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John Gassner papers

 Collection
Call Number: MS 560
Scope and Contents

The John Gassner Papers consist of correspondence, teaching files, and miscellaneous clippings relating to Gassner's activities as a professor of playwriting at Yale University.

The majority of the alphabetically arranged correspondence consists of letters from prospective, current, and former students to whom Gassner provided professional advice and direction. Numerous correspondents requested Gassner's critical opinion of their plays; however, none of the scripts which apparently accompanied letters is within the collection. Correspondence with F. Curtis Canfield and Edward Cole pertains to the curriculum, students, theatrical production, and administrative activities of the Yale School of Drama. Additional correspondents include professional colleagues, literary agents, and aspiring playwrights.

Course syllabi and examinations, critiques of student scripts, an outline of the National Theater Conference's National Appraisal of the American Theater Project, and miscellaneous printed material form the remainder fo the collection.

Conditions Governing Access

The materials are open for research.

Conditions Governing Use

Copyright status for collection materials is unknown. Transmission or reproduction of materials protected by U.S. Copyright Law (Title 17, U.S.C.) beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the copyright owners. Works not in the public domain cannot be commercially exploited without permission of the copyright owners. Responsibility for any use rests exclusively with the user.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

The Yale School of Drama transferred the papers to the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library in the 1970s; the Beinecke Library transferred them to Manuscripts and Archives in 1990.

Related Materials

Audio tapes and transcriptions of some of Gassner's Yale lectures are within the Yale University Archives, Yale Record Group 47-J, Student Examinations, Lectures, Notes and Papers: Yale Lectures.

Dates
1950-1964
Extent
0.5 Linear Feet (1 box)
Related Names
Gassner, John, 1903-1967
Language of Materials
English