ZOË AKINS PAPERS 1878 - 1959 FINDING AID The Huntington Library Gayle M. Richardson January 17, 2008 ©The Huntington Library Zoë Akins Papers -- Finding Aid -- page 2 Table of Contents Page Administrative Information 3 Biographical Note 4 Scope and Content Note 5 Container List 6 Manuscripts 6 Correspondence 55 Oversize Correspondence 134 Photographs 135 Drawings 141 Ephemera 142 Oversize Ephemera 151 Indexing: Subjects 151 Indexing: Added Entries 275 Indexing: Form and Genre Terms 298 Bibliography 298 Appendix I: List of Akins’ Works with Original 299 and Alternate Titles Zoë Akins Papers -- Finding Aid -- page 3 Administrative Information The bulk of the collection was acquired from Zoë Akins on March 20, 1952. The following material was acquired separately and added to the collection: Orrick Johns, H.L. Mencken letters to Akins, and H.L. Mencken letter to Jobyna Howland, gift of Zoë Akins, July 28, 1952. Zoë Akins Addenda acquired from the Zoë Akins Estate, May 12, 1961. Zoë Akins manuscripts, “First Verse” and “Iseult, The Fair,” gift of Henry O’Neil. Zoë Akins letter to Alexander Woollcott acquired from Walter R. Benjamin, January 10, 1978, (accession number 493). Zoë Akins typewritten letters (carbon copies), gift of Occidental College Library, January 21, 1982, (accession number 926). Zoë Akins diary, 1924, acquired from R.E. Evans, December 23, 1986, (accession number 1312). The collection has been fully processed and is available for research. The collection numbers 7, 354 cataloged items plus ephemera. Call numbers: ZA 1 - 7330 Restrictions: Willa Cather stated in her will that none of her letters are ever to be published. Therefore, no copies of any kind are to be made of these letters; additionally, the letters are not to be published or quoted from in any print or electronic medium. These restrictions are noted in this Finding Aid and on the folders. The Literary copyright: The status of the literary rights for Zoë Akins remains unresolved at this time. Please consult the curator of the collection for additional information. Other Material and Collections of Interest • Sonya Levien Papers -- includes various people as author, addressee or subject who are in the Akins Papers; for example Zoë Akins, Carl Hovey, Sonya Levien, Kay Rasmus Nielsen and Ulla Nielsen. Cataloging Decisions 1. The cataloging of this collection was begun in 1952 by Gertrude Ruhnka and continued by Kay Peterson in the 1990s. In 2006, it was decided to completely recatalog the collection according to current standard authorized cataloging forms. The original Summary Report Zoë Akins Papers -- Finding Aid -- page 4 prepared by Gertrude Ruhnka, and used by subsequent catalogers, has been retained and is cataloged in Ephemera Box 181 (16). 2. Zoë Akins’ autograph notes appear on manuscripts and letters throughout the collection. Unless substantive, it was decided not to index each instance separately. Additionally, autograph notes made by Gertrude Ruhnka, while going through the collection with Miss Akins, were not indexed, but, if the notes were substantive, noted on the folder. 3. Zoë Akins appears to have been an indifferent speller, especially of proper names and titles of her own works. She frequently misspelled the names of friends, both in letters to them and when writing about them; this habit was also shared by her mother, Sarah Elizabeth Akins. Regardless of the Akins’ spelling, letters are cataloged and indexed using the authorized name both on the folder and in this Finding Aid. 4. There are references to Zoë Akins throughout the collection; only substantive references and author/title references for her works have been subject indexed. 5. A number of Akins’ books, plays, and screenplays were published and/or produced under more than one title; it was decided to catalog and index these works by the title used at the time by Akins. Please see Appendix I for a list of Akins’ alternate titles for her major works. Biographical Note Zoë Akins (1886-1958) was a dramatist, novelist, poet and screenwriter. Born in Humansville, Missouri, on 30 October, she was educated at home before attending Monticello Seminary in Godfrey, Illinois, and Hosmer Hall in St. Louis. While a teenager in St. Louis, Akins wrote poetry and criticism for William Marion Reedy’s Mirror; in 1905, she moved to New York to be an actress but eventually found writing to be her true talent. Her early plays include, “Iseult the Fair,” “Papa,” “The Magical City,” and the moderately successful “Déclassée,” with Ethel Barrymore. In 1928, Akins moved to California permanently to work as a screenwriter under contract to Paramount and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, where she became a favorite writer of George Cukor. During this time she wrote the screenplays “Christopher Strong” and “Morning Glory” for Katharine Hepburn and “Camille” for Greta Garbo. During these years she continued to write for the stage and, in 1935, won the Pulitzer Prize for her dramatization of Edith Wharton’s story, “The Old Maid.” In addition to many screenplays and plays, Akins also authored two volumes of poetry, criticism, two novels, teleplays, magazine and newspaper articles. On March 12, 1932, Akins married Capt. Hugo Rumbold, an artist and set designer from a British diplomatic family, but, tragically, he died only eight months later on 18 November; she never remarried. Akins lived the remainder of her life in Southern California, where she died, after a brief illness, on October 29, 1958. Zoë Akins Papers -- Finding Aid -- page 5 Scope and Content Note The papers consist of the following series: 1. Manuscripts (Boxes 1-60) are arranged alphabetically by author and title. The manuscripts cover a wide span of Akins’ literary career including some of her childhood writing and the episodes for television she was working on at the time of her death. Included in this series are: Akins’ articles, essays, interviews, short stories, plays, screenplays, poems and novels (both published and unpublished). This series also includes manuscripts by other authors, most notably by W.H. Auden, Carlo Beuf, Hildegarde Flanner, Patterson Greene, Orrick Johns, George O’Neil, Hugo Rumbold, and George Sterling. 2. Correspondence (Boxes 61-165) is arranged alphabetically by author. This series includes personal letters and letters related to Akins’ writing; the personal letters cover almost all of Akins’ life, from her teenage years when she became engaged, briefly, to William Marion Reedy, till the end of her life. A large number of letters deal with the entertainment business, both Hollywood and Broadway, concerning the production of screenplays and plays. This series includes the personal and business correspondence of Hugo Rumbold and the Rumbold family. Akins retained many business letters of her late husband concerning his various projects. This series also includes a number of letters written or received by Rumbold family members dealing with their diplomatic work, including comments on historical events and meeting famous people in the late 19th and early 20th centuries all over the world. This series also includes letters from notable people in the literary, acting, and publishing fields in America and Europe, including: Aline Barnsdall, Ethel Barrymore, Carlo Beuf, Billie Burke, Willa Cather, George Cukor, Patterson Greene, Gerald Grove, William Harris, Carl Hovey, Jobyna Howland, Orrick Johns, George S. Kaufman, Alice Kauser, Sonya Levien, Anita Loos, Amy Lowell, W. Somerset Maugham, H.L. Mencken, Harry Moses, Kay Rasmus Nielsen, George O’Neil, Max Pfeffer, Rosamond Pinchot, Una Pope-Hennessey, William M. Reedy, Etheldred Rumbold, Horace Rumbold, Hugo Rumbold, David O. Selznick, Edward Sheldon, Sara Teasdale, Harriet Ware, Edith Wharton, and John Wheelock. The series also includes letters from various magazines, movie studios, production companies, and theatres, including: Charles Scribner’s Sons, Ladies’ Home Journal, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Paramount Pictures, R K O Pictures, Richard Madden Play Co., Samuel French, Inc., Shubert Theatres Corporation, and the Theatre Guild. 3. Photographs (Boxes 166-168) are arranged alphabetically by subject. The first group consists of famous actors and actresses from Hollywood and Broadway, from 1905, through the 1950s; this series also includes some photographs from various productions of Akins’ screenplays and plays. The second group includes Akins and Rumbold family photographs. 4. Drawings (Boxes 169-170) are arranged alphabetically by artist. This series includes drawings by Alfred Joseph Frueh, Norman Bel Geddes, Kay Rasmus Nielsen, and Hugo Rumbold. A number of these drawings are of stage sets for Akins’ plays, “The Human Element,” and “Papa.” Zoë Akins Papers -- Finding Aid -- page 6 5. Ephemera (Boxes 171-184, Oversize Box 185, Oversize folder) are arranged into various subseries. These include: Akins’ Personal & Family Material, Hugo Rumbold & Rumbold Family Material, Financial & Legal Material, Contracts, Agreements & Copyrights, Box Office Statements & Receipts, Printed Articles, Clippings, Scrapbooks, and the Pulitzer Prize awarded to Akins. Strengths of the collection: This collection has several strong points for the purpose of research. In some cases there are both manuscript and typewritten versions, as well as initial notes, for a screenplay, play, or novel, which enables the reader to trace the creative process of writing a work through several stages. There are also large groups of letters with various agents, producers, and publishers, dealing with the “nuts and bolts” side of producing a play or writing a novel. In some instances, despite Akins’ every effort over many years, she was unsuccessful in getting the play produced or the novel published. The collection also contains material dealing with the “Golden Age” of both Hollywood and Broadway; and the particular challenges faced by a woman screenwriter in Hollywood from the 1920s, through the 1940s. Container List Box 1: Manuscripts -- Abdullah - Akins, T.; Akins, Z.: After-Another. ZA 1 - 22 Abdullah, Achmed, 1881-1945. “Seen Through Mohammedan Spectacles:” [political essay], MS. (typewritten: 11 p.), (1914, Oct.). ZA 1. Incomplete, missing page 12. Also enclosed: 3 carbon copies (12 p.