Production materials for An Improbable Venture: A History of the University of California, San Diego. The book was commissioned by UC San Diego chancellor Richard C. Atkinson for the University's thirtieth anniversary and written by Nancy Scott Anderson, a journalist and historian. The collection contains manuscripts, correspondence, photographs, and miscellaneous materials related to the book's production and publicity on campus.

An Improbable Venture: A History of the University of California, San Diego was proposed by UC San Diego associate chancellor Robert C. (Roy) Ritchie in 1988 as a project for the university's thirtieth anniversary. The committee he chaired decided on an unofficial, objective history of UC San Diego to be written by someone unaffiliated with the university. Nancy Scott Anderson, a San Diego journalist and author of The Generals: Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee (Alfred A. Knopf, 1988) was commissioned to write the history in December 1988. Anderson interviewed founding faculty and administrators, and consulted the UC San Diego Archives. Associate chancellors Donald F. Tuzin and Tracy B. Strong succeeded Ritchie in overseeing the project.

1 Linear feet (1 record carton, 1 oversize folder)

Publication rights are held by the creator of the collection.

COLLECTION STORED OFF-SITE. ALLOW ONE WEEK FOR RETRIEVAL OF MATERIALS