Scope and Contents note
The collection includes correspondence concerning Booth's work as a writer, including letters to and from Bill Cox, Noel Loomis, Merle Costiner, and Thomas Thompson, all of whom were writers of westerns.
The collection also includes 56 book length manuscripts, most with first, second and final drafts; 121 story length manuscripts, most with early and final drafts; some unidentified manuscript fragments; and one folder of reference material.
Dates
- 1946-1981
Creator
- Booth, Edwin (Person)
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
Edwin Booth, who also wrote under the names Don Blunt and Jack Hazard, was born in 1906 in Beatrice, Nebraska. He attended public schools in Nebraska and Iowa before moving to Colorado, where he studied civil engineering at Colorado College. During summer vacations Booth drove a milk truck, worked as a postal clerk, and guided tourists through Colorado's Cave of the Winds. In New Mexico, he worked as a ranch hand. After moving to California, Booth worked in a chain grocery store while studying accounting. He later started his own accounting firm which supported him until he became established as an author of westerns and mystery stories. In the 1960s, Edwin Booth was an officer in Western Writers of America, an organization of writers dedicated to the advancement and promotion of literature about the American West.
Extent
31 linear feet (60 containers, 59 volumes)
Language of Materials
English
Abstract
Edwin Booth (1906-1980) was a writer of Western fiction. The Edwin Booth Papers contain personal and professional literary correspondence with authors who were contemporaries of Booth, as well as literary manuscripts. The manuscript series contains manuscripts of novels and short stories. The collection also includes published copies of Booth's novels and anthologies of short stories. Booth wrote American westerns as well as mystery literature.
Arrangement note
Collection is organized into the following series: Series I. Correspondence; Series II. Manuscripts; Series III. Reference Material. Correspondence is arranged chronologically. Manuscripts are arranged alphabetically by title.
General Physical Description note
60 containers, 59 free-standing volumes
Processing Information
Collection processed by staff.
This finding aid may be updated periodically to account for new acquisitions to the collection and/or revisions in arrangement and description.
- Arts and Humanities Subject Source: Archiveswest
- Authors, American -- 20th century Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Booth, Edwin
- Costiner, Merle
- Cox, William R. (William Robert), 1901-1988
- Detective and mystery stories, American -- Authorship Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Literature Subject Source: Archiveswest
- Loomis, Noel M., 1905-1969
- Manuscripts for publication Subject Source: Art & Architecture Thesaurus
- Publishers and Publishing Subject Source: Archiveswest
- Thompson, Thomas, 1913-1993
- West (U.S.) -- In literature Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Western stories Subject Source: Local sources
- Western stories -- Authorship Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Title
- Guide to the Edwin Booth Papers
- Status
- Revise Description
- Author
- Finding aid prepared by Jenny Palm
- Date
- ©2004
- 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
