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Merrill Joan Gerber papers

 Collection
Call Number: YCAL MSS 1226

Content Description

This collection contains papers concerning the work, life, and family of author Merrill Joan Gerber. Extensive manuscript and typescript drafts, proofs, notes, research, correspondence, and other related papers document Gerber's short stories, poetry, and novels, including Stop Here, My Friend: Stories (Houghton Mifflin, 1965), An Antique Man: A Novel (Houghton Mifflin, 1967), Now Molly Knows (Arbor House, 1971), Please Don't Kiss Me Now (Dial Press, 1981), The Kingdom of Brooklyn (Longstreet Press, 1992), Glimmering Girls (University of Wisconsin Press, Terrace Books, 2005), and The Hysterectomy Waltz (Dzanc Books, 2013), among many others. Literary correspondence, publishers correspondence, calendars, conference papers, teaching materials, book publicity materials, grant applications, books reviews, audiovisual materials, computer media, and other professional papers document Gerber's professional life as a both a writer and an educator. Significant literary correspondents include Cyrilly Abels, Norma Klein, Andrew Lytle, Sandra Earl Mintz, Cynthia Ozick, Lynne Sharon Schwarz, Wallace Stegner, Mary Ann Taylor-Hall, Arturo Vivante, and Charlotte Zoë Walker. Family correspondence, writings of family members, scrapbooks, diaries, notebooks, photographs, yearbooks, and other personal papers document Gerber's family life and history. Printed materials include magazines, journals, and other serials containing contributions by Gerber.

Dates

  • 1895 - 2017
  • Majority of material found within 1923 - 2017

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

This collection is open for research.

Boxes 101, 102, 151 (audiovisual materials): Restricted fragile material. Reference copies may be requested. Consult Access Services for further information.

Box 152 (computer media): Restricted fragile material. Access copies of digital files may be requested. Consult Access Services for further information.

Conditions Governing Use

The Merrill Joan Gerber Papers is the physical property of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University. Literary rights, including copyright, belong to the authors or their legal heirs and assigns. For further information, consult the appropriate curator.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Purchased from Ken Lopez Bookseller on the Edwin J. Beinecke Book Fund, 2017.

Arrangement

Organized into four series: I. Writings, 1945-2016. II. Professional correspondence and papers, 1932-2017. III. Personal and family papers, 1895-2016. IV. Printed material, 1956-2017.

After receipt the writings, professional correspondence and papers, and personal and family papers were roughly sorted into series by box, but within individual boxes papers were generally kept in the order in which they were received. As a result, some materials in Series I, II, and III remain intermixed.

Extent

145.58 Linear Feet (152 boxes)

Language of Materials

English

Catalog Record

A record for this collection is available in Orbis, the Yale University Library catalog

Persistent URL

https://hdl.handle.net/10079/fa/beinecke.mjgerber

Merrill Joan Gerber

Merril Joan Gerber is an American novelist and short story writer. She was born in 1938 in Brooklyn, New York, to William and Jessie Gerber. She has published over thirty books of fiction, young adult fiction, and memoir, including Stop Here, My Friend: Stories (Houghton Mifflin, 1965), An Antique Man: A Novel (Houghton Mifflin, 1967), Now Molly Knows (Arbor House, 1971), Please Don't Kiss Me Now (Dial Press, 1981), The Kingdom of Brooklyn (Longstreet Press, 1992), and Glimmering Girls (University of Wisconsin Press, Terrace Books, 2005). Gerber's writing has been recognized with a Wallace Stegner Fiction Fellowship, the Harold Ribalow Prize, and the Pushcart Editors' Book Award. She married Joseph Spiro in 1960, with whom she has three daughters.

Processing Information

Collections are processed to a variety of levels, depending on the work necessary to make them usable, their perceived research value, the availability of staff, competing priorities, and whether or not further accruals are expected. The library attempts to provide a basic level of preservation and access for all collections as they are acquired, and does more extensive processing of higher priority collections as time and resources permit.

This collection received a basic level of processing, including rehousing and minimal organization.

Information included in the Description of Papers note and Collection Contents section is drawn from information supplied with the collection and from an initial survey of the contents. Folder titles appearing in the contents list below are often based on those provided by the creator or previous custodian. Titles have not been verified against the contents of the folders in all cases. Otherwise, folder titles are supplied by staff during initial processing.

This finding aid may be updated periodically to account for new acquisitions to the collection or revisions in arrangement and description.

Title
Guide to the Merrill Joan Gerber Papers
Author
by Greyson Gates, Michael Rush, and Leigh Golden
Date
April 2021
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description note
Finding aid written in English.

Part of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library Repository

Contact:
P. O. Box 208330
New Haven CT 06520-8330 US
(203) 432-2977

Location

121 Wall Street
New Haven, CT 06511

Opening Hours

Access Information

The Beinecke Library is open to all Yale University students and faculty, and visiting researchers whose work requires use of its special collections. You will need to bring appropriate photo ID the first time you register. Beinecke is a non-circulating, closed stack library. Paging is done by library staff during business hours. You can request collection material online at least two business days in advance of your visit, using the request links in Archives at Yale. For more information, please see Planning Your Research Visit and consult the Reading Room Policies prior to visiting the library.