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Finding Aid for the Carey McWilliams collection of material about Ambrose Bierce, 1909-1935
277  
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Collection Details
 
Table of contents What's This?
  • Descriptive Summary
  • Administrative Information
  • Biography
  • Scope and Content
  • Indexing Terms

  • Descriptive Summary

    Title: Carey McWilliams collection of material about Ambrose Bierce,
    Date (inclusive): 1909-1935
    Collection number: 277
    Creator: Bierce, Ambrose, 1842-1914?
    Extent: 1 box (0.5 linear ft.)
    Repository: University of California, Los Angeles. Library Special Collections.
    Los Angeles, California 90095-1575
    Abstract: Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914?) was born in Ohio. He was a journalist, satirist and author of sardonic short stories based on themes of death and horror. The collection consists of correspondence, typescript copies of letters, photographs, clippings, manuscript notes, and ephemera by and about Ambrose Bierce gathered and used by Carey McWilliams for his biography about Bierce.
    Physical location: Stored off-site at SRLF. Advance notice is required for access to the collection. Please contact the UCLA Library Special Collections Reference Desk for paging information.
    Language: English.

    Administrative Information

    Restrictions on Use and Reproduction

    Property rights to the physical object belong to the UCLA Library Special Collections. Literary rights, including copyright, are retained by the creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright and pursue the copyright owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC Regents do not hold the copyright.

    Restrictions on Access

    COLLECTION STORED OFF-SITE AT SRLF: Open for research. Advance notice required for access. Contact the UCLA Library Special Collections Reference Desk for paging information.

    Provenance/Source of Acquisition

    • Zeitlin and VerBrugge Booksellers, purchase, 1950.
    • Gift of Mrs. Bradford A. Booth, 1968.

    Preferred Citation

    [Identification of item], Carey McWilliams collection of material about Ambrose Bierce (Collection 277). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library.

    UCLA Catalog Record ID

    UCLA Catalog Record ID: 709365 

    Biography

    Ambrose Bierce was born June 24, 1842 in Ohio; journalist, satirist, and author of sardonic short stories based on themes of death and horror; principal works include Tales of Soldiers and Civilians (1891), later reissued as In the Midst of Life (1892), Black Beetles in Amber (1892), Can Such Things Be? (1893), and The Cynic's Word Book (1906); The Cynic's Word Book was later retitled The Devil's Dictionary (1911); his death in Mexico, in 1914, remains an unsolved mystery.
    Carey McWilliams was born December 13, 1905 in Steamboat Springs, Colorado; J.D., University of Southern California; attorney, Black, Hammack & McWilliams, Los Angeles, 1927-38; contributing editor, associate editor, and editorial director, The Nation, 1945-55; editor, The Nation, 1955-75; some of his books include: Ambrose Bierce, a Biography (1929), Factories in the Field: the Story of Migratory Farm Labor in California (1939), Ill Fares the Land: Migrants and Migratory Labor in the United States (1942), Brothers Under The Skin (1943), California Country: An Island on the Land (1946), A Mask for Privilege: Anti-Semitism in America (1948), and The Education of Carey McWilliams (1979); died of cancer, June 27, 1980 in New York, New York.

    Scope and Content

    Collection consists of correspondence, typescript copies of letters, photographs, clippings, manuscript notes, and ephemera by and about Ambrose Bierce. Materials were gathered and used by Carey McWilliams for his biography about Bierce. Includes of 100 carbon typescript copies from Bierce to Carroll Carrington and Eleanor Vore Sickler, 200 letters to McWilliams about Bierce (37 letters from H.L. Mencken), and a photo of Bierce at the desk of his mountain retreat at Angwins.

    Indexing Terms

    The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.

    Subjects

    Bierce, Ambrose, 1842-1914?--Archives.
    McWilliams, Carey, 1905- --Ambrose Bierce, a biography.
    Mencken, H.L. (Henry Louis), 1880-1956--Correspondence.
    Authors, American--Archival resources.

    Other Index Terms Related to this Collection

    McWilliams, Carey, 1905-