Biographical Note
Scope and Content
Preferred Citation
Conditions Governing Access
Conditions Governing Use
Related Archival Materials
Language of Material:
English
Contributing Institution:
USC Libraries Special Collections
Title: Irving Shulman papers
creator:
Shulman, Irving
Identifier/Call Number: 0021
Physical Description:
19.67 Linear Feet
19 boxes, 1 map case folder
Date (inclusive): 1931-1970
Language of Material: English
Abstract: This collection contains the papers of the novelist, screenwriter, and biographer Irving Shulman, who is best known for writing
the screenplay for "Rebel Without a Cause". His papers include manuscripts and typescripts of screenplays, short stories,
novels, and biographies.
Biographical Note
Irving Shulman was a novelist, screenwriter and biographer of Rudolph Valentino, Jaqueline Kennedy Onassis, and Jean Harlow.
He was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Jewish immigrants from Lithuania on May 21, 1913. Shulman received his BA from Ohio
University in 1937, his MA from Columbia in 1938, and his Ph.D. from UCLA in 1972. During World War II he worked for the
War Department in Washington, D.C. He married Joan Grager in 1938, and they had two daughters.
"The Amboy Dukes", his first novel (and biggest literary success), mined the neighborhoods in which Shulman had grown up and
was published in 1947. Shulman moved to Los Angeles in the late 1940s, where he worked as a contract screenwriter and continued
to write novels. As a screenwriter, he is best known as the author of the screenplay for the 1955 movie "Rebel Without a
Cause". Shulman later adapted the movie's plot for his novel "Children of the Dark". In the 1960s, Shulman wrote biographies
of Jean Harlow (1964), Rudolph Valentino (1967), and Jaqueline Kennedy Onassis (1970). Shulman passed away on March 23, 1995.
Scope and Content
This collection contains manuscripts and typescripts of Irving Shulman's screenplays, short stories, novels, and biographies
of Jean Harlow, Rudolph Valentino and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. Also included in this collection are publisher's galleys
for some of his books and various literary periodical publications from the 1930s. Please refer to the Scope and Content
notes of individual series for more information.
Preferred Citation
[Box/folder# or item name], Irving Shulman papers, Collection no. 0021, Special Collections, USC Libraries, University of
Southern California.
Conditions Governing Access
COLLECTION STORED OFF-SITE. Advance notice required for access.
Conditions Governing Use
The collection contains published materials; researchers are reminded of the copyright restrictions imposed by publishers
on reusing their articles and parts of books. It is the responsibility of researchers to acquire permission from publishers
when reusing such materials. The copyright to unpublished materials belongs to the heirs of the writers. Permission to publish,
quote, or reproduce must be secured from the repository and the copyright holder.
Related Archival Materials
Ohio University's Robert E. and Jean R. Mahn Center for Archives & Special Collections has the Irving Shulman Collection (MSS#
98).
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Biographers -- California -- Los Angeles -- Archival resources
Screenwriters -- California -- Los Angeles -- Archival resources
Typescripts
Manuscripts
Authors, American -- 20th century -- Archival resources
Onassis, Jacqueline Kennedy -- Archives
Harlow, Jean -- Archives
Valentino, Rudolph -- Archives
Shulman, Irving -- Archives