Descriptive Summary
Access Restrictions
Publication Rights
Preferred Citation
Acquisition Information
Biography
Scope and Content Notes
Indexing Terms
Descriptive Summary
Title: Harry McGuire Collection
Dates: ca. 1659-1980
Bulk Dates: 1910s-1966
Collection number: SBHC Mss 54
Creator:
McGuire, Harry, 1904-
Collection Size:
12 linear feet
(13 document boxes, 9 oversize boxes, 3 records cartons, and 1 map cabinet file).
Repository:
University of California, Santa Barbara. Library.
Dept. of Special Collections
Abstract: Correspondence, scrapbooks, photographs, and publications edited by McGuire, who spent his later years in Santa Barbara. Includes
materials relating to the Music Academy and Santa Barbara Council of Arts. Also, Hogarth prints (18c), British engravings
and handbills (mainly 19c), and caricatures, cartoons, and drawings (mainly for his magazine
Ringmaster). Large related book collection, mainly 19th and 20th century American and British literature, including first editions of
Hamlin Garland, Aldous Huxley, Christopher Morley, and H. G. Wells, which have been cataloged separately.
Physical location: Boxes 1-10, 23-25 (SRLF); Del Sur (Boxes 11-13 (Del Sur); Boxes 14-22 (Del Sur Oversize); Map Cabinet 20/19.
Languages:
English
Access Restrictions
None. Majority of materials stored off-site; advance notice required for retrieval.
Publication Rights
Copyright has not been assigned to the Department of Special Collections, UCSB. All requests for permission to publish or
quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Head of Special Collections. Permission for publication is given
on behalf of the Department of Special Collections as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply
permission of the copyright holder, which also must be obtained.
Preferred Citation
Harry McGuire Collection. SBHC Mss 54. Department of Special Collections, Davidson Library, University of California, Santa
Barbara.
Acquisition Information
Donation from the estate, Jay Monaghan executor, ca. 1966-1980.
Biography
See Jay Monaghan article in
Soundings, Jan. 1979 (source for most of the following information):
Born, January 18, 1904, in Denver, the son of Mr. and Mrs. James/[John?] A. McGuire. Early interest in hunting and fishing
from his father. Father in the 1890s owned several hunting and fishing magazines, including
Outdoor Life. Harry grew up in a wealthy family; as a teenager was active in writing, school plays and oratorical contests. Went to Notre
Dame in 1921, president of the Scribblers Club. Graduated and returned to Denver, where he became Associate Editor, 1924-1929,
of
Outdoor Life, which had absorbed several other outdoor publications and had a circulation of 115,000. Editor-in-chief, 1929, then stock
market crash, and disagreement about future of the magazine with his father, who sold it.
Spent much of his time on hunting/fishing trips, but also went to Florence, Italy, for a year, studying and writing about
art. Had come back to work on
Outdoor Life for new owners but left again, determined to be an independent author in New York. Wrote a novel, two dramas, a musical comedy
with black dancers, and published a financially extravagant magazine entitled
Ringmaster: The World in Caricature, which folded after four issues.
After a number of other failed or short-lived mostly writing-related enterprises, in 1945 he moved to Santa Barbara, which
he had visited at times while in Los Angeles (where his father had moved). He purchased a house at 2311 Garden Street in 1954.
He became involved in SB social life, married and divorced, organized the Santa Barbara Council of Arts, met UCSB Chancellor
Vernon Cheadle, became friends and ultimately gave UCSB his house, $100,000 for its maintenance, and his books and papers.
Monaghan apparently became acquainted with Harry as a member of the Board of the Council of Arts. Lawrence Willson also was
a director. The Council had its monthly programs at the Coral Casino, Santa Barbara Academy of Music, the Art Gallery, and
frequently in some member's Montecito mansion. Monaghan and McGuire also would have shared similar experiences in the West
of the early 20th century, and early in his writing career, Monaghan had submitted stories to
Outdoor Life.
Harry Aloysius McGuire died in Santa Barbara, Feb. 1, 1966.
Scope and Content Notes
Arrangement
The collection contains the following series:
- Biographical/Personal
- British Engravings, Handbills, and Related
- Caricatures/Cartoons/Drawings (mainly for
Ringmaster)
- Hogarth Prints
- Paintings
- Photographs
- Scrapbooks
- Miscellany
Note that this is part of a much larger collection, mainly books, some housed in Special Collections and some in Main stacks,
mainly 19th and 20th century American and British literature, including first editions of Hamlin Garland, Aldous Huxley, Christopher
Morley, and H. G. Wells. Books have a distinctive bookplate. Keyword search turns up 76 titles in Pegasus (these generally
would be Special Collections items), but probably those in Main don't have note field indicating provenance.
Entries include:
- McGuire, Harry.
Tales of Rod and Gun: A Collection of the Best American Hunting and Fishing Stories. New York, The Macmillan Company, 1931.
- McGuire, Harry.
Twelve Tales. Santa Barbara: Schauer Printing Studio, 1962.
Indexing Terms
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.
McGuire, Harry, 1904-
Hogarth Press
Caricatures and cartoons.
Engravings--British.
Santa Barbara (Calif.)