Mildred Pierce screenplay drafts and related letters

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  Ramona screenplay drafts

  Manuscripts

  Two drafts of Lamar Trotti's screenplay for Ramona, based on the novel by Helen Hunt Jackson. The film was produced in 1936 by Twentieth Century Fox.

  mssHM 82351-82352

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  Christopher Isherwood letters to John B.L. Goodwin

  Manuscripts

  Three letters from Christopher Isherwood to the American author and poet, John B.L. Goodwin. HM 83696, autograph letter written from London, England (Sep. 18, 1961) ; HM 83697, typewritten letter written from Santa Monica, Calif. (Sep. 23, [1963]) ; HM 83698, also a typewritten letter from Santa Monica (Aug. 30, [1964]). The letters discuss mutual friends John Osborne, Somerset Maugham, Tony Richardson, and Don Bachardy; also Isherwood's current work: Down There on a Visit (1962), A Single Man (1964), the screenplay for The Loved One (1964), Ramakrishna and His Disciples (1965), and Goodwin's book, A View of Fuji (1963). All letters are in excellent condition; HM 83697 contains autograph notes in red ink on the bottom of the page.

  mssHM 83696-83698

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  Franklin Pierce, Greenland, New Hampshire, letter to Ticknor & Company :

  Manuscripts

  In a letter presumably about Nathaniel Hawthorne's Life of Franklin Pierce, Pierce requests that a copy of the engraving be sent to him at Rockingham House. Mentions that Hawthorne is at the shoals for several days.

  mssHM 10859

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  Catherine Turney Papers

  Manuscripts

  This collection contains the papers of American screenwriter and writer Catherine Turney (1906-1998) chiefly dating from 1934-1985 and including manuscripts, research notes and files, correspondence, and ephemera. There are 711 items in the manuscript section which are arranged alphabetically by author and then title. Materials without author and title are arranged alphabetically by type. Oversize materials are located in boxes 34 and 35. The manuscripts consist of various screenplays, television and movie treatments, biographies, and novels, both published and unpublished, written by Turney throughout her career (some written with co-authors such as Jerry Horwin and Stephen Longstreet). The collection includes an unproduced screenplay, written for Bette Davis titled "Angel Manager." A version of the screenplay for "Of Human Bondage" is located in the manuscripts. Also included is one of the first scripts for "Japanese War Bride," originally titled "East is East." There are materials related to Turney's first play, "Bitter Harvest," including two published copies with Turney's edits, and her most successful play, "My Dear Children." The manuscripts contain drafts of Byron's Daughter and Turney's research notes for that book. Other manuscripts include: a draft of her biography "The Patriarch," which was intended to illuminate the lives of the women in George Washington's life; a fictional trilogy regarding early California entitled "Light in the Spring," "Manifest Destiny," and "Fruit of the Vine"; and a biography of Aimée Dubuc de Rivery entitled "The Beautiful One." Research notes and materials for her biographies and novels are listed under "Note cards" and "Notes." There are reviews of Turney's biographies and novels, two interviews with Catherine Turney, and poetry written by Turney while she attended Bishop's School. Of note are seventeen drawings by the artist Stephen Longstreet. There are also manuscripts relating to the creation and early days of the Pasadena Community Playhouse and two manuscripts regarding Catherine Turney's experiences with John Barrymore in the 1930s while he played the leading role in "My Dear Children." Correspondence consists of approximately 2,000 items arranged alphabetically by author. The majority of the correspondence is either to or from Catherine Turney. The topics range from business matters regarding her scripts and book deals to personal matters. Many of the letters to and from publishing companies are requests and permissions for the use of copyrighted material in Catherine Turney's published works. The most common topic of her business correspondence in the late 1970s was her dispute with the heirs of Lord Byron regarding her use of the book Lord Noel Byron and the Leighs. The financial and legal debates prevented her from finishing her work on George Washington for the bicentennial. Catherine Turney corresponded with many people involved in or associated with the film, literary and art worlds in both America and England. Notable participants include: L.E. Berman; Muriel Box; Shirley Burke; Virginia Scott Steele; Stephen Longstreet; John Collier; Bette Davis, Joan Crawford and Barbara Stanwyck; and Eric Portman. Also included are: Elaine Barrie Barrymore; John Barrymore; Metro- Goldwyn-Mayer; Charles Scribner, Charles Scribner's Sons; Byron Society (American Committee); CBS; KABC; KHJ-TV; Jerry Horwin; Pasadena Playhouse Association; Screen Writers' Guild; and the Writers Guild of America, West. A friend of Catherine Turney, Jeane Oldham, wrote to her about the funeral of Paul von Hindenburg and descriptions of Germany in mourning, including German reactions to Hitler's speech on the occasion. A box of correspondence was found later and added to the collection which contains letters by Lenard Kester to Catherine Turney and a letter by Arthur Schwartz. The ephemera section consists of 938 items arranged alphabetically by type and then subject where appropriate. The ephemera includes records pertaining to both of Turney's divorces, property that she owned in Pasadena, her contracts with movie and television studios, publishing agreements for books and magazine articles, and royalty statements. There are copies of magazines which published her work, research materials for her various works, and newspaper and magazine clippings regarding her works. Research materials for "The Patriarch" include photocopies of letters from George Washington, Martha Washington, and Nathanael Greene. The Turney Family Ephemera consists of newspaper clippings regarding her mother's singing career, ephemera associated with that career and ephemera related to her father's company. The Catherine Turney Ephemera includes a wedding book from her second marriage and applications she filled out for the Producer-Writers Guild of America Pension Plan and Motion Picture and Television Country House and Hospital. Also included in this folder is a photocopy of her interview from the book Screenwriter by Lee Server. The ephemera pertaining to the Pasadena Community Playhouse consists of one brochure from 1937, three copies of the "Pasadena Playhouse Hall of Fame 1982," and two newspaper clippings regarding the 1979 fundraiser. There are photographs of Catherine Turney and her family as well as photographs of friends, including a personalized, autographed photo of Bette Davis. The volume section consists of five items. There is a children's book that was a gift to Turney from her father and a religious text. Seven items were transferred to the Rare Books Department. They are listed at the end of the finding aid. Other subjects in the collection include: Abdülhamid I, Sultan of the Turks; Actresses; Hermione Baddeley; Sally Benson; Henry Blanke; Curtis Bernhardt; Daniel Boone and family; Sydney Box; California fiction; Church of the Ascension (Sierra Madre, Calif.); Bette Davis; Aimée Dubuc de Rivery; Baron Bryan Fairfax; Gerald Gardiner; Paul von Hindenburg; Arthur Raleigh Humphreys; Impressionism in California; Empress Josephine; literary agents; Mahmud II, Sultan of the Turks; Mildred Pierce (Motion picture); Motion Picture Association of America. Production Code Administration; Quarter Circle U Ranch (Mont.); Ben Raeburn; screenwriters; Selim III, Sultan of the Turks; Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley; Percy Bysshe Shelley; Sierra Madre (Calif.); Anne Strick; television writers; Warner Bros.; George and Martha Washington; Rebecca West; and World War II.

  mssTurney papers

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  Letters of Hiram Dwight Pierce and related documents [microform] : 1849-1850

  Manuscripts

  Microfilm of typescript letters from Hiram Dwight Pierce to his wife Sarah Jane Palmer, letters from Sarah to Hiram, notes from the Geneva Gazette, portions of Pierce's 1850 diary, and biographical notes and anecdotes by his grandson. The first few frames are of extracts of the Geneva Gazette from 1848-1849 recounting gold digging in California, specifically mentioning the Ontario Trojan Band and the Rensselaer County Exploring Company. The next portion of the film is entitled "Letters of a Forty-Niner, Hiram Dwight Pierce of Troy, N.Y. to his wife, Sarah Jane Pierce." The letters, written from March 1849-October 1850, recount Pierce's experiences traveling to California and digging for gold in the Maricopa area. Pierce gives detailed descriptions of sailing along the coast of Florida to Havana on the mail steamer Falcon; of stopping in New Orleans; of departing Chagres, Panama, on the steamer Orus, traveling across the Isthmus, and staying for several weeks in Panama while waiting for the Falcon to return (he eventually sailed to San Francisco on the Sylph in late July); of his stay in San Francisco, where he reflected on his religious convictions and noted the plurality of cultures around him ("You cannot name a County or an Island that is represented with all their peculiarity of dress and custom," he wrote to Sarah, "Some of them most ridiculous in the extreme"); mining for gold at Mormon Island in August 1849; going to Maricopa in January 1850 ("I have felt very uneasy about being 7 1/2 months from home and yet having done nothing for myself worth naming," he lamented); of gold mining at Washington Flat and Long Canyon; and of returning to San Francisco in October 1850 and planning his voyage home. The next portion of the microfilm is entitled "Letters of Sarah Jane Pierce to her Husband, Hiram D. Pierce," and includes several letters Sarah sent to Hiram from May 1849-August 1850, mostly recounting conditions at home. The "Story of Grandfather's Diary" by Pierce's grandson Warren Travell (son of his eldest daughter Elvira) gives biographical notes on Pierce, an account of finding his diary, and an anecdote on Pierce's homecoming in 1851. The "Diary of H.D. Pierce" is incomplete, and although it includes some brief daily entries from about 1850, it mainly consists of extracts such as the prices of goods in California ("Forty-Niner Prices") and a list of people named in the original diary. The microfilm ends with an 1849 letter from Geneva Gazette writer George R. Parburt (who went by the pseudonym LUOF) to Gazette editor S.H. Parker, which recounts Parburt's voyage of the ship Sylph and a brief account by physician James L. Tyson of conditions in the gold fields in 1850.

  MSS MFilm 00044

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  John Milton Bernhisel letter to Franklin Pierce

  Manuscripts

  Letter to President Franklin Pierce from John Milton Bernhisel, written while he was serving in the U.S. House of Representatives. Bernhisel writes to Pierce of public opinion in Utah, particularly regarding the Territory's desire to retain Brigham Young as governor. Bernhisel praises Young, noting that he possesses "the entire confidence of the people." He continues that "respecting Governor Young I would...refer your Excellency to...Stephen A. Douglas of the United States Senate." Bernhisel continues that Utah would like to see Zerubbabel Snow kept as Associate Judge, and that Seth M. Blair remain as United States Attorney for the district of Utah, and mentions Blair's original recommendation from Sam Houston. The letter is unsigned and appears incomplete.

  mssHM 23782