Selected Correspondence from the Horton Foote
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SELECTED CORRESPONDENCE FROM THE HORTON FOOTE COLLECTION, 1912-1991 by SUSAN CHRISTENSEN Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Arlington in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT ARLINGTON August 2008 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank Horton Foote for his generosity in granting me permission to include transcriptions of his family members’ correspondence in my dissertation. I would also like to thank his daughter Hallie for her kind assistance. I have been fortunate to have the opportunity to work with Dr. Laurin Porter, my supervising professor, an extraordinary teacher, a remarkable scholar, and a generous and thoughtful person. During my graduate studies, her wisdom has inspired me and her encouragement has sustained me. I would like to extend my heartfelt appreciation to the members of my graduate committee, Dr. Desirée Henderson and Dr. Neill Matheson, and also to Dr. Wendy Faris and Dr. Thomas Porter, for their kindness and their work on my behalf. I am grateful to Dr. Russell Martin III, the director of the DeGolyer Library at Southern Methodist University, and his staff, who assisted me during the many months I spent conducting archival research. Finally, and most importantly, I would like to thank my husband Robert for his unwavering support and love. July 16, 2008 ii ABSTRACT SELECTED CORRESPONDENCE FROM THE HORTON FOOTE COLLECTION, 1912-1991 Susan Christensen, Ph.D. The University of Texas at Arlington, 2008 Supervising Professor: Laurin Porter This dissertation includes a discussion of archival research and editorial procedures employed in the study, introductory essays on the private correspondence of the family of Horton Foote, and transcriptions of one hundred letters selected from the personal correspondence in the Horton Foote Collection reposited in the DeGolyer Library at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, with extensive annotations and ancillary materials. In the first chapter, I explain the archival research procedures and editorial methods employed in the study. I also provide physical descriptions of the archived correspondence and present an overview of the contents of the letters, examining many of the varied topics discussed in the Foote family correspondence. The chapters that follow include annotated transcriptions of correspondence selected from the Foote papers with introductory essays, in eight sections, each covering a period of time during Horton Foote’s parents’ lives and iii Foote’s own life and career: his parents’ courtship, Horton Foote as a young actor and playwright, Foote’s engagement to Lillian, their early marriage, Foote as a young artist with a growing family, and Horton Foote as an artist, son, husband, and father. The eighth chapter includes letters Foote wrote to actors, directors, and writers in response to their letters to him. In the final chapter, concluding statements include suggestions for further research related to the Foote family correspondence and Foote’s dramatic works. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.................................................................................... ii ABSTRACT...........................................................................................................iii Chapter Page 1. INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................... 1 1.1 Significance of the Study.......................................................................... 2 1.2 Research Methods Employed ................................................................... 4 1.2.1 Selection and Organization................................................................ 8 1.2.2 Transcription, Redaction, and Annotation....................................... 11 1.2.3 Dating Letters and Correspondence Remaining Undated................ 17 1.3 Physical Properties of Letters, Envelopes, and Enclosures .................... 21 1.4 The Contents of the Correspondence...................................................... 27 1.4.1 The “Dailiness” of the Foote Family Correspondence .................... 27 1.4.2 The Foote Family Letters and the Sense of Place............................ 32 1.4.3 The Family Letters and Traditional Southern Foods ....................... 33 1.4.4 The Foote Family Correspondence and Types of Travel................. 35 1.4.5 The Correspondence and the Foote Family Pets.............................. 37 1.4.6 The Correspondence and the Family Members’ Reading................ 38 1.4.7 The Subject of Work........................................................................ 39 1.4.8 The Family Letters and Discussions of Politics and War................ 40 v 2. THE COURTSHIP OF FOOTE’S PARENTS, 1912-1914.......................... 43 3. FOOTE AS A YOUNG ACTOR AND PLAYWRIGHT, 1935-1944 ......... 59 4. MEETING LILLIAN, 1944-1945 ................................................................ 94 5. EARLY MARRIAGE, 1948-1959.............................................................. 116 6. THE YOUNG FAMILY, 1960-1968.......................................................... 163 7. SON, HUSBAND, AND FATHER, 1970-1978......................................... 227 8. LETTERS TO ACTORS AND WRITERS, 1986-1991............................. 263 9. CONCLUSION........................................................................................... 281 APPENDIX A. LETTERS IN THE COLLECTION LISTED BY DATE ......................... 287 B. UNDATED LETTERS IN THE COLLECTION ...................................... 306 NOTES................................................................................................................ 310 BIBLIOGRAPHY............................................................................................... 313 BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION.................................................................. 325 vi CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION As Horton Foote and his family treasured antiques, they saved thousands of their letters as cherished remembrances. The Foote family correspondence in the Horton Foote Collection in the DeGolyer archive at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, reflects epistolary traditions in our culture during most of the twentieth century, and the stories told and sentiments expressed in the letters suggest the emotional fulfillment that writing and receiving letters from family members can bring. Letter writing appears to have been a passion and a lifelong habit for the many members of the Foote family. For a literary scholar the personal correspondence of an author can provide unique insights. Because they are often written quickly in single drafts and untouched by editors, typesetters, and publishers, personal letters can reveal an author’s personality more readily than a published work. An author’s comments about literary influences and tastes, current works in progress, and contemporary political events can provide biographical and historical contexts for the analysis of texts. Furthermore, personal correspondence often reflects beliefs and feelings manifested in a writer’s poetry, drama, or fiction. 1 Much of the correspondence that would interest scholars of Horton Foote’s work is located at the DeGolyer Library in Dallas, Texas. The papers in the Horton Foote Collection at the DeGolyer archive include about two hundred linear feet of personal and professional correspondence, essays, lectures, manuscripts, photographs, and other items. At present, the DeGolyer Library at Southern Methodist University is the sole archival repository of the Foote family’s personal correspondence. The dates of the letters written by Foote’s family that have been placed in the DeGolyer archive extend from 1878 through the end of the twentieth century. During the course of this study, all of the personal correspondence placed in the DeGolyer Library before January 2008 was examined, and letters have been selected and annotated for this dissertation with the goal of providing insights into Foote’s autobiographical dramatic works. 1.1 Significance of the Study Horton Foote’s career as an actor, director, dramatist, and writer for television and film has extended over seven decades. During this period, Foote has written more than 150 published and unpublished plays, scripts for television and film, a novel, and two memoirs. Among the many honors and awards he has received are the Pulitzer Prize in 1995 for his play The Young Man from Atlanta and Academy Awards for his original screenplay Tender Mercies and screen adaptation of Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird . Foote received an Emmy award in 1997 for his television script of the Hallmark Hall of Fame adaptation of 2 William Faulkner’s “Old Man” (Dawidziak 171). When Horton Foote wrote the script of the film adaptation of William Faulkner’s short story “Tomorrow,” Faulkner offered to share the copyright for the screenplay with Foote (Castleberry, Genesis 10). In 2000, President Bill Clinton presented Horton Foote with a National Medal of Arts award (Castleberry, Genesis 1). In a recent review of books by three scholars of Horton Foote’s work, Laurence Avery, who has edited and published selected letters of Maxwell Anderson and Paul Green, states that in the 1980s, when plays in The Orphans’ Home Cycle began appearing . it was clear that Foote would make a significant contribution to the American theater. Since then, attention to his work has come along in a reasonable way. Of course plenty of