Finding Aid for the Carey McWilliams collection of material about Ambrose Bierce, 1909-1935

Processed by UCLA Library Special Collections staff; machine-readable finding aid created by Caroline Cubé
UCLA Library Special Collections
UCLA Library Special Collections staff
Room A1713, Charles E. Young Research Library
Box 951575
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1575
Email: spec-coll@library.ucla.edu
URL: http://www.library.ucla.edu/libraries/special/scweb/
© 1999
The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.

Finding Aid for the Carey McWilliams collection of material about Ambrose Bierce, 1909-1935

Collection number: 277

UCLA Library Special Collections

UCLA Library Special Collections staff



Los Angeles, CA

Contact Information

  • UCLA Library Special Collections staff
  • UCLA Library Special Collections
  • Room A1713, Charles E. Young Research Library
  • Box 951575
  • Los Angeles, CA 90095-1575
  • Telephone: 310/825-4988 (10:00 a.m. - 4:45 p.m., Pacific Time)
  • Email: spec-coll@library.ucla.edu
  • URL: http://www.library.ucla.edu/libraries/special/scweb/
Processed by:
UCLA Library Special Collections staff, 1977
Encoded by:
Caroline Cubé
Online finding aid edited by:
Josh Fiala, May 2002
© 1999 The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.

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-


Note

A collection of the material gathered and used by Carey McWilliams in writing his: Ambrose Bierce: A Biography. New York, A. & C. Boni, 1929.
At the time McWilliams began this volume, no biography of Ambrose Bierce had been published. The available information consisted, for the most part, of a brochure by Vincent Starrett and certain autobiographical portions of The Collected Works. Accordingly, McWilliams gathered this large body of material concerning Bierce.
 

1. Ambrose Bierce Correspondence.

Physical Description: ···· 8 Typescript letters (copies).
 

2. Correspondence--Bierce, George Sterling, Mencken and others by various writers, including James Wheaton James.

Physical Description: ···· 7 letters.
 

3. Bierce letters to C.B. Carrington, Eleanor Vore Sickler.

Physical Description: ···· over 100 carbon typescript copies.
 

4. Photographs of and concerning Bierce.

Physical Description: ···· 21 items, (including, in many cases, negatives).
Abstract:

···· Includes the very rare photograph (with negative) of Bierce at the desk of his mountain retreat at Angwin's near Calistoga, California.
 

5. McWilliams Correspondence.

Physical Description: ···· More than 200 letters (Autographed letters signed and typewritten letters signed) from over 115 correspondents to McWilliams and in most cases with carbon copies of McWilliams letters.

Scope and Content Note

Including:
  • A.W. Bender
  • Benjamin De Casseres
  • Adolphe de Castro Danziger
  • C. Hartley Grattan
  • Jerome A. Hart
  • Walter Jerrold
  • David Starr Jordan
  • Robert Morss Lovett
  • H.L. Mencken
  • 37 letters from H.L. Mencken to McWilliams, 1925-1935.
  • Frank Monaghan
  • Walter Heale
  • Fremont Older
  • Ethen Talbot Scheffauer
  • Eleanor Vore Sicker
  • Vincent Starrett
  • A.J.A. Symonds, etc.
 

6. Miscellaneous.

Scope and Content Note

  1. Photostat copy of Bierce's will dated January 5, 1909.
  2. Business card of H.H. Day, Bierce's father-in-law.
  3. Pencil drawing of Bierce.
 

7. Notes from magazine and books and other sources regarding Bierce and his family.

Physical Description: ···· 117 leaves, typed.
 

9. Bierce, Ambrose, 1842-1914? Letter to Mrs. H.D. Cowden. Washington, D.C., January 17, 1910.

Physical Description: ···· With envelope. 4 pp. (also typescript).
 

10. Letter to Mrs. H.D. Cowden. Washington, D.C., July 6, 1909.

Physical Description: ···· 2pp. Holograph.

Scope and Content Note

···· Accompanying this is an envelope addressed to Mrs. Cowden by Bierce, but dated November 22, 1911.

Note

···· Gift of Mrs. Bradforth A. Booth, December 1968.