Bruccoli Collection

The Matthew J. Bruccoli
John O'Hara Collection, 1927-1976

Inventory

Prepared by Brian K. DeLuca, November, 2002; revised December 2004
1 record storage box, 1 cubic foot, 11th floor

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Biographical Note

John O'Hara was born in 1905 in Pottsville, Pennslyvania. He began his professional writing career as a reporter for one of Pottsville's two newspapers. His first novel, Appointment at Samarra, was published in 1935. This was followed in 1935 by another novel, Butterfield 8. Rage to Live was published in 1949 and met with tremendous commercial succes, but was critically panned. O'Hara wrote several other novels over the course of his life, but his short stories won him critical acclaim and praise. Possibly influenced by Sinclair Lewis and others, O'Hara was a social novelist whose works focused on the so-called "American Establishment." O'Hara died in 1970.

Matthew J. Bruccoli was born on August 21, 1931. He earned his Master's degree and a Ph.D. from the University of Virginia. Bruccoli began work on a bibliography of John O'Hara's works while on the faculty at The Ohio State University. Bruccoli also published a biograhy of O'Hara 1975. Bruccoli is a specialist in modern American literature and is a renowned expert on F. Scott Fitzgerald. In 1962 Bruccoli joined with C. E. Frazer Clark, Jr. to start Bruccoli Clark Layman to publish special limited editions of literary works. The company incorporated in 1976 and began producing the Dicitonary of Literary Biography. Bruccoli served as a Professor of English and the Director, Center for Editions of American Authors, at the University of South Carolina from 1969-1976. In 1976 he became the Jefferies Professor of English, University of South Carolina. Bruccoli is the author and editor of dozens of articles, bibliographies, biographies, and texts on major American writers including F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Raymond Chandler, James Gould Cozzens, and John O'Hara.

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Scope and Content

The Matthew J. Bruccoli John O'Hara Collection was donated to Kent State University in 1987. The collections consists of documents, corrospondence, and manuscripts pertaining to Bruccoli's research and publication of articles and other works on the author John O'Hara, primarily The O'Hara Concern : A Biography of John O'Hara (1975).

In addition to this collection of manuscript material, Dr. Bruccoli donated an extensive collection of O'Hara's books, all of which are cataloged in KentLINK. Playbills for Pal Joey are filed in the Playbill Collection.

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Box 1

Folder-- Contents

Series 1 -- Manuscripts, notes and proofs of M. Bruccoli's various works on John O'Hara

1. Manuscript: John O'Hara: A Descriptive Bibliography, M. Bruccoli, [n.d.]
2. Manuscript: John O'Hara: A Descriptive Bibliography, M. Bruccoli, [n.d.]
3. Typescript: John O'Hara: A Descriptive Bibliography, M. Bruccoli, [n.d.]
4. Page Proofs: John O'Hara: A Descriptive Bibliography, M. Bruccoli, [n.d.]
5. Photocopies: John O'Hara: A Descriptive Bibliography, M. Bruccoli, [n.d.]
6. Untitled Essay: M. Bruccoli, [n.d.]
7. Correspondence: from Marilyn Hails, Production editor, "Tough Guys" to M. Bruccoli, March 14, 1968
8. Manuscript, page proofs, photocopies of essay, "Appointment at Samarra: The Importance of Knowing What You Are Talking About" by M. Bruccoli, 1968
9. Front matter and notes from the O'Hara Concern by M. Bruccoli, 1975

Series 2 --Correspondence to M. Bruccoli pertaining to his research on John O'Hara

10. Correspondence: from John O'Hara to Matthew J. Bruccoli, Oct, 21 1962
11. Correspondence: from John O'Hara to Matthew J. Bruccoli, Jan. 8, 1963
12. Correspondence: from John O'Hara to Matthew J. Bruccoli, June 26, 1963
13. Correspondence: from John O'Hara to Matthew J. Bruccoli, Feb. 12, 1966
14. Correspondence: from Donald S. Klopfer to Matthew J. Bruccoli, Jan. 22, 1963
15. Correspondence: from Albert Erskine to Matthew J. Bruccoli, June 5, 1964
16. Correspondence: from Albert Erskine to Matthew J. Bruccoli, July 3, 1964
17. Correspondence: from Albert Ereskine to Matthew J. Bruccoli, Dec. 29, 1975
18. Correspondence: from Esther Margolis to Matthew J. Bruccoli, Mar. 25 1975
19. Correspondence: from Albert Erskine to L.L. Winship, Nov. 23, 1965
20. Correspondence: from Albert Erskine to Sidney Jacobs, Dec. 2, 1965
21. Correspondence: from Albert Erskine to Matthew J. Bruccoli, Dec. 9, 1965
22. Correspondence: from Albert Erskine to Matthew J. Bruccoli, Jan. 22, 1970
23. Correspondence: from K.B. O'Hara to Matthew J. Bruccoli, [n.d.]
24. Correspondence: from F.A. Hetzel to H. Hobbs, April 14, 1965
25. Correspondence: from A. Rota to Matthew J. Bruccoli, July 12, 1966
26. Correspondence: from Bernard Quaritch, Ltd. to Matthew J. Bruccoli, Nov. 14, 1967
27. Correspondence: from Bernard Quaritch, Ltd. to Matthew J. Bruccoli, Nov. 23, 1967
28. Correspondence: from Howell, W.R. to Matthew J. Bruccoli, Nov. 29, 1967
29. Correspondence: from G. Hilmer Lundbeck to Matthew J. Bruccoli, Feb. 2, 1973
30. Correspondence: from Anthony Rota to Matthew J. Bruccoli, June 20, 1975
31. Correspondence: from Frank Darchinger to Matthew J. Bruccoli, July 24,1975
32. Correspondence: from Frank Darchinger to Matthew J. Bruccoli, Aug 27, 1975
33. Correspondence: from Frank Darchinger to Matthew J. Bruccoli, Aug. 27, 1975
34. Correspondence: from Matthew J. Bruccoli to H.W. Schwartz, Jan. 19 [n.d.]
35. Correspondence: from George Frazier to Matthew J. Bruccoli, Dec. 5,1967
36. Correspondence: from Philip B. Eppard to Matthew J. Bruccoli, July 2, 1975
37. Correspondence: from Anthony Rota to Matthew J. Bruccoli, July 11, 1975
38. Correspondence: from Hampton Books to Matthew J. Bruccoli, July 16,1975
39. Correspondence: from Philip B. Eppard to Matthew J. Bruccoli, July 23,1975
40. Correspondence: from Matthew J. Bruccoli to Norman Kane, July 28, N.D.
41. Correspondence: from Linda Williams to Matthew J. Bruccoli, April 3, 1975

Series 3 -- Correspondence and papers of John O'Hara

42. Tamaqua Pennsylvania Courier Payroll records, 2 pages, O'Hara Listed, 1927
43. Telegram: from John O'Hara to Ruth Sato, Jan. 13, 1935
44. Telegram: from John O'Hara to Ruth Sato, Jan. 23, 1935
45. Correspondence: from John O'Hara to Ruth Sato, Feb. 10, 1935
46. Contract between John O'Hara and Robert D. Andrews, proceeds from "Flight from Glory"
47. Correspondence: from John O'Hara to Clifford Odets, July 4, 1953

Series 4 -- Other correspondence

48. Correspondence: from George Frazier to Matthew J. Bruccoli, May 14, 1970
49. Correspondence: from Charles W. Mann to Matthew J. Bruccoli, June 4, 1970
50. Correspondence: from Charles W. Mann to Matthew J. Bruccoli, Photocopy of signed dedication in front of a book, July 27, 1970
51. Correspondence: from W. Carl Jackson to Matthew J. Bruccoli, July 27, 1970
52. Correspondence, newspaper article: from George Frazier to Matthew J. Bruccoli, Aug 28, 1970
53. Correspondence: from Charles W. Mann to Matthew J. Bruccoli, Sept. 4, 1970
54. Correspondence: from George Frazier to Matthew J. Bruccoli, 1970
55. Correspondence: from Vernon Sternberg to Peter P. Mcn. Gates, Nov. 13, 1974
56. Correspondence: from R.H. to Mrs. Louis Henry Cohn (Margie), Nov. 15, 1967
57. Invitation: to Matthew J. Bruccoli to John O'Hara memorial service from Random House Publishers,May 13, 1970
58. Correspondence: from Matthew J. Bruccoli to Charles W. Mann, May 14, 1970
59. Correspondence: from Matthew J. Bruccoli to Charles W. Mann, June 8, 1970
60. Correspondence: from Matthew J. Bruccoli to Lynn Strong, March 18, 1975
61. Correspondence: from Vernon Sternberg to U.S. Trust Company of New York, March 19, 1975
62. Correspondence: from Donald S. Klopfer to Matthew J. Bruccoli, Sept. 9, 1975
63. Correspondence: from Ruth Sato to Matthew J. Bruccoli, Oct. 24, 1975
64. Correspondence: from B. Barbara Friedberg to Matthew J. Bruccoli, Feb. 15, 1976

Series 5 -- Miscellaneous materials

65. "Friend of Princeton University Library" letter, from Richard M. Huber, Feb. 13, 1967
66. Correspondence: from Mac E. Barrick to Matthew J. Bruccoli, and a booklet entitled "Proverbs and Sayings from Gibbsville, PA. John O'Hara's use of proverbial materials", by Mac E. Barrick, Sept. 7, 1967
67. Correspondence: from T. J_____ to _________,Sept. 29, 1975, includes photocopied material
68. Review of Matthew J. Bruccoli's "The O'Hara Concern", by Hoke Norris, 1975
69. Caricature of John O'Hara: artist unknown, [n.d.]
70. Play: "The General's Return from One Place to Another", by "John O'Hara", note by John O'Hara on front indicating that play is not his and note by Matthew J. Bruccoli on verso of last page indicating the same, [n.d.]

Series 6 -- Photographs (used in The O'Hara Concern)

71. Photographs and jacket designs for The O'Hara Concern
72. Photographs and jacket designs for The O'Hara Concern

Newsroom

RD Carreño, left

Major Alert

Tribute to JO'H

100th Anniversary Tribute will be held from 1 November to 5 November!

Celebrate the 100th anniversary of John O'Hara with dinner theatre dramatization and dance at the Schuylkill Country Club, Pottsville, PA. (My God, is this a reprise of Appointment in Samarra, or what? You decide). Admission for dinner theatre is $36. Ring Schuylkill County for the Arts at 570.622.2788 for details.

Philly members: Please contact me for details re lodging and transportation at +1.215.563.6779, or via JohnOHaraSociety@yahoo.co.uk. I will arrange accomodations and a special tour of O'Hara sites. (Pottsville is a great visit in its own right, by the way. Molly Maguires, etc.).

If you missed 'O'Hara ... the softer side' in June, this November event is a must. In June the SCCA presented a O'Hara Film Festival, a luncheon reading, and JO'H's induction to the SCCA's Hall of Fame.

Be there!

Richard

Appointment with O'Hara I

O'Hara, John (1905-1970) John O'Hara had a long and distinguished literary career, most notably as a novelist and as a writer of short stories. In the three and a half decades following the publication of his first novel, Appointment in Samarra, O'Hara wrote twelve novels, five novellas, 15 collections of short stories (with many of the stories selected for republication in five other substantial and highly regarded collections), nine published or produced plays, three credited screenplays (along with several unproduced screenplays and uncredited work on a half-dozen other films), and three collections of essays. More than 400 of his stories were published in magazines, including some 300 in The New Yorker, and for extended periods he was also a regular columnist for Newsweek, Collier's, and Holiday. His novel Ten North Frederick received a National Book Award; his short stories were recognized with O. Henry Awards and included in Best American Short Stories; the stage adaptation of his short story collection Pal Joey received a New York Critics Circle Award; and he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Thirty years after his death Appointment in Samarra was ranked 22nd on Modern Library's list of the 100 Best Novels of the 20th Century. Despite occasional assertions of his significance, however, O'Hara's achievements have been so long and thoroughly denigrated that he is now typically considered a novelist of the second or even the third rank. Undoubtedly O'Hara's own public persona very much contributed to a number of misconceptions about his work. First, O'Hara had a reputation as a flamboyant social climber, collecting expensive cars and memberships in exclusive social clubs. As a result, the big novels of his later period Ten North Frederick (1955), From the Terrace (1958), Ourselves to Know (1960), and The Lockwood Concern (1966) have been misread as self-indulgent portraits of prominent but essentially uninteresting characters rather than as exhaustive explorations of the acute emptiness at the center of many privileged lives. Second, O'Hara was a shameless self-promoter, openly angling for literary awards (including even the Nobel Prize for Literature) on the basis of his great productivity and the literary and historical range of his big novels. Some critics responded to his over-reaching ambitions and his seemingly oversized novels by attempting to group him among with other popular and undisciplined novelists with literary pretensions such as Leon Uris, Herman Wouk, and James Michener. His narratives seemed old-fashioned in their plotting and overwhelmed by a mass of social and material detail. Moreover, his often-stated admiration for the work of F. Scott Fitzgerald and Sinclair Lewis prompted critics to view his big novels as very uncontrolled efforts in comparison to Fitzgerald's and Lewis' most acclaimed novels, the relatively compressed The Great Gatsby and Main Street. O'Hara seemed incapable of sustaining Fitzgerald's jaded romanticism or Lewis' progressive satire. Indeed, Appointment in Samarra has been praised for being so very different from O'Hara's later novels and so much more like Fitzgerald's and Lewis' work. Yet, precisely because O'Hara is neither a romantic realist nor a social satirist, but more accurately an unsparing naturalist, he should be regarded as Dreiser's descendent. Positioned in that literary line he stands out as a rather inventive storyteller and accomplished prose stylist. Furthermore, because O'Hara is preoccupied with the material and linguistic markers by which spiritually adrift characters struggle to define themselves, he seems, in this core interest, to look forward to the postmodernists. Despite some very obvious contrasts in their novels' surfaces, there is an underlying, if almost universally unacknowledged, linkage between O'Hara and novelists such as William Gaddis and Joseph MacElroy. Third, O'Hara's work as a columnist, in which he addressed a broad range of social phenomena and political issues, seemed to many observers to amount to self-caricature, leading them to dismiss him as a reactionary railing against a revolutionary age. Ironically, even as the political pendulum has subsequently swung back and forth, O'Hara's literary reputation has remained that of a man who is not only old-fashioned but belligerently and wrong-headedly so. This characterization ignores many aspects of his work, most pointedly the fact that in his novels and short stories O'Hara was always pushing the limits of frankness, especially in the treatment of sexuality. Because he was breaking much new ground his efforts were sometimes awkward and may seem especially so looking back on them from this side of the sexual revolution. But even in such an ill-conceived late effort as Lovey Childs: A Philadelphian's Story (1969) it is clear that O'Hara has a genuinely sympathetic interest in characters socially compromised by their promiscuity or lesbianism even granting that he sometimes drifts into an almost prurient attention to the physical particulars. There is much evidence that O'Hara deeply alienated a great many people in the literary establishment, from Ernest Hemingway to Alfred Kazin. Certainly, very few students of contemporary American fiction would bother reading O'Hara after reading Kazin's Bright Book of Life or, in fact, almost any of Kazin's books. Compounding the fact that he was either dismissed or ignored in the most widely read critical surveys, O'Hara failed to realise that anthologizing his stories would reduce the sales of his story collections. Given that some critics who have denigrated O'Hara's novels have expressed a grudging admiration for his stories, the lack of any broad exposure to the best of those stories among professors and students alike has very much contributed to the current lack of interest in reconsidering his standing. Martin Kich, Wright State University First published 25 October 2002