Scope and Contents note
The Edward Breese Papers document Breese's career as a popular fiction writer and consist of autobiographical sketches, correspondence, manuscripts, and financial material.
The correspondence, 1965-1972, is arranged chronologically and is for the most part between Breese and his various editors. There are also some personal family letters.
The manuscript section contains published and unpublished poetry, non fiction, and fiction ranging in size from short, article length (approximately 1,000 words) to novelettes (20,000-30,000 words). Short notes containing character sketches and plot devices are also included. The non-fiction pieces are mainly business articles and political opinion.
The fictional works include mystery, western, and romance stories. The section containing financial material contains short handwritten notes written by Breese which list titles of periodicals to which he proposed to sell articles and include the article titles, dates of sale, and amounts paid. Contracts mailed to Breese by various publishers are also included in the financial materials section.
The collection includes two photos, one of Breese and his wife attending a wedding, c. 1960, and a snapshot of them in later years.
Dates
- 1965-1972
Creator
Conditions Governing Access note
Collection is open to the public. Collection must be used in Special Collections and University Archives Reading Room. Collection or parts of collection may be stored offsite. Please contact Special Collections and University Archives in advance of your visit to allow for transportation time.
Conditions Governing Use note
Property rights reside with Special Collections and University Archives, University of Oregon Libraries. Copyright resides with the creators of the documents or their heirs. All requests for permission to publish collection materials must be submitted to Special Collections and University Archives. The reader must also obtain permission of the copyright holder.
Biographical/Historical note
Edward Yarde Breese was born in Trenton, New Jersey in 1912. He received his undergraduate degree from Princeton University in 1934. After graduating from Princeton, he worked for a time as a wire service reporter in New York covering financial news from the New York Stock Exchange. Later he served in the Army Air Force as an aerial gunner during the Second World War. .
After the war, he held a variety of positions including work as a personnel management and training executive; industrial management consultant; in sales and sales management; as a real estate broker in Florida; and teacher of economics, humanities, and industrial management at Georgia Tech and at the University of Georgia at Atlanta. .
He began a free-lance writing career sometime past the age of 40, at first concentrating on non-fiction articles for a variety of periodicals such as Manage, Fate, Armenian Salesman, Modern Man, The Freeman, Guns and Ammo, and American Rifleman. Beginning around 1966, he began to sell short pieces of fiction to such "pulp" magazines as Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine, and Zane Grey Western Magazine. A number of his works were submitted under a variety of pseudonyms such as Brett Halliday, Zane Grey, Ned or Edward Buller, or simply as "Y. B.".
Breese died in Miami, Florida in 1979 at the age of 67.
Additional Breese material can be found in the Leo Margulies Papers (Coll 133).
Extent
3 linear feet (6 containers)
Language of Materials
English
Abstract
Consists primarily of correspondence with editors, manuscripts of fiction and some non-fiction, and financial material relating to the marketing of his stories.
Arrangement note
Collection is organized into the following series: Correspondence; Manuscripts: Poems; Manuscripts: Non-fiction; Manuscripts: Fiction; Financial material; Photographs.
General Physical Description note
6 containers
Processing Information note
Collection processed by Manuscripts Processor.
This finding aid may be updated periodically to account for new acquisitions to the collection and/or revisions in arrangement and description.
- Authors, American -- 20th century -- Correspondence Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Breese, Edward Y. (Edward Yarde), 1912-1979
- Detective and mystery stories -- Authorship Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Journalism Subject Source: Archiveswest
- Literature Subject Source: Archiveswest
- Margulies, Leo, 1900-1975
- Photographs Subject Source: Art & Architecture Thesaurus
- Popular literature -- Authorship Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Romance fiction -- Authorship Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Short stories -- Authorship Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Western stories -- Authorship Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Title
- Guide to the Edward Y. Breese Papers
- Status
- Complete Description
- Author
- Finding aid prepared by Manuscripts Processor
- Date
- ©2007
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
- Language of description note
- Finding aid written in English.
- Sponsor
- Funding for encoding this finding aid was provided through a grant awarded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Repository Details
Part of the University of Oregon Libraries, Special Collections and University Archives Repository
