- Scope and Contents
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The papers contain personal and business correspondence, writings, personal papers, and financial records documenting the life and work of the American actress and author Mary Kennedy. Correspondents include her husband American composer Deems Taylor, authors Laura Bene?t, Pearl S. Buck, and Edna St. Vincent Millay, composer Samuel Barber, fashion designer Valentina, and colleagues from the theater world including Katharine Cornell, Lynn Fontanne, Margalo Gillmore, Helen Hayes, Clare Kummer, Annie Russell, and Marjorie and Roland Young. Family members well represented in the papers are Kennedy's mother Josephine Kennedy Maner, and her brothers James and Foster Kennedy, the latter also an author. Mary Kennedy wrote plays, novels, short stories, poetry, and children's books, and her papers contain drafts, corrected typescripts, and printed versions of her works. Also present are portrait photographs by some of the leading artists of the time, including Arnold Genthe, Ben Magid Rabinovitch, and Edward Steichen.
- Conditions Governing Access
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The materials are open for research.
Box 70 contains record album storage. Restricted fragile material. Reference copies may be requested. Consult Access Services for further information. - Conditions Governing Use
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The Mary Kennedy 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
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Purchased from George Robert Minkoff, Inc. on the Edwin J. Beinecke Book Fund, the Danford N. Barney, Jr. Fund, and the George B. Alvord Fund, 1988.
- Dates
- 1894-1988
- Extent
- 60 Linear Feet ((69 boxes) + 1 record album storage)
- Related Names
- Kennedy, Mary, 1896-1987
- Language of Materials
- English