Mary Tappan Wright correspondence and compositions
Overview
Correspondence of American novelist Mary Tappan Wright and her family as well as drafts of literary compositions.
Dates
- Creation: 1880-1909
Language of Materials
Collection materials are in English.
Conditions Governing Access
There are no restrictions on physical access to this material.
Extent
3 linear feet (6 boxes)Correspondence consists chiefly of letters to Wright's husband John Henry Wright, her parents, and her children, Austin Tappan Wright, Elizabeth Tappan Wright, and John Kirtland Wright. The letters concern family news, depictions of daily life, discussions of furnishings and clothing, household finance and business, and raising children, as well as ideas for stories and depictions of life at Harvard. Some letters include photographs. The collection also includes autograph and typescript short stories, notes for works, and novel fragments. Many compositions are based on college life, including "The Murder of Hillyer and its Consequences," a murder mystery set on the Harvard campus. Her diary concerns home and social life at Harvard, descriptions of travel, and includes correspondence and travel photos from Europe.
Biographical / Historical
Mary Tappan Wright was an American novelist and short story writer. Her husband, John Henry Wright, was a professor of Greek and a Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University.
Arrangement
Organized into the following series:
- I. Correspondence
- II. Compositions
- III. Notes and drafts
Physical Location
b
Immediate Source of Acquisition
62M-311. Gift of John K. Wright, Lyme, New Hampshire; received: 1963.
- Title
- Wright, Mary Tappan, 1851-1916. Mary Tappan Wright correspondence and compositions, 1880-1909: Guide.
- Author
- Houghton Library, Harvard College Library
- Language of description
- und
- EAD ID
- hou00823
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.
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