Scope and Contents
Series I was collected and donated by Berberova's former student Murl Barker, whom she met in the early 1960s at Yale University. They continued a close friendship until Berberova's death in 1993. Barker's collection includes correspondence, writings, printed material, photographs, audiovisual recordings and electronic files documenting Berberova's career, especially after her emigration to the United States in 1950.
Series II, donated by John Malmstad, consists chiefly of letters from Berberova to Malmstad.
Many of the relationships, writings and events documented in this collection are also documented in the Nina Berberova Papers, GEN MSS 182. Barker's letters to Berberova are in her papers, while Berberova's letters to Barker are in this collection. Berberova's papers contain material related to many of her publications; additional typescripts and holograph notes are in this collection. This collection contains two holograph journals and one photocopy of a journal that are not in Berberova's papers.
Dates
- circa 1900-2001 1968-1993
- Majority of material found within 1968 - 1993
Creator
Language of Materials
Physical Description
Conditions Governing Access
Box 18: Restricted fragile material. Reference copies are available for electronic documents. Consult Access Services for further information. For other materials, reference surrogates have been substituted in the main files. For further information consult the appropriate curator.
Boxes 11-14 (audiovisual material): Restricted fragile material. Reference copies may be requested. Consult Access Services for further information.
Existence and Location of Copies
Conditions Governing Use
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Arrangement
Extent
8.27 Linear Feet (18 boxes)
Catalog Record
A record for this collection is available in Orbis, the Yale University Library catalog
Persistent URL
Overview
Nina Nikolaevna Berberova (1901-1993)
After living in Paris for twenty five years, Berberova emigrated to the United States in 1950. She began her academic career in 1958 at Yale University. She continued to write while she was teaching, publishing several povesti, critical articles and some poetry. She left Yale in 1963 for Princeton University, where she taught until her retirement in 1971. For Berberova "retirement" meant visiting as a lecturer at Cornell, Columbia, Bryn Mawr and the University of Pennsylvania, teaching during the summer in the Russian School at Middlebury College, and writing. During these years she was awarded honorary degrees from Glasboro State College (1980), Middlebury College (1983), and Yale University (1992).
In 1991 Berberova moved from Princeton, New Jersey to Philadelphia. She lived there until she died September 27, 1993 from complications from a fall.
Readers may consult Nina Berberova Papers, GEN MSS 182 for further description of Nina Berberova's life and work.
- Title
- Guide to the Nina Berberova Collection
- Status
- Under Revision
- Author
- by Lisa Conathan
- Date
- 2007
- 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.