MORTIMER RARE BOOK ROOM SMITH COLLEGE Newton Arvin Papers 1865-2003 (bulk 1913-1963) 18.5 linear ft. (43 boxes) MS 14 Processed by Lynne M. Fors, Laura G. Freeman and Melvin Carlson, Jr. Northampton, Massachusetts 2006-2013 Contact information Mortimer Rare Book Room Smith College Northampton, Massachusetts 01063 413-585-2906; fax: 413-585-4486 email: [email protected] url: http://www.smith.edu/libraries/libs/rarebook 2 Newton Arvin Papers (1865-2003 ) 18.5 linear ft. (43 boxes) TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Biographical note 3 Copyright and Access 4 Provenance 5 Other collections 6 Scope and Content 7 Subject Headings and Added Entries 145 Mortimer Rare Book Room Smith College Northampton, Massachusetts 3 Newton Arvin Papers BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE NEWTON ARVIN (1900-1963) Frederick Newton Arvin, Jr. was born in 1900 in Valparaiso, Indiana. After attending public school in his hometown, Arvin graduated summa cum laude from Harvard in 1921; his B.A. was the highest degree he ever attained. Arvin joined the faculty of the Smith College English Department in 1922 as an instructor, and worked his way up to full professor with tenure in 1941. Although painfully shy as a professor, Arvin was considered one of the foremost literary biographers in American literature. He wrote four critical biographies: Hawthorne (1929), Whitman (1938), Herman Melville (1950), and Longfellow: His Life and Work (1963). He also contributed regularly to various publications within his field, as well as editing editions of Hawthorne, Melville, Henry Adams, and George W. Cable. In addition to his writing, editing, and teaching, Newton Arvin corresponded with over 450 people, ranging from high-school students seeking information, to publishing companies, to soldiers serving in World War II, as well as with many of the literary giants of his time, such as Van Wyck Brooks, Lionel Trilling, Carson McCullers, and of course, Truman Capote. His professional achievements are impressive: He was elected to the board of directors of Yaddo—the writers' and artists’ colony in Saratoga Springs, NY—in 1939. He received the National Book Award in 1951 for his Melville biography; in 1952 he was elected to the National Institute of Arts and Letters. Although Arvin was a brilliant scholar, his personal life was deeply troubled. He attempted suicide at least three times. His marriage to Mary Garrison, a former Smith student, ended in divorce in 1940, and in the fall of that year, Arvin had a nervous breakdown. Shame over his own homosexuality tormented him for his entire life, with the possible happy exception of his three-year relationship with Truman Capote, after which the two remained close friends. Arvin adamantly maintained a strict separation between his personal and professional life, but in 1960 that separation would be broken down. Arvin was arrested with two other Smith professors on charges of "possession of obscene pictures for exhibition" and "lewdness": specifically, Arvin held a collection of gay pornography. Although he received only a fine and a one-year suspended sentence, the humiliation of having his homosexuality publicly revealed resulted in a nervous breakdown and a stay in a mental hospital. He was forcibly retired from Smith that same year, and died of cancer of the pancreas in 1963, shortly after his biography of Longfellow was published. Mortimer Rare Book Room Smith College Northampton, Massachusetts 4 Newton Arvin Papers COPYRIGHT & ACCESS Copyright © Smith College Libraries The Newton Arvin Papers are the physical property of the Mortimer Rare Book Room, Smith College. The literary rights, including copyright of the correspondence, belongs to the authors of the letters or their legal representatives. The copyrights associated with the materials gifted by Charles R. Pierce are retained by him. The transfer of the these rights to The Trustees of Smith College will occur upon the death of Charles R. Pierce, or sooner if agreed to by him and Smith College. The Newton Arvin Papers are open to research according to the regulations of the Mortimer Rare Book Room, Smith College. Mortimer Rare Book Room Smith College Northampton, Massachusetts 5 Newton Arvin Papers PROVENANCE The letters of Newton Arvin (with a few exceptions) came to Smith College as designated in his will—“… accumulated correspondence to Smith College Library for selection and disposition at the discretion of the Librarian” following his death in 1963. Arvin designated in his will that his niece, Barbara Pierce, was to have “…my diaries, journals, manuscripts whether published or unpublished, notes and the like which have not otherwise been otherwise disposed of by this will.” In November 2011 Charles R. Pierce, the son of Barbara and Edward R. Pierce, gave this collection to Smith College. Not only did this gift contain the items as noted in the will, but the gift also contained some correspondence, photographs, documents related to the Arvin family and an unfinished biography by Arvin. Mortimer Rare Book Room Smith College Northampton, Massachusetts 6 Newton Arvin Papers OTHER COLLECTIONS CONTAINING CORRESPONDENCE AND PAPERS BY OR RELATED TO NEWTON ARVIN Newton Arvin Papers, 1924-2001. Located at: Smith College Archives. Granville Hicks correspondence with Newton Arvin, 1928-1963. Located at: Smith College Mortimer Rare Book Room. Contains Hicks’s correspondence to Arvin, 1928-1962. Also included is Arvin’s correspondence (photocopies) to Hicks, 1929-1963, that are on deposit in the Syracuse University Library . In addition there is a photocopy of Arvin’s unfinished memoirs of his youth (undated). Letters of Newton Arvin to Lewis Mumford and Van Wyck Brooks, 1920-1963. Located at: University of Pennsylvania Van Pelt-Dietrich Library, Special Collections Center. Stanley Edgar Hyman Papers, 1932-1978. Located at: The Library of Congress. Carson McCullers Collection, 1924-1976. Located at: University of Texas at Austin. Harry Ransom Center. John Wheelwright Papers, 1920-1940. Located at: Brown University. John Hay Library. Yaddo records, 1870-1980. Located at: New York Public Library. PUBLISHED WORKS AND FILMS ON NEWTON ARVIN Werth, Barry. The Scarlet Professor: Newton Arvin a Literary Life Shattered by Scandal. New York: Doubleday, 2001. The great pink scare: a film by Tug Yourgrau and Dan Miller. [Somerville, Mass.] :Powderhouse Productions, Inc.,[2005]. Homeland insecurity: civil liberties, repression, and citizenship in the 1950s. 2003. Videotaped at Smith College, Northampton, Mass. on January 23-26, 2003. The 1960 Smith Scandal. 2002. Organized by the Weissman Center for Leadership and filmed at Mount Holyoke College, February 7, 2002. Mortimer Rare Book Room Smith College Northampton, Massachusetts 7 Newton Arvin Papers SCOPE AND CONTENTS The Newton Arvin Papers are arranged in 12 series: I. CORRESPONDENCE TO NEWTON ARVIN(1922-1960) II. CORRESPONDENCE FROM NEWTON ARVIN (1930-1962) III. THIRD PARTY CORRESPONDENCE (1960-1974) IV. DIARIES OF NEWTON ARVIN (1913-1918; 1940-1963) V. JOURNAL AND COMMONPLACE BOOKS OF NEWTON ARVIN (1959-1962) VI. BOOKS READ AND TO BE READ BY NEWTON ARVIN (1960s) VII. NEWTON ARVIN’S AUTOBIOGRAPHY/MEMOIRS—NOTES AND PARTIALLY COMPLETED MANUSCRIPT (1960s) This series contains Arvin’s preliminary notes and the partially completed autobiography covering his family background and life to about 1915. VIII. DIARY OF JOHN BAKER HAWKINS (1832-1911) FOR 1865 This series contains the diary of Newton Arvin’s maternal grandfather for 1865, the year of the birth of Arvin’s mother Jessie. XI. PHOTOGRAPHS, LATE 18thCENTURY TO 1950s This series contains family photographs (some unidentified) of the Arvin and Hawkins families, as well as various photographs of or by Newton Arvin. X. MEMORABILIA, AWARDS, CERTIFICATES, ARTICLES BY AND ABOUT NEWTON ARVIN, ETC. This series includes Arvin’s high school yearbook of which he was editor, as well as numerous awards and other items associated with Arvin. XI. RESEARCH, WRITINGS AND TEACHING PAPERS OF NEWTON ARVIN. This series comprises the extensive notes that Arvin kept as a result of his reading, especially for his teaching and research. Included in this series is his manuscript (with corrections) of his biography on Longfellow. Arvin’s habitually typed his detailed notes, often adding annotations by hand. XII. MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS This series contains numerous items related to Valparaiso and Winona Lake, Indiana, an Amherst College thesis on the “Arvin affair at Smith College” and a copy of Joel Dorius’s memoir. Mortimer Rare Book Room Smith College Northampton, Massachusetts 8 Newton Arvin Papers Box Folder No. No. SERIES I. CORRESPONDENCE TO NEWTON ARVIN 1:1-2 Aaron, Daniel 1951-1963 (19 letters) (1912- [12 Farwell Place Cambridge, MA 02138] 1:3 [Aaron], Jonathan 1960 (2 letters) [100 Larch Rd Cambridge, MA 02138] 1:4 Aloian, David 1960 (1 letter) (1928- [350 Prospect St Belmont, MA 02178] 1:5 Altick, Richard D. 1952-1959 (2 letters ) (1915- [Department of English Ohio State University Columbus, OH 43210] 1:6 Ames, Elizabeth 1959 2 letters (d. 1977) 1:7 Anderson, Charles R. 1950-1960 2 letters [41 Legare St Charleston, SC 29401] 1:8 Anderson, Sherwood 1923 1 letter (1876-1941) 1:8a Arvin, Dorothy 1956 Aug 26 (partial letter) 1962 June 19 1962 July 9 1:9 Arvin, Mary n.d. 7 letters (1909-1977) 1:10 Aswell, Mary Lou [1946] Jul 11 ALS/2 (1902-1984) [1946] Nov 15 ALS/1 n.y. Aug 21 ALS/1 Mortimer Rare Book Room Smith College Northampton, Massachusetts 9 Newton Arvin Papers Box Folder No. No. 1:10a Atlantic Monthly Press 1962 Jun 25 TD/1 1:11 Bailey, David W. 1952 Jun 2 TLS/1 (1899- 1953 Jan 5 TLS/1 [11 Berkeley St Cambridge, MA 02138] 1:12 Baird, James R. 1950 Jun 20 ALS/1 1:13 Baker, Herschel 1952 Sep 15 TLS/1 (1914- 1952 Nov 17 TLS/1 [Harvard University 1952 Dec 15 TLS/1 117 Widener Library 1953 Sep 21 TLS/1 Cambridge, MA 02138] 1:14 Bandler, Bernard, II 1929 Sep 23 TLS/1 (d.