Barrett H. Clark papers

The Barrett H. Clark Papers document the work of American writer, editor, and translator, Barrett H. Clark, spanning the dates 1905 to 1953. The papers contain correspondence, writings, personal papers, photographs, and printed material providing insight into Clark's scholarship on drama.

Clark's intellectual circle, creative life, and work for the Samuel French company are reflected in his correspondence and writings. The Correspondence series provides insight into Clark's relationships with a number of playwrights and other authors, including Sherwood Anderson, Philip Barry, Stephen Vincent Benet, Rachel Field, Dorothy and DuBose Heyward, Sinclair Lewis, George Bernard Shaw, Upton Sinclair, Betty Smith, and Thornton Wilder. In addition, Clark's correspondence reflects his work with prominent figures in theatre, from producers and directors to actors, including Theresa Helburn, Robert Edmond Jones, Lawrence Langner, J. H. Benrimo, and William Gillette. Clark's interest in European drama is reflected in his correspondence with French and German playwrights Romain Rolland, Ernst Toller, and Fritz von Unruh. In the early 1920s Clark wrote an article about Maksim Gorki, as his correspondence with Marie Budberg, on behalf of Gorki, and related photographs illustrate.

Most notably, a number of documents trace Clark's relationship with Eugene O'Neill. In addition to his correspondence with O'Neill, the papers also include letters from O'Neill's wives Agnes Boulton O'Neill and Carlotta Monterey O'Neill. The Papers also contains Clark's drafts of his biography Eugene O'Neill, including proofs with corrections by O'Neill. The Printed Material series also includes documents relating to O'Neill, such as photographs, clippings, and pamphlets.

The Writings series is comprised of notes and drafts documenting Clark's writing as well as the writings of others. Drafts and proofs of Clark's Eugene O'Neill, memoir Professor Clark , and other works are included in the Writings series. A number of Clark's translations are also part of the Writings series, such as Jules Renard's Goodbye! and Pierre Wolff's Unhoodwinkable. Shorter publications by Clark are located in the Printed Material series. The Writings series also contains some correspondence relating to specific publications. In addition to Clark's writings the series also contains several works by Paul Green, Edgar Lee Masters, George Moore, and Lynn Riggs.

The Printed Material series contains publications on court cases (largely pertaining to copyright and plagiarism), scrapbooks of clippings and loose clippings relating to Clark and his writings, and various authors' published plays and short stories.