Scope and Contents note
Kathrene Pinkerton's Two Ends to our Shoestring and photographs in the collection document the years spent in the Pinkerton's Canadian cabin with their daughter Bobs. Included is Kathrene Pinkerton's logbook of the trip to Alaska from 1924 to 1931, Three's a Crew and an untitled manuscript. She also wrote teen-age novels, autobiographical books, and a book on fur farming. Her books were translated into German and Dutch.
Robert Pinkerton's writing includes fiction, a history of the Hudson's Bay Company, as well as one of the most widely accepted books on canoes and canoeing. Most of their collaborative efforts were novelettes, which appeared in the pulp magazines from 1916 through 1935.
Dates
- 1911-1967
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
Robert E. Pinkerton (1882-1970) and Kathrene Pinkerton (1887-1967) were writers of both fiction and nonfiction.
Robert E. Pinkerton was born March 12, 1882 in Arena, Wisconsin. He attended the University of Wisconsin for two years. He worked as a cub reporter on the Milwaukee Free Press and was later telegraph news editor for The Journal in Milwaukee.
Kathrene Pinkerton was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, June 9 1887. She received her B.A. from the University of Wisconsin, and did graduate work at the Chicago School of Civics and Philanthropy. Her early career was in social work in Chicago and public health in Wisconsin.
The Pinkertons married in 1911. Their first fictive effort a 30,000 word novelette sold to Munsey's Magazine. With the $150 earnings they departed for the wilds of Canada, where they built onto a cabin in the bush, eight miles from the village of Atikokan, Ontario. The only means of transport to and from Atikokan were by canoe in the summer and dog sled during the long Canadian winter. Their nonfiction pieces sold to outdoor magazines, totaling for their first two years work $532.00. Their fiction did not sell during this period.
Two years later the Pinkertons came out of the bush for a short while, for the birth of their daughter, Bobs, and returned by dogsled when she was seven weeks old. "For the next four and one half years," wrote Ben Hibbs, then editor of The Country Gentleman, "they sold every story they wrote."
Mrs. Pinkerton died in 1967 and Mr. Pinkerton in 1970.
Extent
4.5 linear feet (5 containers)
Language of Materials
English
Abstract
Robert E. Pinkerton (1882-1970) and Kathrene Pinkerton (1887-1967) were writers of both fiction and nonfiction, primarily writing in Canada. The collection includes correspondence, literary manuscripts, tear sheets, photo albums, books and Kathrene Pinkerton's diary.
Arrangement note
Collection is organized into the following series:
Series: Correspondence
Series: Literary Manuscripts
Series: Tear sheets
Series: Research Notes and Material
Series: Photo Albums
Series: Published Books
Series: Addenda
Immediate Source of Acquisition note
Gift of Bobs Pinkerton, 1970-1972
Processing Information note
Collection processed by processing staff, September 1970.
This finding aid may be updated periodically to account for new acquisitions to the collection and/or revisions in arrangement and description.
- American fiction -- 20th century -- Authorship Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Authors, American -- 20th century Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Correspondence Subject Source: Art & Architecture Thesaurus
- Diaries Subject Source: Archiveswest
- Literature Subject Source: Archiveswest
- Manuscripts for publication Subject Source: Art & Architecture Thesaurus
- Photographs Subject Source: Art & Architecture Thesaurus
- Pinkerton, Kathrene, 1887-1967
- Pinkerton, Kathrene, 1887-1967
- Pinkerton, Kathrene, 1887-1967
- Pinkerton, Robert E. (Robert Eugene), 1882-1970
- Pinkerton, Robert E. (Robert Eugene), 1882-1970
- Publishers and publishing -- Correspondence Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Pulp literature -- Authorship Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Tear sheets Subject Source: Art & Architecture Thesaurus
- Women Subject Source: Archiveswest
- Women authors, American -- 20th century Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Title
- Guide to the Robert E. Pinkerton and Kathrene Pinkerton Papers
- Status
- Complete Description
- Author
- Finding aid prepared by processing staff
- Date
- 2006
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
- Language of description note
- Finding aid is 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
