npv_gelderman_carol Guide to the Carol Gelderman Papers, 1981-1984 Inventory prepared by Madeleine Amodio Archives and Special Collections Library, Vassar College Libraries
Box 20, 124 Raymond Ave., Poughkeepsie, NY, 12604-0020
7 July 2011 Finding aid encoded by Madeleine Amodio, 2011 Finding aid written inEnglish. Collection Summary Gelderman, Carol W. The Carol Gelderman Papers 1981-1984 4.9 cubic feet (7 Boxes) Archives and Special Collections Library, Vassar College Libraries This collection comprises the research material Carol Gelderman compiled for use in her biography of Mary McCarthy, entitled Mary McCarthy: A Life. The bulk of the collection is interview material, including audio cassettes. Several of the interviews were with Mary McCarthy but most were with others who knew or worked with McCarthy. There is also correspondence as well as articles and portions of books either by or about Mary McCarthy and her work. Biographical Note

Carol Wettlaufer Gelderman, born on 2 December 1939, first became interested in Mary McCarthy after discovering they had both been educated for a time by The Religious of the Sacred Heart. This interest of hers would eventually lead to writing or editing several pieces about Mary McCarthy, including Mary McCarthy: A Life, the first comprehensive biography of Mary McCarthy, and Conversations with Mary McCarthy. She also contributed to Twenty-four Ways of Looking at Mary McCarthy: The Writer and Her Work.

 Scope and Content Note

This collection comprises the research material Carol Gelderman compiled for use in her biography of Mary McCarthy, entitled Mary McCarthy: A Life. The bulk of the collection is interview material, including audio cassettes. Several of the interviews were with Mary McCarthy but most were with others who knew or worked with McCarthy. There is also correspondence as well as articles and portions of books either by or about Mary McCarthy and her work.

 Access

This collection is open for research according to the regulations of the Vassar College Archives and Special Collections Librarywithout any additional restrictions.

 Restrictions on Use

Permission to quote (publish) from unpublished or previously published material must be obtained as described in the regulations of the Vassar College Archives and Special Collections Library.

Related Materials

Mary McCarthy Papers

 Subject Headings Names: McCarthy, Mary, 1912-1989 Wilson, Edmund, 1895-1972 Subjects: Novelists Women authors--Biography Places: Castine (Me.) Document Types: Interviews Photographs VCL Categories Literature and Writing Encoding Information

Encoded by Madeleine Amodio, July 2011.

 Processing Information

Collection processed by Madeleine Amodio in July 2011. Last updated 7 July 2011.

 Acquisition Information

The bulk of the collection was received in 2005 from Carol Gelderman (M2005-016). Additional material was received in 2009 (M2009-014).

Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements

A tape player is required to play the tapes in Series X.

 Preferred Citation

The Carol Gelderman Papers, Archives and Special Collections Library, Vassar College Libraries.

 Series List Series I. Forebears

Series I contains original photographs given to Carol Gelderman by Mary McCarthy which portray her family and herself, and also a detailed file on Simon Manly Preston, Mary McCarthy's great-grandfather.

 Series II. Early Childhood

Series II contains notes, correspondence, and research conducted by Carol Gelderman into Mary McCarthy's early Seattle childhood.

 Series III. Vassar Years

Series III contains copies of prose composed by Mary McCarthy in her time at Vassar College, as well as reviews of The Group and interviews and articles about Mary McCarthy and her time at Vassar.

 Series IV. First Marriage

Series IV contains both interviews and articles published during the time of Mary McCarthy's first marriage and correspondence from Mary McCarthy to Emmanuel Roussuck, who was an art dealer who routinely lent her paintings for parties.

 Series V. Partisan Review

Series V contains articles and interviews taken from the Partisan Review. The bulk of this series is interviews with friends of Mary McCarthy.

 Series VI. Second Marriage

Series VI contains information pertaining to Mary McCarthy's second marriage, including personal information about Edmund Wilson and articles both by and about Mary McCarthy published during the time of her second marriage.

 Series VII. Third Marriage/Later Years

Series VII contains research and information about Mary McCarthy in her later years, and during the time period of her third marriage.

 Series VIII. Fourth Marriage

Series VIII contains, along with information about the CIA's investigation into Mary McCarthy, information about her from the time period of her fourth marriage, including information about her Vietnam trip and the Lillian Hellman/Mary McCarthy court case.

 Series IX. Interview Transcriptions and Interview Requests

Series IX contains interview requests and written interviews conducted by Carol Gelderman.

 Series X. Recorded Interviews

Series X contains cassette tape recordings of interviews Carol Gelderman conducted with various people. The numbering system for this series was devised by the archivist.

 Series XI. Mary McCarthy Correspondence

Series XI contains correspondence from and to Mary McCarthy, with the bulk being copies of letters Mary McCarthy sent to others.

 Series XII. Miscellaneous

Series XII contains various correspondence and reviews of Mary McCarthy: A life, as well as several publications pertaining to Gelderman's research.

 Container List

Series I: Forebears Folder 1.1 Original Mary McCarthy Photos Folder 1.2 Simon Manly Preston Series II: Early Childhood Folder 1.3 Early Childhood Folder 1.4 Seattle Years- Forest Ridge 1912-1918 Folder 1.5 Seattle Years- Annie Wright Episcopal 1912-1918 Series III: Vassar Years Folders 1.6-1.7 Vassar College Folder 1.8 Vassar Years- Interviews/Articles Series IV: First Marriage Folder 1.9 First Marriage- Interviews/Articles Folder 1.10 Emmanuel Roussuck - Art Dealer Series V: Partisan Review Folders 1.11-1.12 Articles/Miscellaneous Folder 1.13 Interviews Folder 7.1 Interviews- Irving Howe Folder 7.2 Interviews- Dwight Macdonald to Nicola Chiaromonte Folder 1.14 Interviews- Dwight Macdonald Folder 1.15 Interviews- Delmore Schwartz Folder 1.16 Interviews- Stephen Spender Series VI: Second Marriage Folder 1.17 Personal Information/Edmund Wilson Folder 1.18 Second Marriage- Edmund Wilson Information- Rosalind Wilson Folder 1.19 Portsmouth/Wellfleet- The Oasis Xerox- Robert Cowell Papers, 1949-1955 Folder 1.20 Part VI: Jim West, 1960-1987 Folder 1.21 Second Marriage- Articles By/About Mary McCarthy- Articles, 1940-1945 Series VII: Third Marriage/Later Years Folder 1.22 Hannah Arendt From 1949 Folder 1.23 Hannah Arendt From 1949- Reviews of Hannah Arendt Folder 1.24 Articles/Books about Mary McCarthy, 1949-1962 Folder 7.3 Articles/Books about Mary McCarthy, 1949-1962 Folder 1.25 Articles About Mary McCarthy, 1949-1962 Folder 1.26 The Oasis- A Xerox of 1st Edition: Random House Folder 2.1 Later Years- Carol Gelderman Interviews with Mary McCarthy Folder 2.2 Later Years- Carol Gelderman Interviews with Mary McCarthy- Summer 1984, 1984 Folder 2.3 Carol Gelderman Stuff- Letters from Library, etc.- 3rd/4th Marriage, Later Years Folder 2.6 Third Marriage- Articles by Mary McCarthy Folder 2.7 Third Marriage- Articles by Mary McCarthy- Congress for Cultural Freedom Folder 2.8 Third Marriage- Articles by Mary McCarthy- John Davenport Series VIII: Fourth Marriage Folder 2.4 Investigation by CIA into Mary McCarthy Folder 2.9 Vietnam- Vietnam Folder 2.10 Vietnam- Articles about Mary McCarthy/Vietnam Folder 2.11 Writings- Later Life- Mary McCarthy Speeches Folder 2.12 Writings- Later Life-Articles/Book Reviews by Mary McCarthy Folder 2.13 Writings- Later Life-Articles/Book Reviews about Mary McCarthy, 1963-1987 Folders 2.14-2.15 Writings- Later Life Folder 7.4 Writings- Later Life Folder 2.16 Lillian Hellman/Mary McCarthy- Articles about Lillian Hellman and Mary McCarthy Folder 2.17 Lillian Hellman/Mary McCarthy- Mary McCarthy/Lillian Hellman Court Case Folder 2.18 Articles/Book Reviews- Mary McCarthy Bibliography Folder 2.19 Articles/Book Reviews- Inventory of Mary McCarthy Archives at Vassar Folder 2.20 Articles/Book Reviews- Mary McCarthy Death Notices Series IX: Interviews and Interview Requests Folder 2.30 Malcolm Cowley, Sherman, Ct. Folder 2.31 Mrs Alan Barth Folder 2.32 Mrs Elizabeth (Jerome) Greenebaum Folder 2.33 Judy Knickerbocker- Mrs Nicholas Folder 2.34 Helen Wilson Folder 2.35 Helen Sawyer Farnsworth - Mrs Jerry Folder 2.36 Mrs Robert Penn Warren Folder 2.37 Dr Gordon Ray, President of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Folder 3.1 Possible Talk Stuff Folder 3.2 William Buell Radio Free Europe Folder 3.3 OECD Francis Cassavetti Folder 3.4 Dick Cavett- Channel 13 Folder 3.5 Mrs F.W. Dupec Folder 3.6 Mr and Mrs David DuVivier Folder 3.7 Mrs Nicola Chiaromonte Folder 3.8 Mrs Thomas Finletter- Eileen Geist Folder 3.9 Philippe Franchine Folder 3.10 Mrs Stuart Frazier Folder 3.11 Stanley Geist Folder 3.12 Brendan Gill - The New Yorker Folder 3.13 Alan Gilyn Folder 3.14 Hester Green and Mark Hamilton of A.M. Heath Folder 3.15 Doris Grumbach Folder 3.16 Walter Goldwater Folder 3.17 Clement Greenberg Folder 3.18 Miriam Gross Folder 3.19 Elizabeth Hardwick Folder 3.20 Francis Haskell Folder 3.21 Mrs Benjamin Hibshman Folder 3.22 Mary Hooven Folder 3.23 Kot Jelenski Folder 3.24 Mrs John Jessup- Eunice Clark Folder 3.25 Colton Johnson Telephone Interview Folder 3.26 Gloria Jones - Mrs James Folder 3.27 William Jovanovich Folder 3.28 Ward Just Folder 3.29 Harold Kavlan Folder 3.30 Mr and Mrs Terence Kilmartin (literary editor of Observer) Folder 3.31 Nicholas King Folder 3.32 Dr Lotte Kohler Folder 3.33 Lady Caroline Lowell Folder 3.34 Mme Angelique Levi Folder 3.35 Mary McCarthy to Mrs Robert Lowell- Elizabeth Hardwick Folder 3.36 Dwight Macdonald Folder 3.37 Nancy Macdonald Folder 3.38 Flip McCarthy Folder 3.39 Mary Dabney McCarthy San Francisco Folder 3.40 Kevin McCarthy Folder 3.41 Kevin McCarthy- Mary McCarthy Interviews Done for People Folder 3.42 Preston McCarthy Folder 3.43 Mrs Sheridan McCarthy Folder 3.44 James Merrill Folder 3.45 Professor Ulrich Middledorf Folder 3.46 Karl Miller Folder 3.47 Herbert Mitgang Folder 3.48 Mr and Mrs William Mostyn-Owen Folder 3.49 Mrs Curt Muser Folder 3.50 John Myers Folder 3.51 Ellen Adler Oppenheim Folder 3.52 Interview with Ben O'Sullivan Folder 3.53 Benjamin O'Sullivan Interview Folder 3.54 Cees Nooteboom Folder 3.55 Cleo Paturis Folder 3.56 Eleanor Perenai Folder 3.57 William Phillips Folder 3.58 Mrs William Prince- Augusta Dabney Folder 3.59 Jonathan Kaudal - International Herald Tribune Folder 3.60 John Richardson Folder 3.61 Yale Richmond Folder 3.62 Jess Rosenberg Folder 3.63 Larry Rivers Folder 3.64 Mrs John Russell- Peggy Besnier Folder 3.65 Mayer Schapiro Folder 3.66 Brandt and Brandt Folder 3.67 Arthur Schelsinger, Jr Folder 3.68 The Reverend Mr and Mrs F.Q. Shafer Folder 3.69 Elizabeth Niebuhr Sifton Folder 3.70 William Shawn Folder 3.71 Robert Silvers Folder 3.72 Eileen Simpson Folder 3.73 Roger Straws Folder 3.74 Werner Stemans Folder 3.75 Eve Stwertka Folder 3.76 Signora Fiorella Superbi Folder 3.77 Diana Trilling Folder 3.78 Niccolo Tucci Folder 3.79 Frank Preston Folder 3.80 William Tuohy- LA Times Folder 3.81 Margo Viscusi Folder 3.82 Nick Wahl Folder 3.83 Mrs Charles Walker Folder 3.84 Lord George Weidenfeld Folder 3.85 Alison West Folder 3.86 Mrs Harold Williams Folder 3.87 Celia Woyawoda Folder 3.88 Revel Wilson Folder 3.89 Francis Wyndham Folder 3.90 Barry Zorthian Folder 4.24 Lionel Abel Folder 4.25 James Atlas Folder 4.26 R.W. Abble, Jr- NYT London International Press Center Folder 4.27 William Barrett Folder 4.28 Signora Luigi Biso Folder 4.29 Mrs William Blane Folder 4.30 Dr Seymour Bonwit Folder 4.31 Mary Brady- Mrs Leslie Folder 4.32 Thomas F.S. Buckley Folder 4.33 Irma Brandeis Folder 4.34 Bowden Broadwater Folder 4.35 [Correspondence to/from Carol Gelderman] Series X: Recorded Interviews Tape 5.1 Nancy Macdonald, 5 Jan 1982 Tape 5.2 Dwight Macdonald Tape 5.3 Walker- NYC, 20 Oct Tape 5.4 Elizabeth Hardwick- Her Apartment, 21 Oct 1981 Tape 5.5 Eileen Simpson Side 2 Tape 5.6 Eileen Simpson Side 1 Tape 5.6 Rosamond Russell Tape 5.7 Rosamond and John Russell Tape 5.8 Brendan Gill Tape 5.8 Shafer Side 1 Tape 5.9 Shafer Sides 2 and 3 Tape 5.10 Kevin McCarthy Tape 5.11 Kevin Sides 3 and 4 Tape 5.12 Mrs Sheridan McCarthy Tape 5.13 Preston McCarthy Tape 5.14 Mary McCarthy Interview Tape 5.15 Tom Buckley McCarthy, 12 Oct 1981 Tape 5.16 Silvers Tape 5.17 Clement Greenberg, Jan 1982 Tape 5.18 William Shawn at the New Yorker, 26 Oct 1981 Tape 5.18 Muser Side 1, 26 Oct 1981 Tape 5.19 Muser Side 2 Tape 5.20 Prof. Ulrich Middeldorf, 3 May Tape 5.20 Signora E. Sartori, 3 May Tape 5.21 Jessup Tape 5.22 Viscusi Tape 5.23 Viscusi, Jan 1982 Tape 5.24 Mrs Stuart Frazier Tape 5.25 Rosenberg Sides 1 and 2 Tape 6.1 Rosenberg Side 3 Tape 6.1 Frank Preston Side 1 Tape 6.2 Frank Preston Sides 2 and 3 Tape 6.3 Myrtle and Frank Preston Side 4, 22 March 1982 Tape 6.4 Mrs Harold Williams Side One Tape 6.3 Mrs Harold Williams Side 2, 22 March 1982 Tape 6.4 Mary Dabney McCarthy Tape 6.5 August Dabney Tape 6.6 Sir Harold Acton, 2 May Tape 6.7 Jon Nanday Tape 6.7 Randal -Washington Post Office in Paris Tape 6.8 Alison West- Institute of Fine Arts- NYU, 10 June 1982 Tape 6.9 Caroline Blackwood Lowell, 13 April 1982 Tape 6.10 Cees Nooteboom, 20 April 1982 Tape 6.11 Cees Nooteboom Tape 6.12 Cleo Paturis Tape 6.13 Francis Cassavetti, 8 Dec, 23 April 1982 Tape 6.14 William Tuohy- London, 14 April 1982 Tape 6.15 Philippe Franchine- Owner of Continental Palace in Saigon Tape 6.16 Terrence Kilmartin, 17 April 1982 Tape 6.17 Terrence Kilmartin- London, 18 April 1982 Tape 6.17 Francis Haskell- Oxford, 18 April 1982 Tape 6.18 Miriam Grass at The London Observer, 18 April 1982 Tape 6.19 Mary Brady Side 1 Tape 6.19 Doris Grumbach Tape 6.20 Countess Anna Maria Cigonga Tape 6.21 Stwertka Tape 6.22 Eve Stwertka, 9 Jan 1982 Tape 6.23 Madame Levi Sides 1 and 2 Tape 6.24 Angelique Levi Tape 6.25 Walter Goldwater Tape 6.26 Karl Miller- Head of Engineering Department University College London and London RB, 15 April 1982 Tape 6.26 Lord Weidenfeld 5-6pm, 15 April 1982 Tape 6.27 Kohler Tape 6.28 William Mostyn-Owen Tape 6.29 Gaia Servadio Mostyn-Owen, 19 April 1982 Series XI: Mary McCarthy Correspondence Folder 4.1 Mary McCarthy to Carmen Folder 4.2 Mary McCarthy to Jim West/Jim West to Mary McCarthy Folder 4.3 Edmund Wilson to Mary McCarthy Folder 4.4 Mary McCarthy to Edmund Wilson Folder 4.5 Mary McCarthy to Ben O'Sullivan Folder 4.6 To Frani Blough from Mary McCarthy Folder 4.7 Mary McCarthy to William Jovanovich Folder 4.8 William Jovanovich to Mary McCarthy Folder 4.9 Sales Figures Folder 4.10 Mary McCarthy to Doris Gumbach Folder 4.11 Doris Gumbach to Mary McCarthy Folder 4.12 Mary McCarthy to Bill shawn Folder 4.13 Mary McCarthy to Fred Dupeel Folder 4.14 Mary McCarhty to David and Ellie DuVivier Folder 4.15 Mary McCarthy to Bernard Berenson Folder 4.16 Mary McCarthy to Reuel Wilson/ RW to MM Folder 4.17 Mary McCarthy to Dwight MacDonald Folder 4.18 Mary McCarthy to Nicola Chiaromonte/ NC to Mary McCarthy Folder 4.19 Hannah Arendt to Mary McCarthy Folder 4.20 Mary McCarthy to Hannah Arendt Folders 4.21-4.23 Miscellaneous Correspondence Folder 7.5 Mary McCarthy to Kevin McCarthy Series XII: Miscellaneous Folder 2.5 Letters to Carol Gelderman from Various People Folder 2.21 Correspondence between Carol Gelderman and Mary McCarthy- Interview in Paris Folder 2.22 Correspondence between Carol Gelderman and Mary McCarthy- From Carol Gelderman to Mary McCarthy Folder 2.23 McCarthy's Corrections on Galleys Folder 2.24 [Correspondence from Mary McCarthy to Carol Gelderman] Folder 2.25 Copies of Letters between Mary McCarthy to Carol Gelderman- Some Maybe Missing i.e. in Other Files in Another Tape Folders 2.26-2.27 Mary McCarthy: A Life - Reviews- Originals Folder 2.28 Reviews of Mary McCarthy: a Life Folder 2.29 Carol Gelderman Reviews- Mary McCarthy: A Life Xerox copies Folder 4.36 Nooteboom, Cees. "Nederlandse Poëzie." Avenue. May 1982: 132-133. Print. [Dutch] Folder 4.37 Banks, William Nathaniel. "Castine, Maine, and St. Andrews, New Brunswick, Canada." The Magazine Antiques. July 1980: 102-119. Print.