The papers of Yakov Malkiel provide an overview of his career as a professor, author, editor and researcher. The collection, spanning the years from 1882 to 1998, with the bulk from 1942 to 1992, contains correspondence, teaching files, interviews, lectures, manuscript drafts, reprints of journal articles, research materials and notes, profession affiliation files, awards, family papers and photographs. The collection also includes the papers of María Rosa Lida de Malkiel, consisting of correspondence, manuscript drafts, offprints of postumously published works, teaching materials, diaries, course notebooks, research notes, and personal miscellany. Although the majority of the collection is in English, portions of correspondence and writings are in Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Russian with a small number in other languages. Malkiel's personal annotations are included throughout the collection.

Yakov Malkiel was born into an intellectual Jewish family in Kiev in 1914, but civil war in Russia forced the family to move to Berlin. By the time he was of college age, Germany was becoming an increasingly difficult place for Jews. He had to overcome serious difficulties before he was admitted into Berlin's Friedrich-Wilhelms Universität, where in 1938 he received his Ph.D. magna cum laude, specializing in romance linguistics. The worsening situation for Jews in Germ,any made his safety tenuous, and he left soon after receiving his degree. After emigrating with his parents to the United States in 1940, he worked briefly in Wyoming and then joined the University of California, Berkeley faculty in 1942, first as lecturer, then as an Assistant Professor of Spanish and Portuguese, and eventually as Professor of Romance Philology. He participated in the 1952 founding of the Department of Linguistics, and in 1965 he became a member of the department, where he taught until his retirement.

Number of containers: 34 cartons, 61 boxes, 1 oversize box, 1 oversize folder Linear feet: 67.4

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.

Collection is open for research.