manifesto LAX, an underground publication featuring the work of many of her friends at the time, including Ronee Blakley, Carrie Fisher, Steve Martin, and Ed Ruscha. Babitz published several semi-autobiographical books chronicling her life in Los Angeles, including Slow Days, Fast Company; Sex and Rage; L.A. Woman; and Eve's Hollywood. She continued to write during the 1980s and 1990s, publishing the books Black Swans and Two by Two, in addition to articles for Esquire, Cosmopolitan, and others. In 1997 she suffered severe burns over half her body when her clothing caught fire as she lit a cigar. Babitz wrote about this event, as well as her long hospital stay and subsequent recovery, versions of which were later published in I Used to Be Charming: the Rest of Eve Babitz (2019). Eve Babitz died in Los Angeles in 2021, at the age of 78.

Acquisition information:

Purchased from Eve Babitz through Glenn Horowitz Bookseller with support from Steve Martin and Anne Stringfield, November 2021.

Box 20 folder 12, box 39-42 and oversize folder 2, gift of Mirandi Babitz, December 2024.

Processing information:

Processed by Kelly Kress in July 2022. In April 2025 Kress processed the 2024 addition to the collection and updated the finding aid. The additional material is housed in box 20 folder 12, box 39-42, and oversize folder 2.

Arrangement:

Organized in four series:

  • Series 1. Writings, 1968-2000s
  • Series 2. Personal, 1958-2016
  • Series 3. Photographs, 1942-2000s, bulk 1942-1988
  • Series 4. Artwork, 1917-1970s, bulk 1967-1970
Physical / technical requirements:

Box 18: Audiovisual materials unavailable until reformatted.

Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Access and use

Restrictions:

Open for use by qualified researchers and by appointment. Please contact Reader Services at the Huntington Library for more information.

Restrictions apply to:

Box 19: Brian G. Hutton correspondence and Eve Babitz 1969-1970 personal journal closed until January 1, 2040, at family's request.

Terms of access:

The literary copyright of materials by Eve Babitz is held by the Estate of Eve Babitz. Anyone wishing to quote from or publish any photographs or manuscript material by Eve Babitz must contact: Erica Spellman Silverman, Trident Media Group, LLC, 355 Lexington Ave, Floor 12, New York, NY 10017.

Preferred citation:

[Identification of item]. Eve Babitz papers, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.

Location of this collection:
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108, US
Contact:
(626) 405-2191
reference@huntington.org
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