Series 1:
Typescript manuscripts, proofs, and notes
approximately 1934-1977
Physical Description: Carton 1-15, volumes 1-10
carton 1, folder 1-2
So He
1935
Scope and Content
Early draft of first novel. Alternatively titled The Stars Came Otherwise (begun in 1934).
carton 1, folder 3-4
The Stars Came Otherwise
1935-1936
Scope and Content
Second novel--complete.
carton 1, folder 5
The Little One
1936-1937
Scope and Content
Alternate version.
carton 1, folder 6
This Day Before Dawn
1936
Scope and Contents
Early novel.
carton 1, folder 7-8
Profiles and Refrains
1937
Scope and Contents
Unpublished. Material incorporated into The Inhabitants. Digest episodes that appared in first novel, unpublished.
carton 1, folder 9-22, carton 2, folder 1-4
The Madmen of Ranna
1936-1958
Scope and Contents
Various drafts.
carton 2, folder 5
My Uncle Dudley
1940
Scope and Content
First draft of first published novel (published in 1942). Draft of jail scene included (1941).
carton 2, folder 6-9
A Journal of the Plague Year
1940-1941
Scope and Contents
Various drafts of manuscript
carton 2, folder 10
The Inhabitants and The Journal of the Plague Year
1940-1941
Scope and Contents
Miscellaneous draft materials and text in support of the Guggenheim Fellowship for The Inhabitants.
carton 2, folder 11
The Inhabitants and Profiles and Refrains
1940-1941
Scope and Contents
Miscellaneous materials.
carton 2, folder 12-13
The Inhabitants
1936-1944
Scope and Contents
Drafts and other material. Wright's note: "Final draft with experimental drafts with and without Sound Track. Long period
of gestation accounts for unevenness of material. Some of text from 1936."
carton 2, folder 14-16
Furman Young
1940-1941
Scope and Contents
Partial early draft and finished draft. Also carbon copy of final draft. Also includes a related fragment for My Uncle Dudley.
carton 2, folder 17-20
The Vision of Private Reagan and The Ordeal of Gussie Newcomb
1942-1943
Scope and Contents
Drafts of material later incorporated into The Man Who Was There (1945). The Vision of Private Reagan is also titled the Ordeal
of Christian Reagan.
carton 2, folder 21, carton 3, folder 1-4
Journey Through a Landscape
1943
Scope and Contents
Material later incorporated into The Man Who Was There (1945).
carton 3, folder 5
Untitled first novel written after Uncle Dudley
1942-1943
Scope and Contents
Unpublished novel (complete draft) later integrated into The Man Who Was There (1945).
carton 3, folder 6-12
The Man Who Was There
1943-1946
Scope and Contents
Various drafts and other materials.
carton 3, folder 13
The Cruise of the Dolphin
1945-1946
Scope and Contents
Unfinished novel featuring Mr. Hapgee (Furman Young) and a fragment of a story also with Hapgee.
carton 3, folder 14-15
Man and Boy
1945-1951
Scope and Contents
Various drafts.
carton 3, folder 16-18
Consider the Lilies
1946-1950
Scope and Contents
Early version of Man and Boy; revised draft materials for Man and Boy and fragments.
carton 3, folder 19-21
The Home Place
1947
Scope and Contents
Drafts and galley proofs.
carton 3, folder 22
A Day in the City
1947-1948
Scope and Contents
Early draft.
carton 4, folder 1-19
The Works of Love
1946-1950
Scope and Contents
Drafts, fragments, and proofs.
carton 5, folder 1-3
The World in the Attic
1948
Scope and Contents
Various drafts.
carton 5, folder 4
The World I Made For Myself
1949-1950
Scope and Contents
A treatment of the Chicago materials of The Works of Love from the son's point of view.
carton 5, folder 5
The Colonel (or Knock, Knock, Knock)
1950-1951
Scope and Contents
First draft.
carton 5, folder 6-9
The Deep Sleep
1952
Scope and Contents
First and final drafts.
carton 5, folder 10-11
The Pillar of Cloud
1952
Scope and Contents
Various drafts. Early version of Scanlon.
carton 5, folder 12-19, carton 6, folder 1-4
The Huge Season
1953-1955
Scope and Contents
Various drafts of entire novel and chapters of novel.
carton 6, folder 5-8
Scanlon (or McKee and Scanlon)
1951-1955
Scope and Contents
Drafts of Scanlon and McKee and Scanlon. Scanlon is described as "an early novel dramatizing the idea of Scanlon, the illusion
of the Past as the Territory Ahead."
carton 6, folder 9-18
The Field of Vision
1954-1956
Scope and Contents
Drafts and other materials.
carton 6, folder 19-21
War Games
1951-1970
Scope and Contents
Originally "Knock, Knock, Knock". Made into War Games and published by Black Sparrow Press in 1972. The novel was written
in 1951-52.
carton 7, folder 1-3
Salt Lake novel
approximately 1955
Scope and Contents
Various drafts.
carton 7, folder 4
The Lovers
approximately 1955
Scope and Contents
Novel featuring The Colonel and Miss Tomlin one night in a lift. "A further exploration of the transformation idea. Only fiction
is a fact, etc."
carton 7, folder 5-8
Babe Ruth's Pocket
1955-1956
Scope and Contents
Drafts and fragments.
carton 7, folder 9-10
The Gospel Truth (Babe Ruth's Pocket)
1955-1956
Scope and Contents
Babe Ruth's Pocket with two lectures, Time Past and Time Present, given at Amherst in Fall 1958. "Fiction and Fact in my fiction--the
imaginative process."
carton 7, folder 11-13, volume 1
Love Among the Cannibals
1956-1957
Scope and Contents
Various drafts.
carton 7, folder 14-16
The Nostalchix
1957
Scope and Contents
Draft and materials from proposed sequel to Love Among the Cannibals.
carton 7, folder 17-24, carton 8, folder 1-5, volume 2-3
Ceremony in Lone Tree
1952-1960
Scope and Contents
Various drafts.
carton 8, folder 6-12, volume 4-5
The Territory Ahead
1959-1960
Scope and Contents
Various drafts and draft materials.
carton 8, folder 13-20
Fish Below the Thighs
1960
Scope and Contents
Title became What a Way to Go. Various drafts and other materials.
carton 8, folder 21
Small Town
approximately 1960-1961
Scope and Contents
Long essay commissioned by Holiday magazine, where it appeared in 1961.
carton 8, folder 22, carton 9, folder 1-4
One Day
1964-1965
Scope and Contents
Various drafts.
carton 9, folder 5-6
Toward the Way Things Are
1965-1971
Scope and Contents
Non-fiction comments and lectures.
carton 9, folder 7-20
A Bill of Rights, A Bill of Wrongs, A Bill of Goods
1965-1968
Scope and Contents
Various drafts and other materials.
volume 6-7
What a Way to Go
approximately 1962
Scope and Contents
Last draft and printer's copy.
volume 8-10
Cause of Wonder
approximately 1963
Scope and Contents
Early and final drafts; fragments.
carton 9, folder 21
Green Grass, Blue Sky, White House
1968
Scope and Contents
Draft.
carton 10, folder 1-10
In Orbit
1966
Scope and Contents
Various drafts and other materials.
carton 10, folder 11
Doing Time
approximately 1967
Scope and Contents
Autobiographical fragments.
carton 10, folder 12-19
About Fiction
1968-1974
Scope and Contents
Various drafts.
carton 11, folder 1-2
The Little Death
1970
Scope and Contents
Typescript of unfinished novel.
carton 11, folder 3-4
Fire Sermon
1970-1971
Scope and Contents
Drafts and fragments.
carton 11, folder 5-8
A Life (or Old Man)
1971-1972
Scope and Contents
Various drafts.
carton 11, folder 9-20
Fork River Space Project
1974-1977
Scope and Contents
Various drafts and other materials.
carton 14, folder 1-13
Plains Song
1975-1979
Scope and Contents
Various drafts, proofs, and other materials.
carton 12, folder 1
Early short fiction
approximately 1935-1936
Scope and Contents
We Me Il Duce (two drafts); Freighter Trip to Antwerp; Want a Ride Boy?.
carton 12, folder 2-3
Short stories
approximately 1935-1945
Scope and Contents
Drafts and final copies of published short stories. Includes: Since When Do They Charge Admission; In Another Country; Drrdla;
Magic; Green Grass Blue Sky, White House; Trick or Treat; A Fight Between a White Boy and a Black Boy; The Cat's Meow; How
I Met Joseph Mulligan, Jr.
carton 12, folder 4
Early sketches and stories
approximately 1935-1945
Scope and Contents
Includes manuscripts for: The Triumph; A Night in Bowling Green; There's No Bones in Hash; The Bird Cage; Good Morning, Grandmother;
The Spectator; The Dead Wagon; A Dream of Fair Woman; My Visit with the Spaceman; The Sound Tape; Take This Robin.
carton 12, folder 5
A Short History of My Childhood
approximately 1935
carton 12, folder 6
Sketches, stories, fragments
approximately 1935-1945
Scope and Contents
Includes manuscripts and fragments of manuscripts for: a late 1930s re-working of childhood autobiographical reminiscences;
a piece written just before Uncle Dudley; part of Journal of the Plague Year; a sketch for a story in the mid-1930s; Brady-Mrs.
Horst; materials related to The Works of Love; The Deep Sleep; Mulligan; Babe Ruth's Pocket; Where's Justice?: The West Window.
carton 12, folder 7-9
Assorted fragments
approximately 1935-1955
Scope and Contents
Late 1930s fiction; draft of materials relating to The Huge Season; Mr. Bloom's Story (from The Man Who Was There); The Home
Place (play version); notes for a proposed television program (1957); outline for fiction never written; early 1940s fiction
fragment; Miss Oberholzer and Miss Teppich (draft of novel never completed in the mid-1940s); excerpted pages from The Man
Who Was There; How They Put in the Time (preliminary run for Ceremony in Lone Tree); The Cruise of the Dolphin (1939); from
The Works of Love; early idea.
carton 12, folder 10-12
Assorted non-fiction pieces
approximately 1935-1960
carton 12, folder 13-14
Drafts of essays
approximately 1945-1965
Scope and Contents
Out Endless Plains (published 1958); One Law for the Lion (published 1961); Point of View: An Interview...(published 1959);
Editorial matter for The Mississippi Reader (published 1962); The Cars In My Life (published 1958); Mexican Journey (notes
only)(published 1959).
carton 12, folder 15
Non-fiction
approximately 1940-1965
Scope and Contents
Article ideas (early 1950s); early drafts of critical commentary; Territory Ahead; early drafts of The Man in the Moon (published
in the Partisan Review); The Cars in My Life (published in Holiday); The Plains (published in Holiday); notes for article;
The Open Road; In the American Grain; Thoreau; Death by Toleration.
carton 12, folder 16
Telling It LIke It Is (Princeton)
1971
carton 12, folder 17
Reflections on the Death of the Reader
carton 12, folder 18
Book review of The Vanishing Hero by Sean O'Faolain
carton 12, folder 19
Non-fiction fragments
approximately 1945-1965
carton 12, folder 20-22
Lectures
approximately 1968
carton 13, folder 1-2
Fragments of materials incorporated into later novels
1957-1959
carton 13, folder 3
Fragments and notes for miscellaneous unpublished stories, novels, and articles
carton 13, folder 4-5
Draft materials for miscellaneous unpublished essays, articles, and reviews
carton 13, folder 6
Miscellaneous fragments of published stories, reviews, and essays
carton 13, folder 7
Early miscellaneous fragments (Uncle Dudley)
approximately 1940
carton 13, folder 8
Trains (stories; Princeton)
1971
carton 13, folder 9
The Mulligan Saga (original draft and sketches)
approximately 1948
carton 13, folder 11-19
Assorted notes
approximately 1940-1970
carton 15, folder 1
One Law for the Lion-Hemingway
1961
carton 15, folder 2
Introduction to Windy McPherson's Son
1964
Scope and Contents
3 drafts.
carton 15, folder 3
Origins: Reflections on Emotion, Memory and Imagination
1977
Scope and Contents
For The Art of Wright Morris published by the University of Nebraska Press.
carton 15, folder 4
Mexico
1958-1959
Scope and Contents
For Holiday Magazine.
carton 15, folder 5-6
Ball Games; Earthly Delights, etc.
1976-1977
carton 15, folder 7
The Word Between Them (writer as teacher)
1969
Scope and Contents
First draft.
carton 15, folder 8
Lectures: Literature and Life; Real Toads, Imaginary Gardens
1968-1970
Scope and Contents
Lectures delivered at Notre Dame and University of California, Santa Cruz.
carton 15, folder 9
Fragments
undated
Scope and Contents
Made in USA; early non-fiction anticipating The Territory Ahead.
carton 15, folder 10
Reflections on Troubled House of Fiction
1970-1971
Scope and Contents
Full title: Real Toads, Imaginary Gardens: Reflections on the Troubled House of Fiction.
carton 15, folder 11
Oddments
approximately 1977-1978
Scope and Contents
Earthly Delights; Faber, a story (draft); short pieces.
carton 15, folder 12
Short pieces
1978-1979
Scope and Contents
Closing the Gap, a story; Medley; Crazy Rhythm; Return of the Region.
carton 15, folder 14-15
Kid Stuff, a story
1969-1971
Scope and Contents
Unpublished.
carton 15, folder 16
Lover, Is That You?
undated
Scope and Contents
Published in Harper's Bazaar.
carton 15, folder 17
Stories
1968-1969
Scope and Contents
Draft of Blue Sky, Green Grass, etc., draft of Molloy (unfinished); One Crow in a Million (first draft); draft of Harry (unpublished).
carton 15, folder 18
Trick or Treat, a story
1971
Scope and Contents
Draft of Blue Sky, Green Grass, etc., draft of Molloy (unfinished); One Crow in a Million (first draft); draft of Harry (unpublished).
carton 15, folder 19
Fragments
1970-1971
Scope and Contents
View from Space; Pages of lecture; Pages of a story; One Crow in a Million; early draft of Since When Do They Charge Admission.
carton 15, folder 20-24
Einbaum (unfinished novel)
1969
Scope and Contents
Various stories and drafts.
carton 15, folder 25
The Schoolhouse
approximately 1955
Scope and Contents
A fact-fantasy drama--the first--in which fiction, my own, displaces fact. First examples of this obsession. (2nd is Babe
Ruth's Pocket-novel-length).
carton 15, folder 26
The Cost of Living (unfinished novel)
1968-1970
carton 15, folder 27
Acceptance speech for Bay Area Book Reviewers Award
1986
Series 2:
Correspondence and other material
approximately 1953-1969
Physical Description: Volume 11-12; carton 15, folder 28
Scope and Contents
8 letters from Wright Morris to James D. Hart (1953-1959); 1 letter from Wright Morris to Kenneth Carpenter (1955); 1 letter
from Wright Morris to Leslie S. Clarke (1969); and 1 letter from Mimi Robinson to James D. Hart (1959); also includes, in
volume 12, a dissertation prospectus by Jack R. Cohn for his study on Morris' midwestern novels. A bookseller's inventory
of the Wright Morris papers that went to the University of Nebraska is also included in Carton 15, Folder 28.
