Dial/Scofield Thayer papers : addition
Scope and Contents
Correspondence consists almost entirely of letters sent to Thayer between 1926 and 1928, when he was hospitalized repeatedly following a mental breakdown. The writers, including Amy and Robert von Erdberg, Erik von Jurié, R. T. Nichol, Eleanor Schermerhorn, Ellen Thayer, and Lizzie Whittemore, send their wishes for improved health and sometimes detail plans for visits to MacLean Hospital. After one such visit, Amy von Erdberg wrote Thayer of her distress at seeing him hospitalized and offered to support his wish to be released. There are also two earlier letters from Thayer to his mother, Florence Thayer, and three third-party letters, two of which are to Florence Thayer also.
Series II, Personal Papers , includes bookplates, calling cards, newspaper clippings about America's entry into World War I, which Thayer opposed, and photographs. Folders 31-39 contain notes and memoranda kept by Thayer, often on small slips of paper, although some were apparently transcribed by a secretary at a later date. These cover a wide variety of subjects, including Thayer's family and friends, his marriage, his analyses by L. Pierce Clark and Sigmund Freud, aesthetic theory, and modern painting and literature.
Folders 23-25 contain correspondence and personal papers of Lucian Cary, including an income tax return for 1917 identifying him as a "journalist" and his wife, Augusta Cary, as executive secretary of the National Birth Control League. The return appears to be in Thayer's hand.
The section "School papers" includes versions of Thayer's Harvard Class Day essay on Dr. Faustus and several papers he read to literary societies at Oxford. "Writings" includes two poems, "Spleen anglais" and "Vienna," several essays, and a group of sketches and anecdotes about a figure named "Mercury" or "Mr. Mercury." At least some of the typescripts contained in the "Pending" file in "Writings of Others" may be by Thayer, who frequently employed pseudonyms when submitting work to The Dial.
Oversize material is located in Box 4 and consists of newspaper clippings and seven photographs of Gaston Lachaise's portrait bust of Thayer.
Dates
- 1885-1928
Creator
Conditions Governing Access
Conditions Governing Use
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Extent
2 Linear Feet (5 boxes)
Language of Materials
English
Catalog Record
A record for this collection is available in Orbis, the Yale University Library catalog
Persistent URL
Overview
SCOFIELD THAYER (1889-1982)
For a fuller biography of Scofield Thayer, and a chronology for The Dial, see the register for YCAL MSS 34, Dial/Scofield Thayer Papers.
- Title
- Guide to the Dial/Scofield Thayer Papers: Addition
- Status
- Under Revision
- Author
- by Diane J. Ducharme
- Date
- November 1996
- Description rules
- Beinecke Manuscript Unit Archival Processing Manual
- Language of description note
- Finding aid written in English.
Part of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library Repository
Location
121 Wall Street
New Haven, CT 06511
Opening Hours
Access Information
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