LGBTQ+ History: A Guide to Resources in the Manuscript Collection of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History
This list of archival collections and related materials such as books, subject files, or publications, that include materials relating to LGBTQ+ history, people, and places in the Mississippi. Each entry includes a brief description of the collection as it relates to this topic, and links to finding aids which provide more specific information about each collection. This list is meant to serve as a resource to archival collections as they relate to issues of sexuality and gender identity with regards to lesbians, gay men, bisexuality, homosexuality, queer, transgender, and transsexual individuals and communities, particularly with regards to Mississippi and Mississippians.
Mississippians
AMERICAN FAMILY ASSOCIATION
Mississippi-based American Family Association is a lobbying organization concerned with homosexuality, conservative family values, the media, liberal ideology, abortion, and other conservative religious interests.
American Family Association (Subject File)
HENRY WARING BALL
Henry Waring Ball (November 3, 1859 - June 21, 1934) was born at Argyle Plantation near Greenville, Washington County, Mississippi. He practiced law at Clarendon, Arkansas, but later left because of the presence of yellow fever in the area. Ball moved to Greenville to be near his father, and he became a journalist and newspaper editor. During his career, he was associated with The Greenville Times, The Vicksburg Daily American, and The Meridian Star. From the 1870s to the 1890s, Ball would comment in his diaries about his romantic relationships with specific men, including his neighbor William Armstrong Percy (1863-1912). Considering the societal conventions of the time, men were able to have same-sex emotional or physical relationships without the stigma of being homosexual, as author Benjamin E. Wise states in his book titled William Alexander Percy: The Curious Life of a Mississippi Planter and Sexual Freethinker (2014). Henry Waring Ball married Eleanor Carter Randolph (1870-1955) on April 27, 1916, at Inness Hill, in Warrenton, Virginia. Ball retired from the newspaper business in 1919 to manage his plantation near Leland, Mississippi. He died in Greenville and was buried in the Greenville Cemetery.
Henry Waring Ball Diaries (Z/1841)
Henry Waring Ball's diaries reveal his romantic friendships with William Armstrong Percy of Greenville, Mississippi, and with other men.
Henry Waring Ball Typescripts (Z/0324)
Diary (typewritten copy) of Henry Waring Ball who lived in Clarendon, Arkansas, from January 1884 to October 1886 and then moved to Greenville. The diary begins on January 1, 1884, and ends on October 6, 1893. The other volume is entitled "Record of the Ball Family of Virginia," and was compiled by Henry Waring Ball.
Henry Waring Ball Letters (Z/1842)
The collection contains the personal correspondence of Henry Waring Ball with various family members including his uncle William Henry Ball (1811-1861), his aunt Lettice Catesby Ball (1804-1888), and his relative James Flexner Ball (1816-1894). The Henry Waring Ball letters concern his education, leisure activities, family matters, and Ball family genealogy and heraldry. There are also letters not written to Ball, but written by and to other relatives.
CAMP SISTER SPIRIT
Camp Sister Spirit, located just east of Hattiesburg, in Ovett, Jones County, Mississippi, was a lesbian retreat founded in 1993 by Brenda and Wanda Henson. Camp Sister Spirit aimed to become a feminist adult education center with a goal to change women’s lives. The center received from local religious zealots harassment in the form of gunshots at night, dead pets, nails in the driveway, libelous rumors, and being run off rural roads. Eventually the local community generally accepted the camp. Brenda passed away in 2008. A few years later the retreat closed and Wanda moved to the coast to open a medical clinic.
Camp Sister Spirit (Subject File)
TURNER CASSITY
Allen Turner Cassity (January 12, 1929 - July 26, 2009) was an American poet, playwright, and short story writer. He grew up in Jackson and Forest, Mississippi. He graduated from Millsaps College and Stanford University with a master's degree. Cassity was a closeted gay man who wrote poetry with dry wit and humor. After his death in Atlanta, Georgia, a friend uncovered the rumored gay poems he had mentioned to her in previous conversations. They are archived at Emory University.
Allen Turner Cassity and Family Papers (Z/2383)
The Allen Turner Cassity and Family Papers is divided into three subgroups: The first subgroup concern Turner Cassity’s drafts of writing, fellow writers, and reviews of his published work, among photographs, and correspondence with his mother Dorothy Turner Cassity between 1951-1955 during his years as a student at Stanford and Columbia Universities and his military years stationed in Puerto Rice and during the Korean War. Cassity has correspondence with gay American poet Richard Joseph Howard. Cassity's poetry openly discusses gay themes.
Turner Cassity Collection (Z/U/2010.014 – unprocessed collection requires permission)
This collection of Turner Cassity material assembled by Frances Boeckman of Jackson, Mississippi, includes biographical information and newsclippings concerning her longtime friend, poet, and librarian, Turner Cassity. Of particular note are letters from Cassity and volumes of his poetry, several of which are inscribed to Frances and her husband, Richard Joseph Boeckman.
Books by Turner Cassity
Between the Chains (1991)
The Destructive Element: New and Selected Poems (1998)
Key to Mayerling (1983)
Yellow for Peril, Black for Beautiful: Poems and a Play (1975)
Hurricane Lamp (1986)
The Book of Alna: A Narrative of the Mormon Wars (1985)
Watchboy, What of the Night? (1966)
Steeplejacks in Babel (1973)
Articles, Interviews, and Poems - Allen Turner Cassity
He Whom Ye Seek (Article in The Southern Review; 1990)
An Interview with Turner Cassity by Robert Holland (published in Crazy Horse, Summer 1975)
Poems: The Last of Vichy (Dakar); a Crown for the Kingfish (The Huey P. Long Bridge, New Orleans; Gauchesco; Manchuria 1931” (Published in Southern Review, 1969)
Turner Cassity – An Interview with Shelby Foote (Published in Ploughshares, 1983)
Music of the Co-Prosperity Spheres (Article published in Southern Review, 1972)
A Distant View of the Chinese Wall, Pausing in the Climb (Poems, Published in the Southern Review, 1982)
HUBERT CREEKMORE
Hubert Creekmore (January 16, 1907 - May 23, 1966) was an American poet and writer from the small Mississippi town of Water Valley. Due to the fact that he was a closeted homosexual, Creekmore experienced conflict regarding living in Mississippi. He felt that Mississippi was not a proper environment for a poet such as himself and that the cultural depravity of rural, small-town Mississippi would not allow him to reach his full potential as a literary artist. A few examples of his works are The Fingers of Night and The Welcome. In The Fingers of Night, Creekmore writes of a southern girl who is dealing with the problems caused by intense religious fervor. The Welcome focuses on the problems gay men in the South have when trying to accept their sexuality. Hubert Creekmore died from a heart attack in a taxi while heading for a flight to Spain.
Hubert Creekmore Collection (Z/0092)
The Hubert Creekmore Papers contain the many manuscripts and typescripts of novels, short stories, essays, poetry, and book reviews of poet, novelist, translator, editor, and critic Hubert Creekmore, a native of Water Valley and Jackson, Mississippi, most known for his novels The Fingers of Night, The Welcome, and The Chain in the Heart. He garnered a lot of positive interest in publishing his poetry, as well as his translations of Stéphane Mallarmé’s poetry, much of which is included in the collection. Additionally, there are original handwritten musical compositions, unpublished novel and poetry manuscripts, newsclippings, a garden notebook, and correspondence centered on the business of publishing A Little Treasury of World Poetry. Lastly, there is a copy of the typescript “An Evening to Honor the Memory of Hubert Creekmore” provided by John Schaffner.
Welty-Burger Papers (Z/2371)
Series 2, Poetry [1940], Folder 1, Folder 37: The sole item in this series is a fragile two-page poetry typescript titled "The Fight Between Governor Johnson & Fred Sullens." Another version of this piece is located in the Eudora Welty Collection (Z/0301), Series 40: Poetry (box 365, folder 5) and the title calls it a ballad. The latter version contains the following inscription by Welty at the top of the first page: "By Hubert [Creekmore], Seta [Sancton], Jimmy [Wooldridge], Eudora [Welty], May 2." The Friday front page of the Jackson Daily News, dated May 3, 1940 confirms the altercation that inspired this poem.
Eudora Welty Collection (Z/0301)
Series 26: Photographs.
Box 88: Some photographs are listed as being taken by Eudora Welty using Hubert Creekmore’s camera, circa 1937.
Eudora Welty Collection (Z/0301)
Series 29a: Correspondence by Eudora Welty.
Box 124: Hubert Creekmore is identified as a principal correspondent of Eudora Welty’s.
Eudora Welty Collection (Z/0301)
Series 29b: Select Correspondence.
Box 159: Correspondence with Eudora Welty.
Box 212: Over-sized correspondence with Eudora Welty.
Eudora Welty Collection (Z/0301)
Series 29d: Associated Correspondence and Papers.
Box 441, Folder 18: Eugene Reynal telegram to Hubert Creekmore, [July] 26, [1949]. 1 piece. By this telegram, publisher Eugene Reynal invited "Hubert Crekmore" [sic] to come to Reynal's house in New York for a cocktail party for Eudora Welty on July 28 [1949].
Eudora Welty Collection (Z/0301)
Series 35: Works by Others.
Box 340: Writing by Barbara Howes titled “Hubert Walking – A Profile” possibly dated 1966.
Box 342: Writing by John Schaffner and others titled “An Evening to Honor the Memory of Hubert Creekmore” dated 1967.
Box 342: Writing by William Jay Smith titled “To Hubert Creekmore: Who died in a taxi on his way to the airport on his way to Spain” dated 1967.
Eudora Welty Collection (Z/0301)
Series 40: Poetry.
Box 365, Folders 3-4: Photocopied pages from “Lilies That Fester.” [1937]; n.d. 7 pieces. These pages consist of two photocopies each of two fictional biographical statements with photographs, and two photocopied pages of poetry (folder 4). On the original folder (folder 3), Welty described “Lilies…” as a “burlesque poetry anthology,” and credits the work to Frank Lyell; Hubert Creekmore; and Robert Daniel, who possessed the original; as well as herself. Welty notes that the photographs in the work were those of “Jackson friends”; she herself may be clearly seen in the photocopied photograph for “Romola Knowles.”
Box 365, Folders 5: “Ballad of the fight between Governor Johnson and Editor Sullens.” May 2, [1940]. 2 pieces. Two-page typescript poem on the fight between Mississippi governor Paul B. Johnson and Frederick Sullens, editor of the Jackson Daily News. There are corrections in pencil. At the top of a first page, a penciled note by Welty attributes the poem to “Hubert, Seta, Jimmy, Eudora, May 2,” presumably crediting Hubert Creekmore, Seta Alexander Sancton, and Jimmy Wooldridge as co-authors.
Box 365, Folder 9: “Upon Returning a Handkerchief which Matched a Tie.” n. d. 1 piece. Handwritten in ink by Welty on a sheet of small notebook paper, this poem concerns “Hubert’s ties,” almost certainly a reference to Hubert Creekmore. The poem is not an original composition, but a play on the twenty-eighth sonnet of Samuel Daniel that is addressed to “Delia”: Welty herself notes at the end of the poem that Daniel “contributed all but 2 words.”
Hubert Creekmore 1932-1949 (Subject File)
Hubert Creekmore 1950-1959 (Subject File)
Hubert Creekmore 1960-1967 (Subject File)
Books, Articles, and Poems by Hubert Creekmore
The Southern Review. (Creekmore self-published magazine)
Story. -- Vol. 4 (March 1934), p.15-19. Published story “Operation” by Hubert Creekmore.
The Oxford Magazine. June issue includes poem "Lament" and Nov. 1, 1934 (photocopy) includes writing by Hubert Creekmore.
River: A Magazine of the Deep South. Vol. 1, no. 1: Includes story “The Night You Were Out” by Hubert Creekmore and story “Retreat” by Eudora Welty. Vol. 1, no. 3: Includes story “An Object Lesson” by Hubert Creekmore.
Formula. Norfolk, CT. Likely Creekmore self-published and self-distributed this poem in 1940. Limited edition of 10 copies.
Genealogy: A Poem. Norfolk, CT. Likely Creekmore self-published and self-distributed this poem in 1940. Limited edition of 20 copies.
Personal Sun: The Early Poems of Hubert Creekmore. Collection of poems, first published.
Iconograph. No. 2 (Winter 1941). Includes poem “Formula” by Hubert Creekmore.
University of Kansas City University Review. Vol. VIII, no. 2 (Winter 1941), p. 136-143. Includes review “Social factors in Native Son” by Hubert Creekmore.
The Stone Ants. Los Angeles : Ward Ritchie Press. Collection of poems, first published.
Purgative : a story. Corpus Christi, TX. 1943. "100 copies made somewhere in Texas during a year of war"--Title page verso. Likely Creekmore self-published and self-distributed this story in 1943. Limited edition of 20 copies made in Atlanta, GA.
Circle. -- Vol. 1, no. 3 (1944), p. 48-50. Includes poems “Formula No. 16” and “The Wild Dogs at Harar” by Hubert Creekmore.
University of Kansas City Review. -- Vol. 12, no. 2 (1945), p. [158-159]. Includes poem “The Sailing” by Hubert Creekmore.
The Long Reprieve and Other Poems of New Caledonia. W. W. Norton & Co, Inc. Collection of poems, first published.
Fingers of Night. New York : D. Appleton-Century. Novel, first published.
The Welcome. New York, NY : Appleton, Century, Crofts. Novel, first published.
Columbia Review. -- Vol. 20, p.3-10 Includes story/essay “A word from Jones County” by Hubert Creekmore.
Cotton Country. New York : Bantam Books. Reissue of Fingers of Night as a pulp paperback with new title.
A Little Treasury of World Poetry. Edited and translated, first published.
The Chain in the Heart. New York : Random House. Novel, first published.
Lyrics of the Middle Ages. New York, Greenwood Press. Edited and translated, first published.
Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis: New Translation; introduction by Creekmore. Edited and translated, first published.
Daffodils are Dangerous: Poisonous Plants in Your Garden. New York, Walker. Nonfiction, first published.
The Erotic Elegies of Albius Tibullus : with the Poems of Suplicia arranged as a sequence called No Harm to Lovers. New York Washington Square Press. Reissue. Translated by Hubert Creekmore ; illustrated by Edward Melcarth.
Books about Hubert Creekmore
Programme des Artistes Francais de L'Universite de Mississippi : de 14 Fevrier 1924. (digitized) Hubert Creekmore plays role of Dr. Picard in “La Surprise d’Isidore: Comedie en un acte”, and plays piano between first and second plays. Partial review is on verso of program.
Le Theatre-Francais de L'Universite de Mississippi : programme le 11 Mars 1924. (digitized) Hubert Creekmore plays role of Jean in “Margot, Ferme La Porte.” Partial poem “The Conflagration of Day” is on verso of program.
Le Theatre-Francais de L'Universiste [sic] de Mississippi : le 24 Novembre 1924. (digitized) Hubert Creekmore plays role of Dr. Pollidore in “l’Homme Qui Epousa Une Femme Muette."
Theatre-Francais de L'Universite de Mississippi : le 19 Mars 1925, programme. (digitized) Hubert Creekmore plays role of Agent de Police in “L/Anglais Tel Qu’on Le Parle.”
The Ole Miss Marionettes, 1924-'25, present "You and I" by Philip Barry : comedy in three acts / directed by Miss Ella K. Somerville. (digitized) Hubert Creekmore plays role of Geoffrey Nichols in “You and I” by Philip Barry.
Notes on Mississippi writers. -- Vol. 4 (1971-72), p. 15-21. “Hubert Creekmore : Mississippi novelist and poet” by L. Moody Simms, Jr.
The Road to West 43rd Street Includes Creekmore.
Men like that : a Southern queer history / John Howard. Mentions Creekmore.
DRAG SHOWS
Mississippi Farm Bureau Federation Collection (PI/2010.0002)
Series 7: McMurchy and Blake Files
"July-Aug. 1987 MFB News. Safety Seminars. Grenada Lake & Roosevelt Park. Part of the fun each year is the Male Beauty Contest." Group photograph.
LEHMAN ENGEL
A. Lehman Engel (September 14, 1910 - August 29, 1982) was an American composer and conductor of Broadway musicals, television and film. Born in Jackson, Mississippi, Engel moved to New York City at the age of nineteen to study composition with Rubin Goldmark. Engel was friends with Eudora Welty and many other southern writers. In 1938, Engel met and had a short-lived relationship with actor Montgomery Clift. Engel made no secret of his homosexuality, but in his autobiography This Bright Day (1974) he made no overt reference to it. He died on August 29, 1982, in New York City.
Lehman Engel Manuscript (Z/0929)
Original manuscript score of the music composed by Lehman Engel for the ballet The Shoe Bird, which had its world premier in Jackson on April 20, 1968. Mr. Engel, conductor and composer, was born in Jackson and is a lifelong friend of Eudora Welty, upon whose book, The Shoe Bird, the ballet was based.
Albia Kavan and Rex Cooper Collection (Z/2374)
This collection consists of two photocopied librettos written by composer Lehman Engel and edited by Eudora Welty for the 1968 ballet world premiere of Welty’s The Shoe Bird.
Theo Inman Costume Designs (Z/0928)
Original drawings of costumes designed by Theo Inman (Mrs. Cecil Inman, Jr.) for the ballet The Shoe Bird, which had its world premiere in Jackson on April 20, 1968. The ballet was based on the book by Eudora Welty, The Shoe Bird, with original score by Lehman Engel, and choreography by Rex Cooper and Albia Kavan.
Hubert Creekmore Papers (Z/0092)
…an article by A. Lehman Engel entitled "The Cats and the Mouse."
Sid Ricketts Sumner Papers (Z/1113)
There are letters from other authors and composers, one in particular from Lehman Engel dated May 24, 1965.
Eudora Welty Collection (Z/0301)
Series 9: The Shoe Bird and Related Works.
Box 333, Folders 5-7: The score of the ballet was written by Lehman Engel, who based his libretto on Welty’s work, and had her collaboration in its revision. The ballet was performed in Jackson on April 20, 1968. http://opac2.mdah.state.ms.us/manuscripts/z0301series9.html
Eudora Welty Collection (Z/0301)
Series 18: Reviews.
Box 72, Folder 2: Words with Music. By Lehman Engel. 1972. 7 pieces. Typescript review with occasional handwritten corrections. — "Everything writers and composers of musicals need to know." NYTBR 28 May 1972: 7, 10.
Box 72, Folder 3: Words with Music. By Lehman Engel. [1972]. 7 pieces. Carbon typescript review. — "Everything writers and composers of musicals need to know." NYTBR 28 May 1972: 7, 10. There are handwritten corrections and a revision on an adhesive attachment.
Eudora Welty Collection (Z/0301)
Series 23: Reviews in Publications.
Box 319, Folder 7: "Everything writers and composers of musicals need to know." 1972. 2 pieces. Rev. of Words with Music. By Lehman Engel. NYTBR 28 May 1972: 7, 10. Original, with Welty's handwritten note to an unidentified person.
Box 103, Folder 10: "Everything writers and composers of musicals need to know." 1972. 2 pieces. Rev. of Words with Music. By Lehman Engel. NYTBR 28 May 1972: 7, 10. Photocopy [1-2].**
Eudora Welty Collection (Z/0301)
Series 26: Photographs
Title: "Lehman Engel / Jackson / 1930s." View of Mr. Engel.
Eudora Welty Collection (Z/0301)
Series 29b: Select Correspondence.
Boxes 161-162: Correspondence from Lehman Engel to Eudora Welty.
Oversized Folder 1: Bullfight Poster sent by Lehman Engel on July 14, 1938
Eudora Welty Collection (Z/0301)
Series 29d: Associated Correspondence and Papers.
Box 437, Folder 3: Correspondence from Lehman Engel. 1953. 2 pieces. A short letter of July 10, 1953, from Lehman Engel thanking her for a letter and sending contact information for a meeting about his book; and a note offering to meet her for lunch, dated September 26, 1953.
Box 441, Folder 9: Lyell, Frank H. Partial photocopies of letters of Frank H. Lyell with drawings and clippings. September 24-[Nov. 27] 1930. 14 pieces. Lyell mentions Lehman Engel in some letters.
Box 441, Folder 10: Lyell, Frank H. Postcards to Frank H. Lyell. [ca. 1931]-1976. 4 pieces. This folder contains three postcards to Frank Lyell….the third was sent to Lyell from London, England, June 18, 1976. Signed "De Sica," possibly a reference to Vittorio De Sica, the film director, the card is written in a mixture of Italian and English and its authorship ascribed to Lehman Engel.
Eudora Welty Collection (Z/0301)
Series 35: Works by Others.
Box 339: Leman Engel’s "The Wife of Usher's Well" sheet music, 1955.
Hugh W. Shankle Collection (PI/COL/1981.0066)
Box 7, Folder 7: Photograph of Lehman Engel and Muller Addkison, circa 1960s.
Lehman Engel (PI/2016.0014)
Box 794, Folder 16: Two portrait photographs of Engel by Frederick Plaut, n.d.
Miscellaneous Manuscripts Collection (Z/1600)
Box 2, Folder 19: A. Lehman Engel, paper titled "The Greatest Thing I've Gotten from Scouting.”
Lehman Engel 1933-1957 (Subject File)
Lehman Engel 1958-1966 (Subject File)
Lehman Engel 1967-1969 (Subject File)
Lehman Engel 1970-1973 (Subject File)
Lehman Engel 1974- (Subject File)
Lehman Engel - jumbo (Subject File)
Books and Articles by Lehman Engel
Eudora Welty's Letters to Lehman Engel, 1941-1981. Microfilm containing images of Welty’s letters to Engel; Originals of these letters are held by Millsaps College, Jackson, Mississippi.
This Bright Day : An Autobiography by Lehman Engel.
"The Dance : A Critical Review." Trend, New York. Vol. 2, no.1 (1933) p. 30-31.
Fanny : [playbill]. Musical direction and vocal arrangements by Lehman Engel.
The Making of a Musical by Lehman Engel.
The Critics / Lehman Engel.
Words with Music. (Libretto by Lehman Engel, 1972)
Planning and Producing the Musical Show by Lehman Engel.
The American Musical Theater : A Consideration by Lehman Engel.
Music for the classical tragedy : [containing complete musical scores for Shakespeare's Hamlet, Julius Caesar, Romeo & Juliet, and Macbeth and suggestions for adaptation of music for use with any other classical tragedy] by Lehman Engel ; foreword by Margaret Webster.
Getting the Show On : The Complete Guidebook for Producing a Musical in Your Theatre by Lehman Engel.
Wonderful Town : [playbill].
Books about Lehman Engel
Rhyme and Reason [microform] : an evaluation of Lehman Engel's contribution to the criticism of musical theatre by William B. Kennedy.
CHARLES HENRI FORD
Charles Henri Ford (February 10, 1908 - September 27, 2002) was an American poet, novelist, diarist, filmmaker, photographer, and collage artist. He published more than a dozen collections of poetry, exhibited his artwork in Europe and the United States, edited the Surrealist magazine View in New York City, and directed an experimental film. He was the partner of the Russian-born artist Pavel Tchelitchew. Charles Henry Ford was born in Brookhaven, Mississippi, on February 10, 1908. The New Yorker published one of his poems in 1927, before he turned 20, under the name Charles Henri Ford, which he had adopted to counter the assumption that he was related to the business magnate Henry Ford. He became part of Gertrude Stein's salon in Paris, where he met Natalie Barney, Man Ray, Kay Boyle, Janet Flanner, Peggy Guggenheim, Djuna Barnes, and others of the American expatriate community in Montparnasse and Saint-Germain-des-Près. He had an affair with Barnes and they visited Tangiers together. When Tchelitchew died in Rome in 1957, The New York Times described Ford as his "life-long companion and secretary."
Books and articles by or about Charles Henri Ford.
Water from a bucket : a diary, 1948-1957, by Charles Henri Ford ; with an introduction by Lynne Tillman.
Blues, what happens to a radical literary magazine, by Charles Henri Ford and Parker Tyler.
The garden of disorder and other poems.
American caravan. Edited by Alfred Kreymborg, Lewis Mumford and Paul Rosenfeld. Includes two poems by Charles Henri Ford.
Flag of ecstasy : selected poems, by Charles Henri Ford; edited by Edward B. Germain.
Blues : a magazine of new rhythms. Editor: 1929- Charles Henri Ford.
The Overturned Lake, by Charles Henri Ford.
Sleep in a Nest of Flames, by Charles Henri Ford.
GAY BASHING
Speak Now : Memories of the Civil Rights Era / Memories of Rev. (Dr.) Amos Brown, May 27, 2011 / Moderated by Leanna Welch [sound recording]. “Gay bashing” mentioned in interview transcript.
GENERAL LGBTQ
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender, 0-1999 (Subject File)
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender, 2000-present (Subject File)
Same-Sex Marriage (Subject File)
GAVIN GORDON
Fred Gavin Gordon (April 7, 1901 - April 6, 1983) was an American film, television, and radio actor. Born in Chicora, Wayne County, Mississippi, he worked as a railway clerk and attended acting school in his spare time. He died in Canoga Park, California on the day before his 82nd birthday. He is interred in Magnolia Cemetery, Mobile, Alabama. He never married nor publicly discussed his sexuality. However, he was in a long-term relationship with another man, the actor Edward Everett Horton.
DARRYL GRENNELL
Darryl Grennell won in a landslide victory for mayor of Natchez in 2016 did not run again in 2020.
The Deepest South of All : True Stories from Natchez, Mississippi by Richard Grant.
Proud to Take a Stand : Commemorating the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s by Darryl V. Grennell ; [city of Natchez].
TY HERNDON
Ty Herndon is an American country music singer and songwriter. Boyd Tyrone Herndon was born on May 2, 1962, in Meridian, Mississippi, to Boyd and Renee Herndon. He was raised just across the state line in Butler, Alabama. Following Herndon's 1995 arrest, his sexuality became a topic of interest within the country music industry, as many presumed Herndon to be gay. At the time, Herndon's manager told The Advocate he did not know Herndon's orientation, but thought country music "was ready" for an artist to come out as gay. Herndon came out as gay in a 2014 interview with People magazine, thus becoming the first mainstream male country star to do so.
JON HINSON
Jon Clifton Hinson (March 16, 1942 - July 21, 1995) was an American politician who served as a Republican U.S. representative for Mississippi's 4th congressional district from 1979 to 1981. Following his 1981 resignation following an arrest for engaging in a homosexual act, he became an LGBT activist in metropolitan Washington D.C. Born in Tylertown in Walthall County in southwestern Mississippi, Hinson attended public schools. In 1959, he worked as a page for Democratic U. S. representative John Bell Williams, who subsequently became governor of Mississippi in 1968. Prior to his 1978 candidacy for the U.S. House, Hinson survived a fire on October 24, 1977, at the Washington, D.C., Gay Cinema Follies. Firefighters found him under a pile of bodies; he was one of only four men rescued. Facing a maximum penalty of one year in prison and a $1,000 fine, Hinson pleaded not guilty to a charge of attempted sodomy the following day and was released without bail pending a trial scheduled for May 4, 1981. Soon thereafter, he checked himself into a District of Columbia–area hospital for professional care. Hinson later received a 30-day jail sentence, which was suspended, and a year's probation, on condition that he continue counseling and treatment. After publicly acknowledging that he was gay, he became a gay rights activist, organizing lobbying groups and fighting against the ban on gays in the military. He lived the rest of his life in Alexandria, Virginia, and later in Silver Spring, Maryland.
Series 2513: Congressmen’s Files.
Box 10191: Jon Hinson, Printed material, 1979.
Congressman Jon Hinson Reports
Library has undated issue from 1979, spring 1980, fall 1980 (2).
Jon Hinson, Congress : He'll Hear You (Campaign poster for U.S. Congress, 1978).
Jon Hinson : Congress (Re-election Campaign poster for U.S. Congress, 1980).
Jon Hinson, 0-1979 (Subject File)
Jon Hinson, 1980 (Subject File)
Jon Hinson, 1981 (Subject File)
Jon Hinson, 1982- (Subject File)
Books by or about Jon Hinson
Mississippi Politics : The Struggle for Power, 1976-2006 by Jere Nash and Andy Taggart ; foreword by John Grisham.
HUMAN RIGHTS CAMPAIGN MISSISSIPPI
By inspiring and engaging individuals and communities, the Human Rights Campaign strives to end discrimination against LGBTQ+ people and realize a world that achieves fundamental fairness and equality for all. HRC envisions a world where lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people plus community members who use different language to describe identity are ensured equality and embraced as full members of society at home, at work and in every community.
Human Rights Campaign Mississippi Protest Posters. (Z/2393)
The Human Rights Campaign Mississippi Protest Posters include two handmade posters used in protests by Mississippians in 2016 against the religious freedom law (House Bill 1523). One sign says "NO H8 in our State" and the other says "#BYE PHIL-ICIA." Their messages demand for no hate in Mississippi. The second one is referring to former Mississippi governor Phil Bryant. Both of these handmade posters are in the photographs by Rogelio V. Solis for Associated Press used in an article “Judge blocks Mississippi Law on Objections to Same-Sex Marriage” in the online version of the Los Angeles Times, July 1, 2016.
DEOLUS W. HUSBAND
Deolus W. Husband (June 19, 1959 - November 13, 1989) was an American composer. Born in Raleigh, Mississippi, on June 19, 1959, he attended the University of Southern Mississippi for a Bachelor's degree, graduating in 1981. At the Manhattan School of Music he studied composition with John Corigliano and Ludmila Ulehla, receiving his doctorate in 1987. Husband's partner was Edwin Alexander, a bassoonist. Before he died, Husband became involved with the Estate Project for Artists With AIDS. After his death, Maury Newberger (Husband's representative at the Estate Project) set up The Deolus Husband Scholarship for Composition at the Manhattan School of Music. Husband's manuscripts were donated by Newberger to the Music Division of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.
Eudora Welty Collection (Z/0301)
Series 29a: Correspondence by Eudora Welty.
Box 125: Correspondence from Welty to Deolus W. Husband.
Eudora Welty Collection (Z/0301)
Series 29b: Select Correspondence.
Box 167: Correspondence from Deolus W. Husband to Welty.
JHERI JONES
Jheri R. Jones, born in 1939, is a transgender woman, was working in the 1980s as a freight clerk and passenger ticket agent at the Greyhound bus station in Jackson, Mississippi, alongside author John Howard. She had been transitioning since the late seventies, with Dr. Ben Folk at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson who prescribed hormones. She knew she would have to travel out of state for the surgical procedure, however it became more affordable to travel of the country. She left for Brussels, Belgium, for the sex-assignment surgery, now called gender confirmation surgery. The collection includes two letters with her surgeon. A documentary, The Joneses, was produced to provide an intimate look at the struggles of the family for reconciliation and acceptance.
Jheri Jones Papers (Z/U/2023.010)
This collection contains a scrapbook consisting of photocopy and original photographs of Jheri Jones, a transgender woman originally from Mize, Mississippi. Also includes photographs of the AIDS Quilt, a manuscript of a one-act play titled “The Resurrection of Noland Reed,” and letters from a doctor in Europe. Additional accretions are expected. Acquired through a collaborative partnership with Invisible Histories.
ALBIN JOSEPH KREBS
Albin Joseph Krebs (March 5, 1929 - May 31, 2002) born in Pascagoula, Jackson County, was the 1950-1951 editor of The Mississippian at the University of Mississippi and the first to write editorials advocating for the integration of the university and for the improvement of race relations. The response to his outspokenness was a burning cross found outside his dormitory window and an encounter with a mob attempting to storm his dormitory room. Krebs would serve in the Air Force for four years as a press censorship officer in Korea and Japan. He attended Columbia University School of Journalism, leading to a career at The Chronicle Star in Pascagoula, The Times-Picayune in New Orleans, the United Press International, Newsweek, and The New York Herald Tribune. He joined the The New York Times obituary staff in 1969, working for twenty years before retiring in 1989. Of note, some of the prominent artists, performers, and politicians whose advance obituaries he authored included novelist Truman Capote, historian James W. Silver, actress Bette Davis, singing cowboy Gene Autry, defense lawyer Roy M. Cohn, author Pearl S. Buck, and food critic James Beard. One of his last obituaries was for fellow Mississippian Eudora Welty, who preceded him in death the previous year. Albin Joseph Krebs died at age 73 from cancer in his Key West home in Monroe County, Florida. A self-identified gay man, Albin Krebs left in his will a contribution of $250,000 to AIDS Help, Inc., the only community-based HIV/AIDS service organization in the Florida Keys helping people survive and thrive in spite of living with HIV/AIDS. He also endowed $250,000 to the University of Mississippi to establish the Albin Krebs Journalism and New Media Scholarship for any journalism students in need.
Albin Joseph Krebs Papers (Z/2390)
In October of 1950, Albin Krebs wrote and published an editorial in The Mississippian, a student newspaper on the campus of the University of Mississippi, supporting integration. Krebs left in his will $250,000 to AIDS Help, Inc., and another $250,000 to the University of Mississippi to establish a journalism scholarship for any student in need. The changes to his will are reflected in his updated last will and testament included in this collection.
FRANK LYELL
Frank Hallam Lyell (August 7, 1911 - July 19, 1977), was born in Mississippi and was close friends with fellow Mississippians Hubert Creekmore, Lehman Engel, and Eudora Welty, among others. He served in the U.S. Army during World War II and worked as an English professor at the University of Texas in Austin. He died in Jackson, Mississippi.
Eudora Welty Collection (Z/0301)
Series 1: Uncollected Stories.
Box 263, folder 1: This folder includes story material from “The Wells,” and a postcard sent by Frank Lyell to Eudora Welty [1973] of Allison’s Wells [p. 1].
Eudora Welty Collection (Z/0301)
Series 16: The Eye of the Story
Box 324, folder 11: Items originally enclosed with Welty’s letter of April 23, 1956, to Frank Lyell (see Series 29a, Box 130).
Eudora Welty Collection (Z/0301)
Series 23: Reviews in Publications
Box 319, folder 2: Rev. of Six Novels of the Supernatural. Ed. Edward Wagenknecht. NYTBR 10 December 1944; Original, sent to Welty in an envelope from Frank H. Lyell. Handwritten comment, apparently by Lyell, on the clipping.
Eudora Welty Collection (Z/0301)
Series 26: Photographs
Box 88, No Neg.: Untitled. Frank Lyell, Helen Lotterhos.
Eudora Welty Collection (Z/0301)
Series 29a: Correspondence by Eudora Welty
Box 126-133: Correspondence from Eudora Welty to Frank H. Lyell, including his mother Clarena Lyell.
Eudora Welty Collection (Z/0301)
Series 29b: Select Correspondence.
Box 170-171: Includes correspondence from Frank H. Lyell, Louis Lyell, and Sir Ncholas Lyell to Eudora Welty.
Eudora Welty Collection (Z/0301)
Series 29d: Associated Correspondence and Papers
Box 441, folder 8: Alun Jones Correspondence, includes an aerogram of Frank H. Lyell at the University of Texas
Box 441, folder 9: Partial photocopies of letters of Frank H. Lyell with drawings and clippings. September 24-[Nov. 27] 1930. 14 pieces.
Box 441, folder 10: Three postcards to Frank H. Lyell; Two are from Reynolds Price, the third is attributed to Lehman Engel. [ca. 1931]-1976. 4 pieces.
Eudora Welty Collection (Z/0301)
Series 40: Poetry
Box 365, folders 3-4: On the original folder (folder 3), Welty described [Lilies That Fester] as a burlesque poetry anthology, and credits the work to Frank Lyell; Hubert Creekmore; and Robert Daniel, who possessed the original; as well as herself.
Eudora Welty Collection (Z/0301)
Series 43: Business Records
Box 427, folders 21-22: "Gift to Millsaps of my books" "in memory of Frank" [Lyell] "December 1981," Original folder titled by Welty and a folder of correspondence and the appraisal. 1981-[1982].
Frank Lyell Papers (Z/U/1978.120) Unprocessed. Closed to the public per donor request. Restriction will lift in 2028. Large collection of correspondence and papers pertaining to Frank H. Lyell.
Welty-Burger Papers (Z/2371)
It is possible that Lyell, among other friends of Welty’s, is mentioned in letters from Eudora Welty to Nash Burger.
MARCO W. McMILLIAN
Marco McMillian (April 23, 1979 – February 26, 2013) was an African American businessman and candidate for mayor of Clarksdale, Mississippi in 2013. He graduated with a Bachelor's from Jackson State University and a Master's in philanthropy and development from Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota. He was "the first openly gay man to be a viable candidate for public office in Mississippi." McMillian was chief executive officer of MWM & Associates, and developed a solid reputation for helping non-profit organizations build capacity and raise capital. Ebony magazine recognized him in 2004 as one of the nation’s “30 Up-and-Coming African Americans Under Age 30.” He was murdered in February 2013, his body found near the Mississippi River levee on February 26.
Jackson Prominent Persons L-R (Subject File)
MISSISSIPPI GAY ALLIANCE
The Mississippi Gay Alliance (MGA) was founded in Starkville in 1973 for the purpose of giving support to gay men and lesbians there and at the university. In 1974 a group began to form in Jackson, but met with and merged with MGA. Ann DeBary represented the MGA and Eddie Sandifer represented the unnamed Jackson group. As a result of the meeting the Jackson group became chapter two of the MGA and agreed to perform functions of the state organization. The MGA worked to educate the public and dispel myths about the homosexual community through newsletters, speaking engagements, radio shows, television programs, and press releases. The organization has helped in many types of cases throughout the years. These have ranged from child custody, gay youth, housing discrimination, employment discrimination, police harassment and entrapment to electoral politics. Later the group became known as the Mississippi Gay and Lesbian Alliance.
Mississippi Gay Alliance (Subject File)
PAULINE VAN de GRAAF ORR (and MIRIAM GREENE PASLAY)
Pauline Van de Graaff Orr (November 5, 1861 - November 21, 1955) was born in Chickasaw County, Mississippi, the daughter of a judge, state legislator, and Confederate States Army officer. Orr was head of the English department at the new Industrial Institute and College for the Education of White Women (now the Mississippi University for Women) when it opened in 1885. She was active in the Mississippi Woman Suffrage Association, becoming president of the association in 1915. Orr had a long personal relationship with fellow faculty member, classist Miriam Greene Paslay (September 18, 1869 – April 24, 1932). They lived and traveled together in Europe during joint sabbaticals in 1893 and 1905. Paslay was born in Como, Mississippi, and she became an orphan while attending college. Also a teacher at the Industrial Institute and College, she taught Latin and Greek. After Orr's retirement, the pair moved to New York City together in 1920 and shared a home with Orr's nephew and a former student. Paslay died in 1932, Orr died in 1955; and they share a gravestone at Mount Hope Cemetery in New York.
Lindsey-Orr family papers, 1840-1958 (Z/1726).
22 boxes. Needs better biographical sketch. Research collection to confirm any lesbian content. Contains papers and correspondence of Paulin Van de Graaf Orr and Miriam Greene Pasley as well as others. Photographs and diaries included.
Myra Mason Lindsey and Family Papers (Z/1878)
Although this collection contains occasional photographs and newsclippings, it mainly consists of incoming personal correspondence (arranged chronologically) from the family of Myra Mason Lindsey during the 1920s, 1940s, and 1950s. The majority of the letters are from Frances M. Binford Lindsey ("Mama") to Myra Mason Lindsey ("Sister," "Daughter," "Daught," or "Dit"). Myra Lindsey was Pauline Orr’s closest friend after Miriam Palsay died.
Books by or about Pauline Van de Graaf Orr
A "Boston marriage" in Mississippi : the relationship of Pauline Van de Graaf Orr and Miriam Greene Paslay, 1891-1932, by Misty LaChelle Grantham.
Mississippi Women : Their Histories, Their Lives. Athens : University of Georgia Press, 2003. (Volume 1: Chapter about Pauline Van de Graaf Orr).
ROBERT KINEAR OVERSTREET
Robert Overstreet (October 9, 1924 - May 18, 2009 ), son of Jackson architect N.W. Overstreet, graduated from Jackson Central High School in 1942. He served as an officer in the U.S. Navy in World War II and in the Korean War conflict. He studied architecture at Tulane University, University of Texas, and graduated from the University of Oklahoma under Bruce Goff who was a protégé of Frank Lloyd Wright. He made an outstandingly notable career as an architect in San Francisco, with both national and international recognition. His file drawings have been donated to Mississippi State University along with his father’s in the Architectural Department reference files. He excelled in unusual areas of architecture, including steep slope structures, mausoleums, libraries and houseboats. His partner of over 20 years was George White, also an architect.
Overstreet Family Papers (Z/U/2021.010) Unprocessed. Curator permission required.
Series: Robert Kinear Overstreet
Robert Overstreet (Subject File)
JULIAN PATRICK
Julian Patrick (26 October 1927 – 8 May 2009) was an American operatic baritone and voice teacher. Born in Mississippi, Patrick grew up in Birmingham, Alabama where he was a member of the Apollo Boys Choir. He died at the age of 81 while on vacation in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He was survived by his life partner of 56 years, Donn Talenti.
THOMAS HAL PHILLIPS
Thomas Hal Phillips (October 11, 1922 - April 3, 2007) was born on a farm between Corinth and Kossuth in Alcorn County, northeastern Mississippi. Phillips was an American novelist, actor, and screenwriter. Phillips's first novel, The Bitterweed Path, was published in 1950 and was advertised, at the time, as "something new in the literature dealing with man's love for man." He authored five other novels, including The Golden Lie, Search for a Hero, The Loved and the Unloved, and Red Midnight. His novel Kangaroo Hollow, also had a queer theme, was only published in the United Kingdom until 2000. He Phillips never married and lived alternately between California and Corinth, where he usually resided at the Phillips Brothers Truck Stop that he and his brother Frank had opened in 1960. He died in Kossuth at the age of 84.
Finch, Charles C. (Cliff) Gov. of MS 1976- photograph collection (PI/STA/F56.3)
“Governor Cliff Finch, Lt. Governor Evelyn Gandy and Thomas Hall Phillips.”
An interview with Thomas Hall Phillips, by George M. Kelly.
Thomas Hal Phillips (Subject File)
Books and articles by or about Thomas Hal Phillips.
Thomas Hall Phillips : Mississippi Novelist, by L. Moody Simms, Jr.
The Loved and the Unloved.
The Golden Lie.
Kangaroo Hollow.
Search for a Hero.
The Bitterweed Path : a novel.
The Bitterweed Path by Thomas Hal Phillips ; with a new introduction by John Howard.
JOCELYN “JOCE” PRITCHETT
Jocelyn "Joce" Pepper Pritchett, was born in Bellefontaine, a community in Webster County, Mississippi, and she earned a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from Mississippi State University, and a Masters in Civil Engineering and a Masters in City Planning from Georgia Institute of Technology. She returned to Mississippi to begin her engineering career at the Mississippi Department of Transportation. Pritchett and Carla Webb began dating around 2003. When same-sex marriage became legal in some states in 2013, they were legally married in Maine, however, their marriage was not recognized in Mississippi where they were required to carry power-of-attorney papers concerning their rights as spouses and as parents. They were plaintiffs in the Campaign for Southern Equality v. Bryant I case, and other LGBTQ rights activism in Mississippi. When the Supreme Court of the United States ruled on the Obergefell v. Hodges case in 2015, Joce and Carla’s marriage license was legal and recognized in all states, including Mississippi. Pritchett campaigned for state auditor in 2015, making her the first openly gay statewide candidate to run in Mississippi, however she did not win in the general election. In July 2016, Pritchett among others gave testimonies in the Campaign for Southern Equality v. Bryant III case, which sought to strike down the Mississippi House Bill 1523 (HB1523), also called the Religious Liberty Accommodations Act.
Jocelyn “Joce” Pritchett Papers (Z/2388)
The majority of the Jocelyn “Joce” Pritchett Papers concerns her activism as a plaintiff in the Campaign for Southern Equality v. Bryant I case, where Joce and her spouse Carla Webb sought to have their marriage legally recognized. The papers also include her campaign for state auditor, where she made history as the first lesbian to run for a statewide office in Mississippi. Supporting items include correspondence from friends and supporters, photographs, Human Rights Campaign newsletters, and personal papers, as well two artworks by Jackson artist Ellen Langford. Two stickers from activist campaigns in response to legislative measures include the “If You’re Buying, We’re Selling” sticker and the “#Repeal HB1523” sticker.
RELIGIOUS DISCRIMINATION
Discrimination, Religious (Subject File)
ROBIN ROBERTS
Robin Roberts, born in 1960 in Tuskegee, Alabama, and grew up in Pass Christian, Mississippi. She attended Southeastern Louisiana University, and was a sports anchor for local TV and radio stations. Roberts was a sportscaster on ESPN for fifteen years (1990–2005) and the first woman to co-host NFL Primetime. She became co-anchor on Good Morning America in 2005. Roberts was inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 2012. Her treatment for myelodysplastic syndrome was chronicled on the program, which earned a 2012 Peabody Award for the coverage. Roberts and her partner Amber Laign married in 2023 after more than 18 years together.
My Story, My Song : Mother-Daughter Reflections on Life and Faith by Lucimarian Roberts ; as told to Missy Buchanan ; with reflections by Robin Roberts.
CHRISTIANE ROBINSON
Christiane Robinson is a freelance translator and self-taught photographer with a special interest in documentary photography and photojournalism. Robinson immigrated to the United States from Germany in 1998, living in Alabama until August 2020, when she moved to to Panama City Beach, Florida. She actively supports a variety of social justice causes and has documented a wide range of events in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, and Washington D.C. In this collection, Robinson documented Pride events on the Mississippi Gulf Coast in 2018 and 2019.
Christiane Robinson Photograph and Video Collection, 2018-2019 (EA2021.002) (Digital Exhibit).
This collection consists of 335 photographs and nine video files created by Christiane Robinson. The nine videos and 247 of the images were taken at the Second Gulf Coast LGBT+ Pride Day hosted by the Gulf Coast Association of Pride at Point Cadet Plaza in Biloxi, Harrison County, Mississippi, on June 30, 2018. Eighty-eight of the images document the Third Annual Gulf Coast Equality Fest sponsored by the Gulf Coast Equality Council and held on the Great Lawn at Harrah's Gulf Coast in Biloxi, Harrison County, Mississippi, on October 19, 2019. The festivals featured music, drag shows, raffles, and vendor and information tents and attracted diverse groups of people, including protesters.
JOHN FRAISER ROBINSON
John Fraiser Robinson (March 9, 1909 - November 25, 1989), born in Sidon, LeFlore County, Mississippi, with family connections to former senator James K. Vardaman, moved with his family to Jackson about 1922. He attended the same high school as Eudora Welty, and eventually worked as an insurance adjuster for a firm in New Orleans. He served in the U.S. Army during World War II. He aspired to be a writer, though only a few stories were published. In 1950, while studying Italian on a Fulbright scholarship in Florence, Italy, he met Enzo Rocchigiani, with whom he began a relationship that would last until his death in 1989.
John Fraiser Robinson Papers (Z/2294)
This collection consists of the manuscripts, correspondence, and miscellaneous materials of John Fraiser Robinson.
Eudora Welty Collection (Z/0301)
Series 2: A Curtain of Green
Box 2, folder 2: Includes a handwritten note from Eudora Welty to John Robinson at head of p. 1: "my new theme read it & throw it away."
Box 2, folder 3: Includes a handwritten note from Eudora Welty to John Robinson at top of page 1: "How are you? I've just been to Rodney in a regular Texas wind - Love E -"
Eudora Welty Collection (Z/0301)
Series 3: The Wide Net
Box 5, folder 1: Typescript of Eudora Welty's "The Wide Net," with a holograph note on page [1]: "To John [Robinson] who told it to me to begin with -."
Eudora Welty Collection (Z/0301)
Series 4: Delta Wedding
Box 6, folder 2: Carbon typescript of Welty's "The Delta Cousins" with holograph note from Eudora Welty to John Robinson.
Eudora Welty Collection (Z/0301)
Series 5: The Golden Apples and Related Works
Box 7a, folder 2: Carbon typescripts of Welty's story "Sir Rabbit" with a handwritten note to John Robinson reads: "I realize all is risked on every sentence --let me know if you think it works--or not--Please--Yours, E –Suddenly all aweary-."
Box 7a, folders 3a-3b: Carbon typescript of Welty's "The Flower and the Rock" sent to John Robinson, 1947.
Box 7b, folder 2: Partial draft typescript of Welty's “The Wanderers" may have been sent to John Robinson; includes Robinson's 1945 officer's pay data card.
Eudora Welty Collection (Z/0301)
Series 7: The Bride of the Innisfallen
Box 11, folder 8: Carbon typescript of Welty's "The Burning" sent to John Robinson with notations for changes “Miss Theo, Miss Myra, Florabel."
Eudora Welty Collection (Z/0301)
Series 16: The Eye of the Story
Box 324, folder 9: Carbon typescript of Intruder in the Dust by William Faulkner with pages numbered by Welty and corrections in ink, originally sent to John Fraiser Robinson. On the first page is a handwritten note by Welty “Would like your opinion of same – This done for Hudson Review,” which suggests the date of the work is 1949.
Box 325, folder 9: Carbon typescript of Welty's "Some Notes on River Country" mailed to John Robinson overseas; handwritten note to John F. Robinson on page 1.
Eudora Welty Collection (Z/0301)
Series 21: Drama
Box 331, folders 1-5: Typescript of "The Robber Bridegroom.” Notes for and scenes from a screenplay; written by John Robinson (who was living in San Francisco and DeLisle, Miss.) and Eudora Welty (who was living in Jackson, Miss.); pages typed in pica seem to have been written by Welty while those typed in elite seem to have been written by Robinson.
Eudora Welty Collection (Z/0301)
Series 24: Essays and Short Non-Fiction in Publications
Box 102, folder 5: "Pageant of Birds." 1943. The New Republic, 25 Oct. 1943, 565-567. Two pages from The New Republic. Originally sent by Welty to John Robinson.
Eudora Welty Collection (Z/0301)
Series 26: Photographs
Box 88, Negative 712: "Home Abandoned," OTOP. EW's friend John Robinson knew of this house and showed it to her.
Box 88, Negatives 79, 99, and 263: Photos Taken by John Robinson.
Eudora Welty Collection (Z/0301)
Series 29a: Correspondence by Eudora Welty
Boxes 135-143: Correspondence from Eudora Welty to John Robinson, March 1940 to May 1951, and undated letters.
Eudora Welty Collection (Z/0301)
Series 29b: Select Correspondence
Box 183-184: Correspondence from John Robinson to Eudora Welty.
Eudora Welty Collection (Z/0301)
Series 29d: Associated Correspondence and Papers
Box 439, folders 1-25: Associated correspondence and papers to and from John F. Robinson. These papers document the period of John Fraiser Robinson’s activity as a soldier in World War II and his efforts to become a writer in the 1940s. A substantial number of V-mails sent him principally by his sister Anna Bell Robinson Davis, other family members, and occasional acquaintances during World War II, and an invitation to a party given by a pro-Resistance publication in honor of the liberation of Algiers by the Allies, bear witness to his military service (box 439, folders 1-2). There are some miscellaneous materials, and a letter from poet and writer John Malcolm Brinnin (box 439, folder 4). But the majority of the papers concern Robinson’s own work as a writer. Three groups of materials found with different envelopes include some of his works. In the first group (box 439, folders 5-10), there are drafts and published versions of his “Room in Algiers,” and “The Rite of Spring,” which was published as “…All this Juice and All This Joy.” Also with this group is the published version of “The Inspector.” Its development from its earlier version, “The Back is Open” is demonstrated in the other two groups of materials, consisting primarily of different drafts and partial revisions of this story. There is also correspondence relating to its publication by Harper’s Magazine, and letters of encouragement from the magazine’s editor Katherine Gauss Jackson. While none of the letters were written to Welty, there are traces of her in these papers: Brinnin’s letter discusses Delta Wedding and his wish to meet Welty in New York; and a draft of "The Back is Open" (Box 439, folder 14) appears to bear edits by Welty.
Box 440, folder 14: Letter of Diarmuid Russell to John Robinson, February 23, 1949.
Welty – Millar Letters (Z/2330)
Welty wrote to Ken Millar of other friends of hers… There is a letter mentioning John Robinson (January 12, 1976).
SAFE HARBOR FAMILY CHURCH
In 1995, Safe Harbor Family Church began through the efforts of twelve people who met over a picnic lunch spread on a quilt in a local park. They decided to form a church where all would be welcome, where friendships and spiritual growth could go hand in hand, and where they could learn about the grace and love of God. Over the years, Safe Harbor Family Church has grown from this group of twelve, who met in each other's homes, to a thriving community of dedicated members and friends who meet the needs of a much larger community. In 2010, Safe Harbor became part of the United Church of Christ (UCC).
Safe Harbor Family Church Records (Z/2389)
This is a collection of papers, worship bulletins, calendars, bylaws, incorporation, and flyers for church events at and supported by the Safe Harbor Family Church of Clinton, Hinds County, Mississippi. This is an independent Christian church developed as a welcoming community for LGBTQ individuals and allies. Acquired through a collaborative partnership with Invisible Histories.
EDDIE SANDIFER
Edgar "Eddie" Allen Sandifer, Jr. (October 4, 1929 - September 16, 2016), was born in Cotton Valley, Louisiana, into a Southern Baptist preacher's family. In 1958, he traveled to New York to attend the National Convention for the Mattachine Society, established to promote gay rights. When the hotel refused to allow African-Americans to join the convention, he said the society threatened to picket. The hotel changed its stance. Professing to have never been in the closet, even while in the military, Sandifier served in the Korean War from 1950-1953 and was honorably discharged as a sergeant with an operative care specialization. His experience in the Army's Operative Care Unit led to his work as a nursing home administrator from 1955-1977. Sandifer officiated gay wedding ceremonies throughout the Sandifer started the Jackson branch of the Gray Panthers, helped found the Coalition for Nursing Home Reform, the Mississippi Gay Alliance, among other organizations. In 1987, the MGA began the Sandifer House, which had a dozen beds for AIDS and HIV patients. The house operated until funding ran out in 1992. Sometimes Sandifer was called “the Robin Hood of the civil rights movement.” He died in Jackson, Mississippi.
Sandifer, Eddie (Subject File)
KEVIN SESSUMS
Kevin Sessums, born in 1956 in Forest, Mississippi, is an American author, editor, and actor. Sessums served as executive editor of Interview and as a contributing editor of Vanity Fair, Allure, and Parade. He was a Editor at Large at Grazia USA. Other work has appeared in Travel+Leisure, Elle, Out, Marie Claire, Playboy, Thedailybeast.com and Towleroad.com. Currently, he is the Editor in Chief of sessumsmagazine.com, which he founded in October 2017. Sessums portrayed Peter Cipriani in the miniseries adaptation of Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City. In 2007, Sessums published a memoir titled Mississippi Sissy, a narrative of his conflicted life as a self-aware gay boy growing up in Forest, Mississippi. In 2015, he published his second memoir, I Left It on the Mountain. Both books were recognized by the New York Times Bestseller list.
Actors and Actresses, M-Z (Subject File)
Mississippi Sissy by Kevin Sessums.
GARRISON STARR
Julia Garrison Starr, born in 1975, in Hernando, Mississippi, was a member of several local rock bands in Mississippi, particularly This Living Hand, in which she met and forged a friendship with fellow artist and producer Neilson Hubbard, and Clay Jones, who would produce her first major-label album. Starr is a Grammy-nominated American singer-songwriter and producer. Her major label debut, "18 Over Me" was released in 1997 by Geffen Records. Since that initial record, Starr has released over a dozen EPs and LPs while landing numerous placements on shows and movies, as well as commercial placements. In 2017, Starr released What If There Is No Destination, led by the single "Put Your Weapon Down," with the profits from this single going to the National Center for Victims of Crime for the victims of the June 2016 Orlando tragedy at the Pulse nightclub.
THIS MONTH IN MISSISSIPPI
This Month in Mississippi was the official newsletter of the Mississippi Gay & Lesbian Alliance. This newsletter began its publication run in the late 1970s and continued through 1991.
TENNESSEE WILLIAMS
Thomas Lanier Williams III (March 26, 1911 – February 25, 1983), known by his pen name Tennessee Williams, was born in Columbus, Mississippi. Along with contemporaries Eugene O'Neill and Arthur Miller, he is considered among the three foremost playwrights of 20th-century American drama. Williams suddenly became famous with the success of The Glass Menagerie in 1944 in New York City. It was the first of a string of successes, including A Streetcar Named Desire (1947), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955), Sweet Bird of Youth (1959), and The Night of the Iguana (1961). Much of Williams's most acclaimed work has been adapted for the cinema. He also wrote short stories, poetry, essays, and a volume of memoirs. After some early attempts at relationships with women, by the late 1930s, Williams began exploring his homosexuality by joining a gay social club in New York City. Later, Williams met and fell in love with Frank Merlo (1921–1963), a relationship lasting fourteen years. After Merlo's death in 1963, Williams descended into a period of nearly catatonic depression, increasing drug use, and other ailments. Williams died in his hotel in New York City.
Eudora Welty Collection (Z/0301)
Series 29b: Select Correspondence.
Box 207: Correspondence with Eudora Welty; Tennessee Williams and Andrew Lyndon.
Tennessee Williams
Graphic; part of Mississippi Authors Collection PI/LIT/1982.0048, Box 14, Folder 65.
Tennessee Williams Jumbo (Subject File)
Tennessee Williams 1945-1949 (Subject File)
Tennessee Williams 1950-1959 (Subject File)
Tennessee Williams 1960-1969 (Subject File)
Tennessee Williams 1970-1979 (Subject File)
Tennessee Williams 1980-1989 (Subject File)
Tennessee Williams 1990-1999 (Subject File)
Tennessee Williams 2000- (Subject File)
Tennessee Williams Festival (Subject File)
Books by and about Tennessee Williams
Something Cloudy, Something Clear, by Tennessee Williams ; with an introduction by Eve Adamson.
STARK YOUNG
Stark Young (October 11, 1881 - January 6, 1963), born in Como, Mississippi, was a teacher, playwright, novelist, painter, literary critic, translator, and essayist. Young entered the University of Mississippi at the age of 15 and graduated from that institution in 1901. He completed his Master's Degree at Columbia University in New York in 1902. He taught at the University of Mississippi, University of Texas at Austin, and Amherst College, before resigning from teaching in order to pursue other interests. In New York, he worked for Theatre Arts Magazine and for The New Republic, until his retirement in 1947. In 1926 Stark Young wrote his first novel Heaven Trees. In 1930, Young contributed to the agrarian manifesto, I'll Take My Stand. He was one of 12 Southern writers known as the Southern Agrarians. Young's novel So Red the Rose published in 1934, had a brief period of popularity as the archetype of the Southern Civil War novel and dealt with the aftermath of the war. In 1951 Young published his memoir, The Pavilion, dedicated to his friend Allen Tate. Young suffered a stroke in May 1959 and died four years later. He was buried in Friendship Cemetery in Como, Mississippi.
Stark Young Letters (Z/1001.000/F)
Copy of letter to Stark Young and two letters from Young to Miss Claribel Drake, concerning So Red the Rose and Young's relationship with the McGehee family of Wilkinson County, Mississippi. Born in Como, Mississippi, Young was a drama critic, author, poet, teacher, and editor. He died in 1963 and is buried at his birthplace.
Stark Young Letters (Z/1001.001/F)
Undated letter from Young to Charles H. Towne of New York; one letter to Mr. Holcomb with biographical data, copy of letter from William D. McCain to Young and his reply. Mr. Gene Holcomb was editor of the Mississippi Writers Project, Work Progress Administration. The letter from McCain, Director of the Department of Archives and History, and Young's reply concern translations of So Red the Rose.
Mrs. Dunbar Rowland Papers, 1908-1938 (Z/0591.002)
Also there are letters from Lyon Tyler, Moreau B. Chambers, Belle Kearney, and Stark Young. The correspondence is arranged alphabetically.
Books by and about Stark Young
The Three Fountains (1925)
"Ode to Mississippi’s Troubled Hour" (Poem, published in University Magazine, 1962)
So Red the Rose (1934)
Review of The Pavillion by Stark Young (published in Saturday Review of Literature, 1951)
The Saint, a Play in Four Acts (1925)
Feliciana (1935)
River House (1929)
The Torches Flare (1928)
The Street of the Islands (1930)
Addio, Madretta, and Other Plays (1976)
Guenevere: A Play in Five Acts (1906)
Three One-Act Plays: Madretta, At the Shrine, Addio (1921)
The Flower in Drama: A Book of Papers on the Theatre (1923)
The Colonnade (1924; 1976)
Encaustics (1926)
Theatre Practice (1926)
The Blind Man at the Window and Other Poems (1906; 1976)
Heaven Trees (1927)
And many others, including articles
Non-Mississippians
MARY LOUISE ASWELL
Mary Louise White Aswell (June 3, 1902 - December 24, 1984) was an editor and writer. The fiction editor at Harper's Bazaar, she brought writers such as Eudora Welty and Truman Capote to the public's attention. Mary Louise White was born in Germantown, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania. After two failed marriages, Aswell met Agnes C. Sims. The two had met through East coast lesbian circles. Sims bought a nineteenth-century house with acreage on Canyon Road, Santa Fe, and built a compound including a house for herself and one for Aswell. Aswell died on December 24, 1984, in Sante Fe, N.M. She was 82 years old.
Welty – Millar Letters (Z/2330)
Welty wrote to Ken Millar of other friends of hers, including Elizabeth Bowen, Mary Louise Aswell, and Aristide and Mary Mian. Welty also passed on to Millar news of the appreciation shown by Elizabeth Bowen (June 22, 1975) and Mary Louise Aswell (July 2, 1976) of his own work.
Eudora Welty Collection (Z/0301)
Series 14. One Time, One Place.
Box 54, Folder 2: "Foreword" to One Time, One Place. [1971]. 7 pieces.
This item is a photocopy of the typescript of Welty's "Foreword" for Mary Louise Aswell. There is a handwritten note from Welty to Aswell on the first page. The typescript appears the same as the one described above, but the photocopied handwritten corrections on it vary.
Eudora Welty Collection (Z/0301)
Series 16. The Eye of the Story.
Box 59, Folder 5: "The House of Willa Cather." [1973]. 26 pieces. A photocopy of the corrected typescript of the lecture Welty delivered at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, in October, 1973, that was sent to Mary Louise Aswell. The photocopy has a correction in pencil [p. 8] and pages numbered by Welty. The title was handwritten on the original by Welty.
Box 59, Folder 6: “Reality in Chekhov’s Stories.” n.d. 26 pieces. Photocopy of a corrected typescript sent to Mary Louise Aswell. The original was numbered by Welty, sometimes with typed, sometimes with handwritten numbers. The photocopy bears a few handwritten corrections in blue ink.
Box 322, Folder 6: “PLACE IN FICTION.” 1954. 16 pieces. Identical to the one sent to Alun Jones, this photocopy of Welty’s paper is inscribed to Mary Louise Aswell.
Box 325, Folder 3: The Saddest Story. A Biography of Ford Madox Ford. By Arthur Mizener. [ca. 1971]. 11 pieces. A handwritten note to “ML” on the first page indicates that Welty sent this photocopy of a corrected typescript to Mary Louise Aswell. The pages are numbered. The draft is undated but identified by Welty as “for the Times,” suggesting it was written in 1971, when it appeared in The New York Times Book Review.
Box 325, Folder 6: PICTURES AND CONVERSATIONS. Chapters of an autobiography. With other collected writings. By Elizabeth Bowen. n.d. 9 pieces. Photocopy of a corrected typescript apparently sent to Mary Louise Aswell. There are nine numbered pages, and this draft includes a final paragraph not appearing in the published version.
Eudora Welty Collection (Z/0301)
Series 17. One Writer's Beginnings.
Box 232, Folders 1-9: Subseries II: Photocopy of typescript apparently returned to Welty by Mary Louise Aswell. Substantively the same as the version sent to Maxwell, this photocopy is accompanied by a typed and corrected title page, has multiple copies of Welty's page 17 (or I. 14), and has page 7 placed in a different sequence. Handwritten page numbers occasionally appear. n.d. 134 pieces.
Eudora Welty Collection (Z/0301)
Series 19. Speeches.
Box 79, Folder 3: Untitled. [1972]. 1 piece. Photocopy of Welty’s reply to Katherine Anne Porter’s presentation to Welty of the American Academy and National Institute of Arts and Letters Gold Medal of Fiction on May 17, 1972. This photocopy bears a handwritten note by Welty, and was originally sent by Welty to Mary Louise Aswell.
Eudora Welty Collection (Z/0301)
Series 24. Essays and Short Non-Fiction in Publications.
Box 102, Folder 16: "Henry Green: A Novelist of the Imagination." 1961. 1 item. Inscribed offprint from The Texas Quarterly Special Issue: Britain 2 (Autumn 1961): 246-256, originally sent by Welty to Mary Louise Aswell with a note dated Dec. 12 [1961]. See Series 29a.
Box 102, Folder 26: "Some Notes on Time in Fiction." 1973. 1 item. Offprint from The Mississippi Quarterly, Vol. 26, no. 4 (Fall 1973): 483-492. Originally sent to Mary Louise Aswell. With inscription by Welty.
Eudora Welty Collection (Z/0301)
Series 29a: Correspondence by Eudora Welty.
Boxes 120-124: Mary Lou Aswell, who was a fiction editor at Harper's Bazaar when she and Welty met. Their correspondence began in 1947 and continued until Aswell died in 1984. The letters to Mary Lou Aswell are wide ranging. Of particular interest may be the ones in which Welty describes her European travels in 1949 and 1950, discusses quite frankly the years in which she cared for her ailing mother, attempts to support Mary Lou in the wake of her son Duncan Aswell's disappearance, responds to Mary Lou's suggestions for revising Losing Battles, and offers her opinion of the Vietnam War. Boxes 122-124 also include letters from Welty to Agnes Sims, Mary Louise’s partner. Additional letters to Sims is in Box 150.
Eudora Welty Collection (Z/0301)
Series 29b: Select Correspondence.
Boxes 151; 152-153. Includes incoming correspondence from Mary Louise Aswell to Welty. Box 151 includes letters from Duncan Aswell, Mary Louise Aswell’s son, to Welty.
Eudora Welty Collection (Z/0301)
Series 29d: Associated Correspondence and Papers.
Box 437, Folders 1-11; Box 442, Folders 1-5: Mary Louise Aswell associated correspondence and news articles. 1951-1984; n.d. 0.44 cubic ft. These papers of Mary Louise Aswell contain clippings relating to Welty and her works, as well as letters from Welty's Jackson friends, including Charlotte Capers and Lehman Engel. In addition, there are letters to Aswell from other sources than Welty's circle, and from other literary figures, such as E. E. Cummings, William Gaddis, and Truman Capote biographer Gerald Clarke.
Books and articles by or about Mary Louise Aswell.
It's A Woman's World : A Collection of Stories from Harper's Bazaar, edited by Mary Louise Aswell.
ELIZABETH BOWEN
Elizabeth Bowen was an Irish-British novelist and short story writer notable for her books about the "big house" of Irish landed Protestants as well her fiction about life in wartime London. In 1923 she married Alan Cameron, an educational administrator who subsequently worked for the BBC. The marriage has been described as "a sexless but contented union." The marriage was reportedly never consummated. She had various extra-marital relationships, including one with the American poet May Sarton. Many writers visited her at Bowen's Court from 1930 onwards, including Virginia Woolf, Eudora Welty, Carson McCullers, Iris Murdoch, and the historian Veronica Wedgwood.
Eudora Welty Collection (Z/0301)
Series 16: The Eye of the Story.
Box 325, folder 6. “III. REVIEWS” Photocopy of a corrected typescript (Pictures and Conversations) apparently sent to Mary Louise Aswell. There are nine numbered pages, and this draft includes a final paragraph not appearing in the published version.
Box 62, folder 4. Author’s Copy of Collection. Review of Pictures and Conversations. Carbon typescript; pages [1]-9; the “Setting Copy…” below describes a photocopy of this carbon typescript; handwritten revisions; published under title "As If She Had Been Invited into the World," in NYTBR 5 January 1975: 4, 20.
Box 65, folder 17. III. Reviews. "Elizabeth Bowen's Pictures and Conversations." n.d. 9 pieces. Typescript, photocopy; pages 263-271; a photocopy of the carbon typescript described in “Author’s Copy…” above. The photocopy is marked “(1975).”
Box 68, folder 2. Repros. Reviews: “Patrick White’s The Cockatoos”; “Elizabeth Bowen’s Pictures and Conversations.”
Box 69, folder 7. Repros. Reviews: “Patrick White’s The Cockatoos”; “Elizabeth Bowen’s Pictures and Conversations”; Personal and Occasional Pieces: “A Sweet Devouring”; “Some Notes on River Country.”
Eudora Welty Collection (Z/0301)
Series 18: Reviews.
Box 72, folder 10. Drafts of Reviews: The Collected Stories of Elizabeth Bowen, By Elizabeth Bowen. Carbon typescript with handwritten corrections as well as replacements on pinned attachments.
Box 74, folders 3-7. Notes for Reviews: Bowen’s Court. By Elizabeth Bowen. Review drafts, loose pages, and fragmentary notes were contained in a folder entitled by Welty “Bowen’s Court review if I want to fix it."
Eudora Welty Collection (Z/0301)
Series 23: Reviews in Publications.
Box 319, folder 7. Review of Pictures and Conversations. By Elizabeth Bowen. NYTBR 5 Jan. 1975. Original.
Box 319, folder 10. Review of The Collected Stories of Elizabeth Bowen. NYTBR 8 February 1981. Original.
Box 103, folder 10. Review of Pictures and Conversations. By Elizabeth Bowen. NYTBR 5 Jan. 1975. Photocopy.
Box 103, folder 11. Review of The Collected Stories of Elizabeth Bowen. NYTBR 8 February 1981. Photocopy.
Eudora Welty Collection (Z/0301)
Series 29b: Select Correspondence.
Box 155. The letters from Elizabeth Bowen begin in 1950 and end in 1970. They focus primarily upon Welty’s visits with Bowen in London and Ireland and Bowen’s with Welty in Jackson, Mississippi, and New York City. Bowen also discusses the writers Carson McCullers and T. S. Eliot. Welty’s letters to Bowen are held by the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas in Austin.
Eudora Welty Collection (Z/0301)
Series 30: Reviews of Welty’s Work.
Box 106. Published reviews by Elizabeth Bowen of Welty’s novel A Delta Wedding and collection of stories The Golden Apples.
Eudora Welty Collection (Z/0301)
Series 35: Works by Others.
Boxes 338; 341. Original writing by Elizabeth Bowen. Also includes an articles by V.S. Pritchett titled “Bowen’s Inner Lives.”
Eudora Welty Collection (Z/0301)
Series 45: Welty Family Papers.
On occasion Eudora writes to her mother Chestina from Bowen Court, Dublin, Ireland, home of Elizabeth Bowen. Welty may write about activities and friends visiting Bowen Court, and comment of friendships.
Box 457, Folders 2-5: Letters from Eudora Welty to Chestina Welty, April 1950.
Box 457, Folders 23-24: Letters from Eudora Welty to Chestina Welty, April 1951.
Box 457, Folders 40-43: Letters from Eudora Welty to Chestina Welty, June, July 1951.
Box 457, Folders 70-71: Letters from Eudora Welty to Chestina Welty, April [no year].
Box 457, Folders 80; 82; 84: Letters from Eudora Welty to Chestina Welty, n.d.
Welty – Millar Letters (Z/2330)
Welty wrote to Ken Millar of other friends of hers, including Elizabeth Bowen.
FRANK HAINS (from Parkersburg, WV)
Frank Woodruff Hains, Jr. was a native of Parkersburg, West Virginia. He received his degree in speech from Marietta College, Marietta, Ohio. He served two years in the military and then began a radio career in 1947 in his hometown. That career took him to Vicksburg in 1951, where he began starring in little theater productions. In February 1955, Hains came to the Jackson Daily News as literary editor and to report on education news, take photographs, and write features. He later became editor of the entertainment pages. In July 1956, he began a daily column, "On Stage," which lasted until he was murdered in his own home in 1975.
Frank Hains Papers (Z/1441)
The papers of Frank Hains include correspondence; copies of "On Stage," dating from 1956 through 1959; personal files and materials on theatre associations, film societies, music associations, festivals, and the circus; production designs by Hains, and sketches by A. Scott and William B. Hollingsworth; and photographs of celebrities. Included are press information of the ABC, CBS, and NBC television networks, and Public Broadcasting Service reports. A substantial part of the collection consists of newspaper articles, programs, and photographs on various plays. Also included are scripts of "The Ponder Heart," and "Seasons of Dreams."
Frank Hains Collection, Accretion, circa 1960-1975, (Z/U/1978.120) Unprocessed.
Should be renamed Frank Hains Collection about Eudora Welty
This collection consists of material on Eudora Welty collected by Frank Hains, a director of New Stage Theatre of Jackson, Mississippi. Collection's central focus is Welty.
Eudora Welty Collection (Z/0301)
Series 24: Essays and Short Non-Fiction in Publications.
Box 102, Folder 29: “In Memorium.” n.d. [1975] 1 piece. The Clarion-Ledger Jackson Daily News 27 July 1975: sec. A : 1. Photocopy of Welty’s memorial tribute to Frank Hains appearing in Hains’s “On Stage” column.
Eudora Welty Collection (Z/0301)
Series 29b: Select Correspondence.
Box 165: Correspondence with Mrs. Frank W. Hains (Frank Hains’s mother).
Eudora Welty Collection (Z/0301)
Series 29d: Associated Correspondence and Papers.
Box 442, Folder 1: News clipping from the Jackson Daily News. Friday, November 20, 1970, Section C, p. 8. 1 piece. Clipping of article by James Gordon concerning the TV production of the Frank Hains adaptation of Jane Reid Petty and Ellen Cullman's A Season of Dreams. It is a partial clipping with notation in pencil, possibly by Welty: "Sorry my mother cut off the end of the article!"
Eudora Welty Collection (Z/0301)
Series 30: Reviews of Welty’s Work.
Box 106: Hains, Frank. "'One Time, One Place': Photographs of Her Mississippi by Eudora Welty." Jackson Clarion-Ledger 31 Oct. 1971, sec. C: 8. Three copies. 3 pp.
Eudora Welty Collection (Z/0301)
Series 43: Business Records.
Box 426, Folder 1: Of interest are the letters from Tim Seldes discussing Diarmuid Russell’s health and retirement and his note responding to Welty’s news of the death of Frank Hains, director of the New Stage theatre in Jackson…
A Season of Dreams Script (Z/1963/F)
This collection consists of a photocopy of a thirty-two-page typewritten working script of the New Stage Theatre production of A Season of Dreams that was adapted for the stage from the collected works of Eudora Welty by Patti Carr Black and Jane Reid-Petty. This working copy includes clearly marked selections from the following works by Welty: "Asphodel," "At the Landing," "Lily Daw and the Three Ladies," "A Memory," "The Petrified Man," "A Piece of News," "Some Notes on River Country," "The Wide Net," "Why I Live at the P.O.," Delta Wedding, One Writer's Beginnings, The Ponder Heart, and The Robber Bridegroom. The performances ran from May 22 through June 1, 1968. The production was directed by Frank Hains, who also designed the set. Two years later, the script was revised by Ellen Gilchrist and Jane Reid-Petty and adapted for television by Frank Hains as the first original production of the Mississippi Center for Educational Television.
An Interview with Lewis Dalvit, February 12, 1982, Interviewed by Judy W. Ritter, [sound recording] (AU 825) Mentions Frank Hains in the interview.
JOHN HOWARD
British author writing about LGBTQ life in Southern States, primarily gay male life. John Howard's unparalleled history of queer life in the South persuasively debunks the myth that same-sex desires can't find expression outside the big city. In fact, this book shows that the nominally conservative institutions of small-town life—home, church, school, and workplace—were the very sites where queer sexuality flourished.
Men Like That : A Southern Queer History by John Howard.
REYNOLDS PRICE
Edward Reynolds Price (February 1, 1933 – January 20, 2011), born in Macon, North Carolina, he and his mother barely surviving childbirth. He was a poet, novelist, dramatist, essayist and Professor of English at Duke University. Apart from English literature, Price had a lifelong interest in Biblical scholarship. He was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Price is classified as a Southern writer, as his works are often especially associated with his lifelong home of North Carolina. Price's first ever published story, called "A Chain of Love", came in 1958. He wrote his first novel, A Long and Happy Life, and witnessed its publication in 1962. Over his career, Price produced 38 total novels, short stories, and memoirs. Price lived alone, by choice, for all of his adult life and was openly homosexual. In 1957 he had an affair with the British poet Stephen Spender. Price died at the age of 77 on January 20, 2011, as a result of complications from a heart attack.
Charlotte Capers Papers, Accretion (Z/U/1977.066) UNPROCESSED
This accretion to the papers of Charlotte Capers mainly consists of the script, with handwritten notes, for an ETV broadcast of the inauguration of Mississippi Governor William Waller in Jackson, Mississippi. Also included are poems written by Reynolds Price.
Eudora Welty Collection (Z/0301)
Series 24: Essays and Short Non-Fiction in Publications.
Box 102, Folder 11: "Place in Fiction." 1955. 2 items. The Archive, Vol. 67, no. 4 (1955): 4-14. Two complete issues of a Duke University publication edited by Reynolds Price. The issues include three Welty photographs on pages 4, 8, and 12.
Box 102, Folder 28: “Letters to the Editor.” n.d. [1975] 1 piece. “The Surface of Earth.” NYTBR 20 July 1975: 24-25. Photocopy with copied handwritten publication information. Welty’s defense of Reynolds Price’s book is complete in the photocopy, but it cuts off the edge of one column of reviewer Richard Gilman’s reply.
Eudora Welty Collection (Z/0301)
Series 29a: Correspondence by Eudora Welty.
Box 135: Reynolds Price is identified as a principal correspondent of Eudora Welty’s.
Eudora Welty Collection (Z/0301)
Series 29b: Select Correspondence.
Box 181: Correspondence from Reynolds Price.
Eudora Welty Collection (Z/0301)
Series 29d: Associated Correspondence and Papers.
Box 441, Folder 10: Postcards to Frank H. Lyell. [ca. 1931]-1976. 4 pieces. This folder contains three postcards to Frank Lyell. Two are from Reynolds Price, dated April 1, 1964, and September 11, 1969; the third was sent to Lyell from London, England, June 18, 1976. Signed "De Sica," possibly a reference to Vittorio De Sica, the film director, the card is written in a mixture of Italian and English and its authorship ascribed to Lehman Engel.
Eudora Welty Collection (Z/0301)
Series 30: Reviews of Welty’s Work.
Box 106: Price, Reynolds. "'Frightening Gift.'" Washington Post 17 April 1970, sec. C: 1, 4. Three originals, one photocopy. 8 pp.
Eudora Welty Collection (Z/0301)
Series 35: Works by Others.
Box 341: Writing by Reynolds Price, 1977-1993; n.d.
Eudora Welty Collection (Z/0301)
Series 38: Photographs.
Box 352, Folder 2: "The Only News" by Reynolds Price. n.d. 15 pieces. A clean copy of Price's introduction to Welty's Photographs, this draft of "The Only News" is accompanied by an envelope labeled in Welty's handwriting, "Reynolds Price's Preface to Photograph Book."
Box 352, Folder 4: Statement by Reynolds Price. 1989. 1 piece. Photocopy of a one-paragraph statement of congratulations and support for Photographs by Reynolds Price. Below the statement is the photocopy of a note by Welty identifying the statement as "sent to be read on 26 November 1989, at premiere of Photographs."
Eudora Welty Collection (Z/0301)
Series 39: The Norton Book of Friendship.
Box 364, Folder 8: There are also copies of letters forwarded to Welty by Barber or W. W. Norton with such comments or congratulations from Reynolds Price and Jim Lehrer, (folder 8)…
Eudora Welty Collection (Z/0301)
Series 42: Works of Art, Prints, and Posters.
Box 422, Folder 1: New Stage Theatre. Poster for "The World Premiere of Private Contentment" by Reynolds Price, directed by Ivan Rider, executive producer, Jane Reid-Petty, at New Stage Theatre, Jackson, Mississippi, March 13-30, 1985.
Box 424, Folder 1: Price, Reynolds. Presentation copy of the print of Reynolds Price's "Dead Man, Dying Girl" "Robert Kennedy 1925-1968," with art by Chuck Miller. Limited edition of 200 numbered and twenty-six lettered copies. Signed by Price and Miller. 1978.
Welty – Millar Letters (Z/2330)
Welty wrote to Ken Millar of other friends of hers, … a humorous description of a visit from Reynolds Price dated September 9, 1977 (Box 1, Folder 17).
MAY SARTON
Eleanore Marie Sarton (May 3, 1912 - July 16, 1995), was born in Wondelgem, Belgium, the daughter of a historian and an artist. At the beginning of World War I, her family moved to Boston, Massachusetts, where her father worked for Harvard University. When she traveled in Europe in the 1930s she met Virginia Woolf and Elizabeth Bowen, among others, and began her first novel and used the pen name May Sarton. She met her partner of nearly thirteen years, Judith "Judy" Matlack, in Santa Fe, New Mexico in 1945. The couple separated in 1956 when Sarton moved back to New Hampshire. Her novel Honey in the Hive is about their relationship. Sarton wrote 53 books, including 19 novels, 17 books of poetry, 15 nonfiction works, 2 children's books, a play, and additional screenplays. She died of breast cancer in Nelson, New Hampshire.
Eudora Welty Collection (Z/0301)
Series 29b: Select Correspondence.
Box 198: Correspondence from May Sarton to Eudora Welty.
MARNI VON WILPERT
In 2011, Marni von Wilpert was awarded a Skadden Fellowship to work at the Mississippi Center for Justice from 2011 until 2013. During the fellowship, she established Mississippi’s first medical-legal partnership, a collaboration with the University of Mississippi Medical Center to provide free legal representation for people living with HIV/AIDS who faced discrimination in housing, employment, and access to medical care. Numerous opportunities for meetings, trainings, and support groups were arranged to combat anti-LGBTQ, racial and gender discrimination in Mississippi.
Marni von Wilpert Papers (Z/2417)
Mississippi Center for Justice (Subject File)
ALICE WALKER
Alice Malsenior Tallulah-Kate Walker, in 1944, in rural Eatonton, Georgia, to sharecroppers. She eventually attended Spelman College and Sarah Lawrence College. After graduation, she returned to the South and worked for the NAACP in Jackson, Mississippi, while also working as a consultant in black history to the Friends of the Children of Mississippi Head Start program. Later, she was writer-in-residence at Jackson State University and Tougaloo College. Through her interracial relationship with Melvyn Rosenman Leventhal, a civil rights attorney who was also working in Mississippi, she had her daughter Rebecca Walker in 1969. Walker is an American novelist, short story writer, poet, and social activist. In 1982, she became the first African American woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, which she was awarded for her novel The Color Purple. Over the span of her career, Walker has published seventeen novels and short story collections, twelve non-fiction works, and collections of essays and poetry.
Books by and about Alice Walker
REBECCA WALKER
Born Rebecca Leventhal in 1969 in Jackson, Mississippi, she is the daughter of Alice Walker, author of The Color Purple, and Melvyn R. Leventhal, a Jewish American civil rights lawyer. After her parents divorced in 1976, Walker spent her childhood alternating between her father's home in the Bronx in New York City and her mother's largely African-American environment in San Francisco. When she was 15, Rebecca decided to change her surname from Leventhal to Walker. She studied at Yale University, where she graduated cum laude in 1992. Walker identifies as Jewish, white and Black; her 2000 memoir is titled Black, White, and Jewish: Autobiography of a Shifting Self. Once estranged from her mother Alice Walker, she has reconciled with her, and the two have since appeared at literary events together. Walker identifies as bisexual. She dated neo-soul musician Meshell Ndegeocello, whose son she helped raise even after their relationship ended.
Black, White, and Jewish : Autobiography of a Shifting Self