Robert Bartlett Haas collection on Gertrude Stein and the Conference Press
Collection
Call Number: YCAL MSS 833
Scope and Contents
The Robert Bartlett Haas Collection on Gertrude Stein and the Conference Press contains correspondence, drafts of writings, notes, photographs, printed material and papers relating to Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas, and production and distribution of Conference Press publications, including Stein's What Are Masterpieces?
Dates
- 1936-1985
Creator
Language of Materials
In English.
Conditions Governing Access
The materials are open for research.
Existence and Location of Copies
Box 3, 23 autograph letters signed and 2 autograph postcards signed from Alice B. Toklas to Robert Bartlett Haas, with original envelopes, 1946-1955, is also available on microfilm.
Conditions Governing Use
The Robert Bartlett Haas Collection on Gertrude Stein and the Conference Press 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
Gifts of Robert Bartlett Haas, 1962-1995.
Arrangement
Organized into five groupings: I. March 1962 Acquisition. II. December 1972 Acquisition. III. January 1986 Acquisition. IV. 1989 Acquisitions. V. May 1995 Acquisition.
Extent
1.47 Linear Feet (6 boxes)
Catalog Record
A record for this collection is available in Orbis, the Yale University Library catalog
Persistent URL
Overview
The Robert Bartlett Haas Collection on Gertrude Stein and the Conference Press contains correspondence, drafts of writings, notes, photographs, printed material and papers relating to Getrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas, and the production and distribution of Conference Press publications, including Stein's What Are Masterpieces?
Robert Bartlett Haas (1916-2010)
Robert Bartlett Haas, American scholar and educator. Haas was born January 20, 1916, in Santa Cruz, California. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in English from the University of California, Berkeley in 1938, a master's in English from the University of Chicago and a doctorate in education from Stanford. He joined the University of California Los Angeles faculty in 1949 and was the founding director of the school's arts and humanities extension division. Haas remained at UCLA until his retirement in the late 1970s. He spent most of his retirement years in Nuertingen, Germany and died there after a brief illness, on April 20, 2010.
Haas's scholarship primarily focused on Gertrude Stein and he wrote several books on her, including A Catalogue of the Published and Unpublished Writings of Gertrude Stein (Yale University Library, 1941), Reflection on the Atomic Bomb: The Previously Uncollected Writings of Gertrude Stein, Volume I (Black Sparrow Press, 1973), and How Writing Is Written: Volume II of the Previously Uncollected Writings of Gertrude Stein (Black Sparrow Press, 1975). He also edited A Primer for the Gradual Understanding of Gertrude Stein (Black Sparrow Press, 1971).
The Conference Press was the creation of three UCLA students, Hal Levy, Gilbert A. Harrison, and William Bayard Okie. Harrison developed a friendship with Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas, which led to the publication of Stein's work What Are Masterpieces? by the Conference Press in 1940. During Bartlett's tenure at UCLA, he was involved in the publication and distribution process of the press and wrote the introduction to What Are Masterpieces?
Haas's scholarship primarily focused on Gertrude Stein and he wrote several books on her, including A Catalogue of the Published and Unpublished Writings of Gertrude Stein (Yale University Library, 1941), Reflection on the Atomic Bomb: The Previously Uncollected Writings of Gertrude Stein, Volume I (Black Sparrow Press, 1973), and How Writing Is Written: Volume II of the Previously Uncollected Writings of Gertrude Stein (Black Sparrow Press, 1975). He also edited A Primer for the Gradual Understanding of Gertrude Stein (Black Sparrow Press, 1971).
The Conference Press was the creation of three UCLA students, Hal Levy, Gilbert A. Harrison, and William Bayard Okie. Harrison developed a friendship with Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas, which led to the publication of Stein's work What Are Masterpieces? by the Conference Press in 1940. During Bartlett's tenure at UCLA, he was involved in the publication and distribution process of the press and wrote the introduction to What Are Masterpieces?
Custodial History
The 1962 acquisition was given to Robert Bartlett Haas by Hal Levy.
Processing Information
Former call numbers: Uncat ZA MS 438, ZaSt34+G6 v.1 and ZaSt34+G6 v.5.
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 received a basic level of processing in 2014, including rehousing and minimal organization. Various acquisitions associated with the collection have not been merged and organized as a whole. Each acquisition is described separately in the contents list below, identified by a unique call number and titled according to month and year of acquisition.
Information included in the Description of Papers note and Collection Contents section is drawn from information supplied with the collection and from an initial survey of the contents. Folder titles appearing in the contents list below are often based on those provided by the creator or previous custodian. Titles have not been verified against the contents of the folders in all cases. Otherwise, folder titles are supplied by staff during initial processing.
This finding aid may be updated periodically to account for new acquisitions to the collection and/or revisions in arrangement and description.
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 received a basic level of processing in 2014, including rehousing and minimal organization. Various acquisitions associated with the collection have not been merged and organized as a whole. Each acquisition is described separately in the contents list below, identified by a unique call number and titled according to month and year of acquisition.
Information included in the Description of Papers note and Collection Contents section is drawn from information supplied with the collection and from an initial survey of the contents. Folder titles appearing in the contents list below are often based on those provided by the creator or previous custodian. Titles have not been verified against the contents of the folders in all cases. Otherwise, folder titles are supplied by staff during initial processing.
This finding aid may be updated periodically to account for new acquisitions to the collection and/or revisions in arrangement and description.
- American literature -- 20th century
- Authors -- United States -- 20th century
- Authors and publishers -- United States
- Authors, American -- 20th Century
- Correspondence Press
- Editors -- United States
- Editors -- United States -- 20th Century
- Haas, Robert Bartlett
- Harrison, Gilbert A.
- Levy, Hal
- Levy, Hal -- Ownership
- Okie, William Bayard
- Photographic prints -- United States -- 20th Century
- Publishers and publishing -- United States
- Stein, Gertrude, 1874-1946
- Toklas, Alice B., 1877-1967
Creator
- Title
- Guide to the Robert Bartlett Haas Collection on Gertrude Stein and the Conference Press
- Author
- by Molly Wheeler
- Date
- 2014
- 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
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.