Hersey Family Papers

Collection

Call Number: YCAL MSS 723

Scope and Contents

The collection contains correspondence and other materials relating to the family of American novelist and author John Hersey. Correspondence consists of letters from John Hersey and other members of the Hersey and Baird families to Roscoe Monroe and Grace Baird Hersey. There are letters from John Hersey to his parents dating from his graduate studies in Cambridge, England, in 1936 and 1937, to dispatches written as a war correspondent, in 1942, while in the South Pacific. Other materials include various family papers, such as John's school books, a copy of his undergraduate thesis, "The Letters of John Trumbull," clippings and printed ephemera, photographs, and manuscript notes by Roscoe Monroe Hersey. Photograph albums contain images of China, circa 1907 and 1908, the Hersey family, and France in WWI, and a scrapbook documents the lives of Hersey children starting in 1912.

Dates

1860 - 1952
Majority of material found within 1906 - 1942

Creator

Hersey family

Language

English

Conditions Governing Access

The materials are open for research.

Conditions Governing Use

The Hersey Family 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 Charles Apfelbaum on the Eugene G. O'Neill Memorial Fund, 1994.

Arrangement

Organized into two series: I. Correspondence, 1881-1942. II. Other Materials, 1860-1952.

Associated Materials

John Hersey Papers. Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.

Extent

2.29 Linear Feet ((8 boxes) + 1 broadside folder)

Catalog Record

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

Persistent URL

http://hdl.handle.net/10079/fa/beinecke.herseyf

Additional Description

Overview

Collection contains correspondence and other materials relating to the family of American novelist and author John Hersey. Correspondence contains letters from John Hersey and members of the Hersey and Baird families. There are letters from John Hersey to his parents dating from his graduate studies in Cambridge, England, in 1936 and 1937, to dispatches written as a war correspondent, in 1942, while in the South Pacific. Other materials include various family papers, such as John's school books, a copy of his undergraduate thesis, "The Letters of John Trumbull," clippings and printed ephemera, photographs, and manuscript notes by Roscoe Monroe Hersey. Photograph albums contain images of China, circa 1907 and 1908, the Hersey family, and France in WWI, and a scrapbook documents the lives of Hersey children, starting in 1912

Hersey Family

Roscoe Monroe Hersey (1878-) and Grace Baird Hersey (1882-1966) were missionaries in Tientsin, China, where Roscoe worked as a secretrary for the Young Men's Christian Association. The Hersey family returned to the United States in 1925 and settled in Briarcliff Manor, New York. After they returned to the U.S.,their son John Richard Hersey (1914-1993), the novelist and author, attended public school, Hotchkiss School, Yale University, and Clare College, Cambridge before working as a journalist, first for Time magazine (1937-1944), and then as a correspondent and editor for Life and The New Yorker.

Biographical information taken from "Hersey, John Richard." The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives. Ed. Kenneth T. Jackson, Karen Markoe, and Arnold Markoe. Vol. 3: 1991-1993. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2001. 268-270. Biography In Context. Web. 8 April 2013.

Language(s)

Chiefly in English; some material in Chinese.

Processing Information

The collection received preliminary processing around the time of acquisition in 1994. Further organization, rehousing, and description were carried out in 2013.

Former call number: Uncat Za Ms 343.