Helene Mullins and Marie McCall papers

Collection

Call Number: YCAL MSS 767

Scope and Contents

The Helene Mullins and Marie McCall Papers consists of correspondence, writings, and photographs by and relating to the American authors and sisters Helene Mullins and Marie McCall. Correspondence is fragmentary, consisting chiefly of letters from Jean and Zohmah Charlot and John Hall Wheelock to Helene Mullins. Photographs depict Mullins and McCall from childhood to later adulthood, and also include portraits and snapshots of family members and friends. Writings include drafts of Mullins's poetry, an autobiographical novel by Mullins entitled The Loving are Daring, and the unpublished diaries of Marie McCall.

Dates

1870 - 1985
Majority of material found within 1926 - 1985

Creator

Mullins, Helene, 1899-1991

Language

English

Conditions Governing Access

The materials are open for research.

Conditions Governing Use

The Helene Mullins and Marie McCall 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 Serendipity Books on the Elizabeth Wakeman Dwight Memorial Fund, 1999.

Arrangement

Organized into two series: I. Helene Mullins Papers, 1870-1985. II. Marie McCall Papers, 1934-circa 1980.

Extent

1.46 Linear Feet (4 boxes)

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.mullins

Additional Description

Overview

The Helene Mullins and Marie McCall Papers consists of correspondence, writings, and photographs by and relating to the American authors and sisters Helene Mullins and Marie McCall. Correspondence is highly fragmentary, consisting chiefly of letters from Jean and Zohmah Charlot and John Hall Wheelock to Helene Mullins. Photographs depict Mullins and McCall from childhood to later adulthood, and also include portraits and snapshots of family members and friends. Writings include drafts of Mullins's poetry, an autobiographical novel by Mullins entitled The Loving are Daring, and the unpublished diaries of Marie McCall.

Helene Mullins (1899-1991)

Helene Mullins (née Gallagher), American poet and novelist, was born in New York City in 1899, and was active from the 1920s (by which time she had already married Ivan Mullins) through the 1960s. She and her sister Marie McCall collaborated on their first novel, Paulus Fy (New York: Robert M. McBride & Company) in 1924. Mullins's breakthrough as an author came when a novel, Convent girl, and a volume of poetry, Earthbound & other poems, were published by Harper and Bros. in 1929. In 1935 she was involved in a near-fatal car accident, and soon thereafter she and McCall moved to Hollywood, California, for a lengthy convalescence. Except for this period, and time spent in Washington, D.C., during the Second World War, Mullins lived her entire life in New York City. She continued to publish poems (under the name Mullins, though she later married Linné Johnson) in journals and collected volumes until 1970. Helene Mullins died in Manhattan in 1991.

Marie McCall (circa 1903-1986) Marie McCall (née Gallagher), American author and painter, date of birth recorded variously as circa 1903 or 1909. Marie McCall and her sister Helene Mullins spent much of their early adulthood living and working together. They collaborated on their first novel, Paulus Fy (New York: Robert M. McBride & Company) in 1924. McCall also published The Evening Wolves (New York: John Day Company, 1949), a novel inspired by Salem witchcraft. Born in New York City, McCall spent much of the latter half of her life in Woodstock, New York, where she died in 1986.

Processing Information

Former call numbers: Uncat ZA MS 626, Uncat ZA File 406

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, and does more extensive processing of higher priority collections as time and resources permit. This collection was processed, including organization into series and listing, in 2013.

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