Peter Buckley

Peter Buckley: An Inventory of His Papers and Photography Collection at the Harry Ransom Center Descriptive Summary Creator: Buckley, Peter, 1925-1997 Title: Peter Buckley Papers and Photography Collection Dates: 1943-2007, undated (bulk 1950s-1970s) Extent: 32 document boxes, 10 oversize boxes (14.8 linear feet); 1 flat file drawer Abstract: The collection consists of photographic prints (approximately 1,100), contact sheets (approximately 1,900), negatives (approximately 2,500), slides (approximately 1,700), scrapbooks, correspondence, clippings, annotated books, handwritten and typed manuscripts, and book dummies, all documenting the life and career of American photographer Peter Buckley. Call Number: Photography Collection PH-2470 Language: English, French, Italian, and Spanish Access: Open for research. Please note: Transparencies may be accessed but require 24 hours advance notice. Negatives cannot be accessed without curatorial approval. Two albums have been restricted due to their fragile condition, but digital copies of these albums are available in the Ransom Center Reading and Viewing Room for patron access. To make an appointment or to reserve photography materials, please contact the Center's staff at [email protected]. Administrative Information Acquisition: Gift, 2011, 2015 (11-06-013-G) Processed by: Daniela Lozano, 2013 and Anne Kofmehl, 2015 Repository: The University of Texas at Austin, Harry Ransom Center Buckley, Peter, 1925-1997 Photography Collection PH-2470 Biographical Sketch Peter Hays Buckley was born September 13, 1925, in New York City. His father, David Augustine Buckley, and his mother, Elinor Hays Buckley, separated when he was just six months old. Buckley spent his childhood years living abroad with his mother and going to school in several European cities including Paris, London, Rome, Geneva, and Vienna. In 1938, they returned to New York City where Buckley attended Riverdale Country Day School from which he graduated in 1943. Buckley attended Princeton University during the summer before he turned eighteen and was drafted into the U.S. Army. From November 1943 to July 1946, he served as part of the Counter Intelligence Forces stationed in Europe during World War II. After being honorably discharged, Buckley returned to Princeton. He graduated magna cum laude in 1949 with a major in French and Spanish literature. He then went on to the University of Paris to pursue doctoral work in philosophy and psychology but abandoned that program in 1951. Following his departure from the University of Paris, Buckley went to Spain and became interested in making movies about bullfights. He befriended many of the matadors and also reconnected and became close with Ernest Hemingway, who was also active in the bullfight scene. Buckley’s mother had met Hemingway and his first wife, Hadley, during their time in Paris in the 1920s, and their son, Jack, was a childhood friend of Buckley’s. In addition to his interest in bullfights, Buckley aspired to work on projects that would bring people from different countries together in the hope of preventing another war like the one he had just lived through. He made a short silent movie, Under One Sun, which focused on two children living in different areas of Italy, but he was unsuccessful with its distribution. Encouraged by a friend in the book business, Buckley then envisioned a series of photographically illustrated children’s books that would tell the stories of children and their families from different parts of the world, for which he abandoned his movie camera and took up still photography. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, Buckley traveled extensively throughout Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Holland, Greece, Nigeria, and Puerto Rico, all the while shooting photographs for these books. What began as the Around the World book series at Franklin Watts continued on with other publishers. The transition from movies to still photographs also carried over into his bullfight projects. He spent several bullfight seasons in the late 1950s traveling from city to city with the matadors and shooting photographs during the matches and behind the scenes. In 1958, he wrote and published what became his most successful book, Bullfight, illustrated with photographs taken during this period. By the 1960s, Buckley had established himself as a master photographer of children with his Around the World series. He was hired by the publisher Holt, Rinehart and Winston, the largest publisher of K-12 foreign language materials at the time, to shoot photographs for their French and Spanish textbook and filmstrip series. Buckley traveled to Spain, France, Mexico, and Central and South America shooting photographs for these books. From 1965 to 1968, he wrote about and photographed families for the Holt Urban Social Studies series, a series of books and filmstrips that focused on children 2 Buckley, Peter, 1925-1997 Photography Collection PH-2470 living and going to school in New York City. It was intended to create a more fully integrated textbook series for children, a concept considered quite radical at that time. Buckley’s next major project was Ernest (1978), a photo biography of his friend Ernest Hemingway. He was given unprecedented access to family photographs by Hemingway’s widow, Mary, which he combined with his own photographs and text. Ernest turned out to be Buckley’s last book. Several planned projects, such as additional Around the World books from Romania and Morocco, a book of color photographs of fall leaves, and a book of photographs of bald eagles shot in British Columbia in the late 1980s, were never completed. Buckley was married to Conrad Little from 1959 to 1970, and they had three children: David, Annabel, and Michael. In 1973, he married Susan Grace Washburn whom he met at Holt, Rinehart and Winston where she worked as an editor. Buckley died in New York City on January 8, 1997. Sources: Information in the biographical sketch is derived from materials in the Peter Buckley Papers and Photography Collection and from correspondence in 2013 with Buckley's widow, Susan. Scope and Contents Photographic prints, negatives, transparencies, scrapbooks, correspondence, clippings, annotated books, manuscripts, and book dummies document the life and career of Peter Buckley. The collection is organized into the following two series: I. Projects, 1943-1998, undated; and II. Career-Related and Personal, 1945-2007, undated. Series I. Projects, comprises the bulk of the collection. It consists of photographic material for Buckley’s book projects, and includes negatives, contact sheets, prints, slides, and a small amount of transparencies, as well as correspondence, clippings, annotated books, manuscripts, and book dummies. Copies of his books Bullfight (1958) and Ernest (1978) are also included. Oversize mounted and matted prints from Peru, Greece, Holland, Switzerland, France, and Guatemala are present as well as oversize mounted prints of eagles and one inscribed print of a bullfighter. Smaller prints from other projects are also present. Series II. Career-Related and Personal, contains scrapbooks, photographic prints, negatives, and contact sheets, clippings and tear sheets, gifts, and posters. Buckley’s plan for a photography exhibition from the 1990s and a detailed resume he put together in the 1970s also form part of this series. Series Outline 3 Buckley, Peter, 1925-1997 Photography Collection PH-2470 Series I. Projects, 1943-1998, undated Subseries A. Countries, 1952-1987, undated Subseries B. Ernest Hemingway, 1943-1998 Subseries C. Holt Urban Social Studies Series, 1965-1968 Subseries D. Subjects, 1950s-1988, undated Series II. Career-Related and Personal, 1945-2007, undated Arrangement by Format Contact sheets, prints, and manuscript materials, Boxes 1-23 Oversize Materials, Boxes 24-32, 44 and Flat File (FF) 33.15 Negatives (restricted), Transparencies, and Slides, Boxes 33-43 Copper printing plates, Box 44 Series Descriptions Series I. Projects, 1943-1998, undated (32.5 boxes, 4 oversize boxes, 1 flat file drawer) This series documents Buckley’s career as a photographer. The series is divided into four subseries: A. Countries, 1952-1987, undated; B. Ernest Hemingway, 1943-1998; C. Holt Urban Social Studies Series, 1965-1968; and D. Subjects, 1950s-1988, undated. Subseries A. Countries, 1952-1987, undated This subseries makes up the bulk of the collection and contains mostly photographic material—negatives, contact sheets, prints, and slides—from Buckley’s travels throughout the 1950s and 1970s. Noteworthy are Buckley’s contact sheets which are often marked with instructions for printing and cropping. The material is organized by location in keeping with Buckley’s original organizational system. The countries represented include Belgium, Canada, England, France, Greece, Holland, Italy, Mexico, Morocco, Nigeria, Puerto Rico, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, the United States, and several in Central and South America. In most cases, the negatives correspond to one or more book projects, with the exception of Belgium, Canada, England, Morocco, and Turkey, and the United States which were either unrelated to any specific project or intended for an unrealized book project. Titles listed in the Container List were transferred from Buckley’s original envelopes. Buckley employed his own numbering system to organize his negatives by project. The numbers are listed with the negatives in the Container List. Physically, the negatives are arranged in numerical order, except where

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