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COLLECTION Identifier: MS Am 1948-1948.1

John Mason Brown papers

Overview

Papers of American author and drama critic John Mason Brown.

Dates

  • Creation: 1922-1967

Creator

Language of Materials

Collection materials are in English.

Conditions Governing Access

There are no restrictions on physical access to this material.

Extent

36 linear feet (144 boxes)

Chiefly correspondence of John Mason Brown, including letters from over 6000 correspondents and many carbon copies of outgoing letters. The correspondence reflects Brown's interest in the theater and his work as a columnist for Saturday Review and as a television commentator. Correspondents include Edward Campbell Aswell, Brooks Atkinson, Barrett Harper Clark, Norman Cousins, Alan Goodrich Kirk, David Thompson Watson McCord, and Lee Simonson. Also includes some writings by Brown and others; lecture notes; theater photographs, drawings, and clippings; business papers, including contracts with publishers and television companies; reviews and clippings on books by Brown; and photographs and other material from Brown's service in the Navy during World War II on the staff of Vice-Admiral Alan G. Kirk, particularly during the invasions of Sicily and Normandy.

Biographical / Historical

Brown was an American author. He was drama critic for the New York Evening Post (1929-1941) and New York World (1941-1942) and was a columnist and editor for Saturday Review (1944-1969).

Arrangement

  1. I. Letters to John Mason Brown
  2. II. Additional letters to John Mason Brown
  3. III. Letters from John Mason Brown
  4. IV. Letters to Catherine Screven (Meredith) Brown
  5. V. Other letters
  6. VI. Compositions by John Mason Brown
  7. VII. Compositions by others
  8. VIII. Other papers of John Mason Brown
  9. IX. bMS Am 1948.1: Additional correspondence
  10. ___A. Letters to John Mason Brown
  11. ___B. Letters from John Mason Brown
  12. ___C. Letters to Catherine Screven (Meredith) Brown
  13. ___D. Other letters

Please note that item number 4252 was inadvertently omitted from this finding aid.

Physical Location

b

Immediate Source of Acquisition

*75M-111. Bequest of John Mason Brown; received: 1969.

Title
Brown, John Mason, 1900-1969. John Mason Brown papers: Guide.
Author
Houghton Library, Harvard College Library
Language of description
und
EAD ID
hou00655

Repository Details

Part of the Houghton Library Repository

Houghton Library is Harvard College's principal repository for rare books and manuscripts, archives, and more. Houghton Library's collections represent the scope of human experience from ancient Egypt to twenty-first century Cambridge. With strengths primarily in North American and European history, literature, and culture, collections range in media from printed books and handwritten manuscripts to maps, drawings and paintings, prints, posters, photographs, film and audio recordings, and digital media, as well as costumes, theater props, and a wide range of other objects. Houghton Library has historically focused on collecting the written record of European and Eurocentric North American culture, yet it holds a large and diverse number of primary sources valuable for research on the languages, culture and history of indigenous peoples of the Americas, Africa, Asia and Oceania.

Houghton Library’s Reading Room is free and open to all who wish to use the library’s collections.

Contact:
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