The William Abrahams Papers include material on books that Abrahams edited under his own imprint for such presses as the Atlantic Monthly Press, Holt Rhinehart and Winston, and E. P. Dutton. The papers contain working drafts, typescripts, research notes, and correspondence. Financial reports and correspondence relating to his service as literary trustee are also present, along with research files on both Lillian Hellman and Dashiell Hammett. Additionally, a collection of the books Abrahams edited during his distinguished career, and the texts he co-authored with historian Peter Stansky are available.

A poet and a novelist, William Abrahams became one of the leading literary editors in the American publishing scene. He worked with many renowned writers including Joyce Carol Oates, Lillian Hellman, Diane Johnson, Brian Moore, Thomas Flanagan, and Pauline Kael. Beginning as a poet, Abrahams released his first novel Interval in Carolina (1945) to good reviews. He followed with By the Beautiful Sea (1947) and Imperial Waltz (1954) before beginning a career in editing for Atlantic Monthly Press in 1963. In 1965 he began supervising the O. Henry Awards, editing annual anthologies of the best entries, which he continued until his retirement in 1996. Abrahams also produced four non-fiction works that he co-authored with historian Peter Stansky, Journey to the Frontier; Two Roads to the Spanish Civil War (1966), The Unknown Orwell (1972), Orwell: The Transformation (1980), and London's Burning: Life, Death, and Art in the Second World War (1994).

42 linear ft.

Property rights reside with the repository. Literary rights reside with the creators of the documents or their heirs. To obtain permission to publish or reproduce, please contact the Public Services Librarian of the Dept. of Special Collections.

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