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Contact information: http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/mss.contact
Catalog Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/mm79028191
Collection material in English
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the LC Catalog. They are grouped by name of person or organization, by subject or location, and by occupation and listed alphabetically.
The papers of MacKinlay Kantor, novelist and author, were deposited in the Library of Congress by Kantor in installments from 1957 to 1973 and converted to gift status from 1958 to 1969. Additional materials were given by Irene Layne Kantor in 1978, Layne Kantor Shroder in 2001, and William Mobley in 2004.
The papers of MacKinlay Kantor were arranged and described in 1998 by Nan Thompson Ernst with the assistance of Paul Colton, Kathleen E. Feeney, and Susie M. Moody. The finding aid was revised in 2006. Additional materials to the collection given in 2001 and 2004 were processed together as the Addition series by Andrea J. Briggs in 2019, and the finding aid was updated to reflect the Addition.
Some sound recordings have been transferred to the Motion Picture, Broadcasting, and Recorded Sound Division, where they are identified as part of these papers. Other sound recordings have been transferred to the American Folklife Center, where they are also identified as part of these papers.
Copyright in the unpublished writings of MacKinlay Kantor in these papers and in other collections of papers in the custody of the Library of Congress is reserved. Consult a reference librarian in the Manuscript Division for further information.
The papers of MacKinlay Kantor are open to research. Researchers are advised to contact the Manuscript Reading Room prior to visiting. Many collections are stored off-site and advance notice is needed to retrieve these items for research use.
Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: Container number, MacKinlay Kantor Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
The papers of MacKinlay Kantor (1904-1977) span the years 1885-1998, with the bulk of the items dated from 1920 to 1982. The collection is organized in five series: Family and Biographical File, Correspondence, Literary File, Addition, and Oversize.
Kantor's long and prolific literary career included
As Kantor donated his papers to the Library of Congress, he wrote descriptive lists of the items in each package he sent over a period of fifteen years. Items were numbered within the package and then listed by categories Kantor devised as a means of keeping track of what he had sent. Initially he had three categories: "Letters," "Miscellaneous Manuscripts," and "Assorted Material." Later he devised a fourth category, "Complete Exhibits," to encompass various types of material relating to the publication of literary works. Some of Kantor's detailed notes provide background information concerning the creation of a literary work or his relationship with a correspondent. Other notes simply identify the items. Eventually Kantor compiled his commentary into notebooks now in the Family and Biographical File. Although the items have been removed from Kantor's shipping packages, they can still be located with his descriptive lists. Items described by Kantor in the "Letters" notebook are now in the Correspondence series. Items described in the "Miscellaneous Manuscripts" and "Complete Exhibits" notebooks are in the Literary File. Items described in the "Assorted Material" notebooks are in the Family and Biographical File, Correspondence, or Literary File. Copies of Kantor's notes have been attached to many of these items; other items have a reference to the Kantor notebooks written on the document.
Although the Family and Biographical File also concerns Kantor's immediate family, most of the items in the series document his youth in Iowa, literary celebrity, and involvement as a writer with the military and with the police department in New York City. Family papers include correspondence of family members and writings by his mother, Effie McKinlay Kantor. The biographical file includes the four notebooks containing descriptive inventories of Kantor's papers at the Library of Congress and a consultancy file concerning Curtis LeMay's vice presidential campaign with George Wallace in the 1968 presidential election.
The Correspondence series primarily documents Kantor's literary career but also treats personal and social matters. Some of the correspondence is addressed jointly to Kantor and his wife, Irene Layne Kantor, and a few of her responses are also included. Early in his career, Kantor handled his own business arrangements with periodicals and newspapers, and much of his correspondence with them in the 1920s and 1930s is filed under "Magazine and newspaper editors." Until 1950, Kantor's books were published by the firm Coward-McCann, with Tim McCann as his editor. Correspondence concerning titles published by the firm is in files labelled "Coward-McCann," though the exchanges are primarily with McCann.
Prominent in the Correspondence series are letters to and from literary agents Ned Brown, Donald Friede, Paul Reynolds, Sydney Sanders, and H. N. Swanson. Kantor worked most frequently with Friede, and correspondence between them is extensive from 1940 until Friede's death in 1965. Friede was more than Kantor's literary agent; he was often his editor, publisher, confidant, and advisor. For instance, Friede's role as Kantor's personal agent and editor for
The Correspondence series also includes fan mail, introductory letters written in 1927 when Kantor considered moving to California for a newspaper job, decades of letters from boyhood friends such as Richard Whiteman, and files for Iowa and Sarasota, Florida, which was home base for the Kantors after 1938. There is also correspondence concerning United States Air Force personnel. As a war correspondent in World War II, Kantor concentrated on the air war in Europe after flying on combat missions first with the Royal Air Force and then with the Eighth and Ninth United States Air Forces, especially the 305th and 344th Bomb Groups. Kantor's articles drew the attention of commanding officers, and eventually he worked with Generals Carl Spaatz, Ira Eaker, and Curtis LeMay to write reports of the European air war. Correspondence concerning this work, later assignments, and his friendships is filed under "United States Air Force."
Also included among Kantor's correspondents are Stuart Cloete, Joseph Cotten, Will Crawford, Richard Glendenning, David Gray (1870-1968), Alden Hatch, Joseph Hayes, Ben Hibbs, Burl Ives, Alfred A. Knopf, Margaret Leech, Curtis LeMay, John D. MacDonald, Samson Raphaelson, Charles Robbins, Ben Stahl, Daniel Taradash, Frederic Van de Water, Henry A. Wallace, and Grant Wood. Additional correspondents include Franklin P. Adams, Sherwood Anderson, Stephen Vincent Benét, James Cagney, Bennett Cerf, Saxe Commins, Walter Damrosch, Paul Engle, José Ferrer, M. F. K. Fisher, Paul T. Gilbert, Lillian Gish, Charles Grayson, Ernest Hemingway, Daniel Longwell, Myrna Loy, John P. Marquand, Herbert R. Mayes, Clark R. Mollenhoff, Frank Luther Mott, Richard M. Nixon, Gregory Peck, Edward G. Robinson, Eleanor Roosevelt, Carl Sandburg, Rex Stout, and Rudy Vallée.
The Literary File in the Kantor Papers documents all aspects of his career, including his early work in journalism and poetry, short stories and novels, plays for screen and stage, and his nonfiction articles and books. Featured in addition to typewritten and handwritten drafts are research notes, correspondence, transcripts of interviews, and promotional and illustrative matter. Kantor learned to dictate initial drafts of his writings in the late 1930s and thereafter frequently used dictaphone machines including one installed in his automobile in the 1950s. The Dictabelt recordings accompanying his papers have been transferred to the Motion Picture, Broadcasting, and Recorded Sound Division. Also included with Kantor's recordings is a set of interviews with Curtis LeMay, whose memoir,
The Literary File also contains material relating to Kantor's own memoirs,
The Addition complements the original portion of the collection and includes material relating to Kantor's family and personal life as well as his literary career. It consists chiefly of correspondence, as well as diaries, drafts and galleys of Kantor's literary work, notes, financial documents, clippings, printed material, publicity and promotional material, photographs, and other family papers. Much of the correspondence in the addition is family correspondence addressed to Kantor's wife, Irene Layne Kantor, or jointly to her and her husband, and is written by friends and family members. The addition also contains personal correspondence between MacKinlay Kantor and Irene, as well as business and general correspondence regarding Kantor's work. Materials of particular interest in the addition include a draft of the screenplay for
Writings in the collection include numerous unpublished works. Since Kantor frequently reworked his pieces, particularly the unpublished ones, in order to use a short story or sketch as the basis for a screenplay or proposed film, some narrative stories have been placed in the drama section of the Literary File as the last incarnation of the particular work. The writings files are fairly complete with the exception of his draft of
Kantor often typed on both sides of a page. The first draft typed on one side of the paper would later be used for subsequent drafts as well or for carbon copies of his correspondence. Photocopies of these letters have been placed in the Correspondence file. When a draft or partial draft of one work is preserved on the reverse side of a draft for a different title, a cross-reference sheet has been placed in the file alerting readers to both titles.
The collection is arranged in five series:
Catalog Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/mm79028191
Correspondence, diaries and appointment books, descriptive inventories of personal papers, writings, clippings, passports and identification records, photographs, scrapbooks, political election campaign records, and items relating to Kantor's youth, education, military and police associations, finances, property, and travels.
Arranged in a file of family papers and a biographical file and thereunder alphabetically by name of family member, document type, or subject.
Letters to and from Kantor with enclosures including legal and financial documents, photographs, writings, and clippings and other printed material.
Arranged alphabetically by name of person, organization, or subject and chronologically thereunder.
Writing drafts, tear sheets, offprints, dictation and interview transcripts, correspondence, research notes and background material, publicity and promotional records, clippings, book jackets, photographs, maps, and book illustrations.
Arranged alphabetically first by type of material and then by title. Larger files are further organized by document type or subject.
Playscripts and related material. Arranged in files for radio, screen, and stage and thereunder alphabetically by title of the work.
Fragments, notes, research material, and reviews.
Arranged alphabetically by type of material and chronologically thereunder.
Drafts of poems and songs with galleys and tear sheets.
Arranged alphabetically by title.
Drafts of writings, tear sheets, offprints, dictation and interview transcripts, correspondence, research notes and background material, publicity and promotional records, clippings, book jackets, photographs, maps, and illustrations.
Files for fiction and nonfiction are organized by type of writing and thereunder alphabetically by title or type of material.
Correspondence, diaries, drafts, notes, financial documents, clippings, printed material, publicity and promotional material, photographs, and other family papers.
Arranged to reflect the series, subseries, and groupings in the original portion of the collection.
Scrapbooks, posters, book jacket, illustrations, maps, printed material, and photographs.
Arranged and described according to the series and folders from which the items were removed.