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Alice Raphael Papers

 Collection
Call Number: YCGL MSS 21

Scope and Contents

The Alice Raphael Papers contain writings, translations, correspondence, lectures, photographs, a scrapbook and other papers that document the professional and personal life of author and translator Alice Raphael. Writings and translations comprise the bulk of the papers. Raphael's writings include drafts for her book Goethe and the Philosophers' Stone: Symbolical Patterns in 'The Parable' and the Second Part of 'Faust.' The papers contain several drafts of Raphael's translation of Goethe's Faust: A Tragedy Part One and Two with annotations and notes that reveal her translation process. Correspondence primarily consists of correspondence with Carl Gustav Jung, William A. Speck, Curt von Faber du Faur, and other curators of the Yale Collection of German Literature. The bulk of the correspondence regards her work to publish her Goethe translation and her writings on Goethe. The papers also contain sound recordings of Raphael's 1965 lectures given at the New York Institute of the C. G. Jung Foundation for Analytical Psychology. Photographs include portraits of Raphael and an album of snapshots of the Eckstein family and their farm in Greenwich, CT. The papers also include a scrapbook of Raphael's colored pencil drawings and a charcoal portrait of Raphael by Kahlil Gibran.

Dates

  • 1917-1977

Creator

Language of Materials

Materials in English and German.

Conditions Governing Access

The materials are open for research.

Box 23 contains audiovisual material. Restricted fragile. Reference copies may be requested. Consult Access Services for further information.

Conditions Governing Use

The Alice Raphael 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

Gift of Alice Raphael, 1963, 1966, 1969. Gift of Alice Wolff, 1975.

Arrangement

The papers are organized into five series: Writings and Translations, Correspondence, Lectures, Other Papers, Correspondence with Yale Collection of German Literature.

Extent

11 Linear Feet ((23 boxes) + 1 art object)

Catalog Record

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

Persistent URL

https://hdl.handle.net/10079/fa/beinecke.raphaela

Abstract

The Alice Raphael Papers contain writings, translations, correspondence, lectures, photographs, a scrapbook and other papers that document the professional and personal life of author and translator Alice Raphael. The papers include letters from Carl Gustav Jung and drafts of Raphael's book Goethe and the Philosophers' Stone: Symbolical Patterns in 'The Parable' and the Second Part of 'Faust' and her translation of Goethe's Faust: A Tragedy Part One and Faust: A Tragedy Part Two. The papers span the years 1918-1977.

Alice Raphael (1887-1975)

Alice Pearl Raphael was born on June 22, 1887 in Brownsville, Texas. She attended Barnard College in New York City and studied music in Germany. Raphael later lived in Zurich and studied with Carl Gustav Jung and Fritz Wittels and was a lay analyst for several years. Raphael focused for many years on her translation of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust: A Tragedy Part One and Faust: A Tragedy Part Two. Her friend William A. Speck, curator of his own collection at Yale University's Collection of German Literature, assisted her in the translation until his death in 1928. Carl Schreiber, who oversaw the Speck Collection following Speck's death, befriended Raphael and continued assistance with her translations. In 1939, Raphael met Curt von Faber du Faur, who in 1944 became curator of Yale's Collection of German Literature and university faculty member. Raphael and Faber du Faur were close colleagues and friends until Faber du Faur died in 1966.

Raphael published several articles, reviews, and the 1965 book Goethe and the Philosophers' Stone: Symbolical Patterns in 'The Parable' and the Second Part of 'Faust'. This book analyses Goethe in the context of Jungian theory. In the 1920s, Raphael was interested in drawing and studied drawing in Washington, CT. She preferred colored pencils and expressed herself through a method that she called "spontaneous creative expression."

Raphael lived in Manhattan for most of her life, where she founded the Analytical Psychology Club of New York and was an active member of the Society for Psychical Research. She married Henry Eckstein in 1911 and had two daughters. Raphael died in Manhattan on August 27, 1975.

Processing Information

Correspondence comprising Series V. was transferred from the administrative files of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library by curatorial staff.

Title
Guide to the Alice Raphael Papers
Author
by Molly Wheeler
Date
February 2008
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description note
Finding aid written in English.

Part of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library Repository

Contact:
P. O. Box 208330
New Haven CT 06520-8330 US
(203) 432-2977

Location

121 Wall Street
New Haven, CT 06511

Opening Hours

Access Information

The Beinecke Library is open to all Yale University students and faculty, and visiting researchers whose work requires use of its special collections. You will need to bring appropriate photo ID the first time you register. Beinecke is a non-circulating, closed stack library. Paging is done by library staff during business hours. You can request collection material online at least two business days in advance of your visit, using the request links in Archives at Yale. For more information, please see Planning Your Research Visit and consult the Reading Room Policies prior to visiting the library.