Paul Landry Monette (1945-1995) was a novelist and poet. He received a best biography nomination from the National Book Critics' Circle and won the National Book Award for nonfiction in 1992. The collection consists of correspondence, manuscripts, proofs, notes, screenplays, plays, daybooks, memorabilia, photographs, clippings, and printed material related to Monette's life and literary career. Also included in the collection are the papers of two of Monette's significant others, Roger Horwitz and Stephen Kolzak.

Paul Landry Monette was born in Lawrence, Massachusetts, on October 16, 1945; BA, English, Yale, 1967; taught at Cheshire Academy, Connecticut, 1968-70; taught at Milton Academy, Massachusetts, and Pine Manor College, 1970-76; met Roger Horwitz in 1974 and the two moved to Los Angeles, California, 1977; writings include Carpenter at the Asylum (1975), Taking Care of Mrs. Carroll (1978), The Gold Diggers (1979), Long Shot (1981), and No Witnesses (1981); after Horwitz's death in 1986, Monette wrote Love Alone: 18 Elegies for Rog (1988), Borrowed Time: an AIDS Memoir (1988), Afterlife (1990), and Halfway Home (1991); Monette's work, Borrowed Time: an AIDS Memoir, was nominated as best biography for the National Book Critics' Circle Award; Monette wrote of his struggle for identity as a gay man in his book, Becoming a Man: Half a Life Story (1992), which won the National Book Award for nonfiction in 1992; final publications include Last Watch of the Night (1994), West of Yesterday, East of Summer (1994), and the posthumous Sanctuary (1997); he died of complications from AIDS on February 10, 1995.Several printed obituaries and appreciations have been collected in Special Collections URL and can be found in the papers. Major critical overviews include those in Contemporary Authors: A Bio-Bibliographical Guide to Current Writers in Fiction, General Nonfiction, Poetry, Journalism, Drama, Motion Pictures, Television, and Other Fields vol. 139, edited by Donna Olendorf, Detroit, Washington, D.C., London: Gale Research Incorporated, 1993, Gay & Lesbian Literature, edited by Sharon Malinowski, Detroit and London: St. James Press, 1994, and Contemporary Gay American Novelists: A Bio-bibliographical Critical Sourcebook, edited by Emmanuel S. Nelson, Westport, Connecticut: Greenwod Press, 1994.By Paula Zeszotarski

32.6 linear feet (64 document boxes, 7 flat boxes)

Property rights to the objects belong to UCLA Library Special Collections. All other 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.

Open for research. All requests to access special collections materials must be made in advance using the request button located on this page.