An Ephemera Related Press Release

AUSTIN, Texas — January 22, 2010 — The Harry Ransom Center, a humanities research library and museum at The University of Texas at Austin, has acquired a collection of letters written by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis to Ray Roberts, who was her colleague at Doubleday & Co. The letters date from 1978 to 1992 and are from the Roberts’ collection.

Jackie Kennedy began her publishing career at Viking in 1975 and became an associate editor at Doubleday in early 1978. There are 50 letters from Kennedy to Roberts, more than half of which were sent between 1978 and 1980 while Kennedy and Roberts were colleagues. Most of Kennedy’s letters are a page long, written on Doubleday memo paper or half-leaves of Doubleday letterhead.

The letters are usually handwritten, signed familiarly “Jackie xo” or with a similar closing. During her time at Doubleday, Kennedy worked closely with Roberts. Her letters are enthusiastic, friendly and playful.

Most of Kennedy’s letters are witty and brief, addressing editorial matters or providing background on an enclosed letter or document. She and Roberts exchanged ideas and information frequently and effectively. Kennedy often forwarded letters she received or copies of letters she wrote to Roberts with a memo, asking his opinion, making suggestions or pointing out a detail in the letter.

In the latter part of 1980, Roberts left Doubleday for Little, Brown in Boston. Though their professional relationship had ended, Kennedy and Roberts continued to correspond about books and planned lunch dates.

In one letter, Kennedy thanks Roberts: “You are so adorably generous and I am so grateful. The glories of my library are all presents from you.” (Oct. 30, 1982).

A year later, she writes, “It’s Autumn in New York and you are Santa Claus—I can’t believe the marvelous pile of books you sent me—’Julia,’ Coastal New England, Balthus, Karsh—they are all treasures.” (Oct. 15, 1983).

Still grateful for Roberts’s generosity years later, she wrote in December 1990: “I cant BELIEVE it—Little Brown will fire you if you keep giving me these treasures.”

The collection also contains a printed invitation to a cocktail party following the 1978 premiere of “The Big Picture”; ephemera from a ballet and opera performance Roberts attended with Kennedy; a copy of the exhibition catalog “A Frenchman in Camelot, The Decoration of the Kennedy White House by Stephane Boudin”; and photocopies of Kennedy letters, news clippings and excerpts from periodicals about Kennedy and her family.

The materials will be accessible once processed and cataloged.

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An Ephemera Related Press Release

Jan. 20, 2010—-The University of Delaware Library announces a significant gift of an extensive collection of the writer, Kay Boyle, as assembled by M. Clark Chambers during his many years of research for Kay Boyle: A Bibliography (Oak Knoll Press, 2002).

Kay Boyle was born on February 19, 1902 in St. Paul, Minnesota and died on December 27, 1992 in Mill Valley, California She was an award-winning writer, educator, and political activist.

The gift was received from Colin Heathcote of Australia, whose father was M. Clark Chambers.

Kay Boyle was one of the most important members of the first wave of American expatriate writers in Paris. The University of Delaware holds a significant collection of Kay Boyle’s manuscripts and papers.

The existing collection of Boyle’s published work has been used extensively by scholars and students and the addition of this new material makes the University of Delaware Library one of the primary centers for research on Kay Boyle and the authors, artists, and others with whom she associated.

Upon completion of cataloging of the new materials, the library will create the M. Clark Chambers Kay Boyle Collection “Finding Aid” to accommodate all of the papers, ephemera, and periodical literature that accompanied the book collection. The finding aid, which will be searchable electronically around the world, will then be on the Internet and will attract Library users to the physical M. Clark Chambers Kay Boyle Collection in the Morris Library.

“This comprehensive collection is a welcome addition to the Library’s Kay Boyle holdings,” commented Susan Brynteson, vice provost and May Morris Director of Libraries.

I’m Tom Murphy and thanks for helping me give Ephemera the Encore it deserves.

Have a look at my eBay Ephemera store
or have a look at my eBay Auction site
(Due to travel, there may not be any items listed at this point in time)

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