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Albert Memmi papers

 Collection
Call Number: GEN MSS 1818
Scope and Contents
The collection consists of writings, correspondence, project files, teaching materials, journals, photographs, printed material, personal papers, and audiovisual and computer media documenting the life and career of French-Tunisian author, critic, and philosopher Albert Memmi. Included are drafts, notes, research material, reviews, and fan mail related to works by Memmi such as La Libération du juif; Portrait du colonisé, précédé du portrait du colonisateur; Portrait du décolonisé arabo-musulman et de quelques autres; Le racisme; and Statue de sel. The collection contains extensive notes and drafts for articles, essays, lectures, speeches, interviews, and unpublished works on decolonization, African Americans, women, Jewish identity, North African literature, antisemitism, racism, oppression, happiness, and alcohol dependency. Memmi's journals, dating from 1936 to 2019, document his early life, work, and travels, in particular his brief imprisonment in a Nazi labor camp during World War II, and later his expulsion from Tunisia following independence from France. Among the correspondents in the collection are writers, educators, activists, artists, and politicians including James Baldwin, Simone de Beauvoir, Albert Camus, Mark Chagall, Claude Lévi-Strauss, Shimon Peres, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Elie Wiesel; anti-racist and human rights groups such as Mouvement contre le racisme et pour l'amitié entre les peuples; and figures associated with the Négritude movement, including Alioune Diop, a Senegalese writer, editor, and founder of the journal Présence africaine, and poet Léopold Séndar Senghor, the first president of Senegal.
Language of Materials
In French, with some materials in English, Hebrew, Arabic, German, Italian, Spanish, and Japanese.
Conditions Governing Access
This collection is open for research.

Box 95 (computer media): Restricted fragile material. Access copies of computer files may be requested. Consult Access Services for further information.

Boxes 96-97 (audiovisual material): Restricted fragile material. Reference copies may be requested. Consult Access Services for further information.
Conditions Governing Use
The Albert Memmi 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 Librairie Benoit Forgeot on the Edwin J. Beinecke Book Fund, 2021.
Arrangement
Organized into five series: I. Writings, 1936-2020. II. Correspondence, 1940-2019. III. Photographs, circa 1925-2018. IV. Professional and Personal Papers, 1922-2020. V. Computer and Audiovisual Media, 1980-2009.
Dates
1922-2020
Extent
93.52 Linear Feet (97 boxes)
Related Names
Memmi, Albert
Language of Materials
French
Script
Latin