mss0485.xml Finding aid for Richard Hoffman - Neil Simon collection1955-1993 University of Delaware Library, Special Collections University of Delaware Library
Newark, Delaware 19717-5267 Phone: 302-831-2229 Fax: 302-831-6003 URL: http://www.lib.udel.edu/ud/spec/
Date encoded (2009 January 30) Finding aid encoded 2009 January 30 English Richard Hoffman - Neil Simon collection1955-1993 Special Collections Department, University of Delaware Library
Newark, Delaware 19717-5267 Phone: 302-831-2229 Fax: 302-831-6003 URL: http://www.lib.udel.edu/ud/spec/
 Hoffman, Richard. Richard Hoffman - Neil Simon collection1955-1993 MSS 485 3 linear feet and oversize materials (3 boxes) The Richard Hoffman - Neil Simon collection spans the dates between 1955 and 1993 and comprises three linear feet of playscripts, film scripts, correspondence, posters, flyers, periodicals, theater programs, and photographs related to the American playwright Neil Simon. Materials entirely in English. University of Delaware Library - Special Collections Source

Gift of Richard Hoffman and purchase, 2002-2005.

 Access Restrictions

The collection is open for research.

 Terms Governing Use and Reproduction

Use of materials from this collection beyond the exceptions provided for in the Fair Use and Educational Use clauses of the U.S. Copyright Law may violate federal law. Permission to publish or reproduce is required from the copyright holder. Please contact Special Collections Department, University of Delaware Library, http://www.lib.udel.edu/cgi-bin/askspec.cgi

 Citation

MSS 485, Richard Hoffman - Neil Simon collection, Special Collections, University of Delaware Library, Newark, Delaware.

 Shelving Summary Boxes 1-3: Shelved in SPEC MSS record center cartons Removals: Shelved in SPEC MSS oversize boxes (32 inches)Removals: Shelved in SPEC MSS oversize mapcases Processing

Processed by Gerald Cloud, February 2004. Revised by Karalee Kopreski, October 2005. Encoded by Jillian Kuzma, January 2009. Updated by Maureen Cech, November 2010.

 Biographical Notes Richard Hoffman

Brooklyn-based theater collector and book dealer Richard Hoffman built a number of literary collections around American playwrights over a period of many years.

Hoffman has said that he entered the United States Army in the 1950s as an actor and left as a writer. His military experience led to an assignment to create a television program titled "Your Army in View," which consisted of interviews and live drama. After his discharge from the service in 1955, Hoffman taught in the drama department of The City University of New York. During this period he was awarded a Eugene O'Neill fellowship for playwriting. He also began to seriously collect rare books and first editions of contemporary American dramatists, notably the playwrights Eugene O'Neill, Arthur Miller, and Neil Simon. Hoffman's interest in collecting first editions led to his career as an antiquarian book dealer.

Neil Simon

American playwright Neil Simon has emerged as one of the twentieth century's most popular and commercially successful American writers of stage comedies.

His best known comedies include Barefoot in the Park (1963), The Odd Couple (1965), Plaza Suite (1968), The Prisoner of Second Avenue (1971), and The Sunshine Boys (1972). Simon's more serious works, however, including his autobiographical trilogy, Brighton Beach Memoirs (1982), Biloxi Blues (1984), and Broadway Bound (1986), have earned him respect as a serious dramatist. Many of Simon's plays have been successfully adapted for the screen, including Barefoot in the Park (1967), The Odd Couple (1968), and The Sunshine Boys (1975).

Simon was born July 4, 1927, in the Bronx, New York, a setting that often recurs in his work. He began his career co-writing comedy sketches for radio with brother Danny Simon in the 1940s. During the 1950s the pair wrote for television personalities such as Sid Caesar, Phil Silvers, and Jackie Gleason, occasionally working with writers Mel Brooks and Woody Allen. The brothers also co-wrote the early Broadway success Come Blow Your Horn (1959).

Simon has received numerous awards and honors during his career, including Emmy awards for Sid Caesar's Your Show of Shows(1957) and The Phil Silvers Show(1959); and Antoinette Perry awards (the "Tony") for The Odd Couple (best playwright, 1965), for Biloxi Blues (best drama, 1985), and for Lost in Yonkers (best play, 1991). Simon received a special Tony Award for overall contributions to the theater in 1975; and Academy Award nominations for The Odd Couple (1968) and California Suite (1978). The Sunshine Boys (1975) and The Goodbye Girl (1977) received Academy Award nominations as well as nominations for Golden Globe awards. Simon was honored with the New York Drama Critics Circle Award in 1983 for Brighton Beach Memoirs and with a Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1991, for Lost in Yonkers.

"Neil Simon." Contemporary Authors Online. Detroit: Gale, 2006. Reproduced in Gale Biography In Context, accessed November 5, 2010.

 Scope and Content Note

The Richard Hoffman - Neil Simon collection spans the dates between 1955 and 1993 and comprises three linear feet of playscripts, film scripts, correspondence, posters, flyers, periodicals, theater programs, and photographs related to the American playwright Neil Simon. Assembled by the writer and Brooklyn-based bookdealer Richard Hoffman, the collection also includes Simon's published plays, which are cataloged individually and housed with printed collections in the Special Collections Department at the University of Delaware Library.

The archival collection is arranged into two series: I. Dramatic works; and II. Ephemera. The collection includes ephemera such as souvenir programs and playbills, and autographed photographs of Neil Simon and his wife, American actress Marsha Mason.

Series I. comprises the majority of the materials in the collection and consists of playscripts, film scripts, posters, programs, and other materials related to Simon’s plays and the films produced from his screenplays. Included are material for some of Simon's best known work, such as Barefoot in the Park (1963), The Odd Couple (1965), Plaza Suite (1968), The Prisoner of Second Avenue (three copies, including a film script, 1971), The Sunshine Boys (two copies, 1972), the autobiographical Brighton Beach Memoirs (1982) and Broadway Bound (1986), and the Pulitzer Prize-winning Lost in Yonkers (three copies, 1991). Additionally, there are scripts associated with cast and crew members via correspondence, including Dick Latessa for The Curse of Kulyenchikov, Richard Bright for Brighton Beach Memoirs, and set and costume designer Santo Loquasto for Lost in Yonkers. Also included are three scripts and a film script for Chapter Two, as well as a script bearing the alternate title "George Feiffer, Meet Annie Malone." Also present is a first draft of a film script for an apparently unmade project, "Mr. Bad News." Material in this series is arranged alphabetically by title of the work.

Series II. consists of signed photographs of Neil Simon and Marsha Mason.

 Arrangement

I. Dramatic worksII. Miscellaneous ephemera

 Selected Search Terms Personal Names Simon, Neil. Topical Terms American drama--20th century. Form/Genre Terms Screenplays. Scripts (documents)Posters.Theatre programs.Photographs. Occupation Playwrights. Personal Contributors Simon, Neil. Related Materials in this Repository

MSS 484 Richard Hoffman - Arthur Miller collection

MSS 490 Richard Hoffman - David Rabe collection

MSS 496 Richard Hoffman- David Mamet collection

MSS 505 Richard Hoffman - John Guare collection

MSS 508 Richard Hoffman - Lorraine Hansberry collection

MSS 510 Richard Hoffman - August Wilson collection

 Detailed Contents List Series I. Dramatic works 1955-2001 After the Fox 1 1a Screenplay 1965 Barefoot in the Park 1 1 Playscript 1964 1 2 The Dramatists Guild Quarterly, New York: The Dramatists Guild, Winter 1985 1985 1 3 Pressbook 1967 1 4 Promotional film poster 1967 Brighton Beach Memoirs 1 5 Screenplay 1985 1 6 Poster [1984] Broadway Bound 1 7 Playscript 1987 California Suite 1 8 Playscript 1976 Catch a Star 1 9 The Playbill for the Plymouth Theatre, New York, 1955 1955 Chapter Two 1 10 Playscript 1977 1 11 Playscript 1977 1 12 Film script 1979 April 1 13 Souvenir program [1977] The Cheap Detective 1 14 Film script 1976 Come Blow Your Horn 1 15 Playscript undated 1 16 Playscript 1959 1 17 Poster, lobby card 1963 1 17 Poster 1963 The Curse of Kulyenchikov 1 18 Playscript 1980 1 19 Playscript 1980 1 20 Playscript 1981 The Dinner Party 2000 1 21A Poster, The Music Box Theatre, New York City 2000 Fools 1 21B Playscript 1981 George Feiffer, Meet Annie Malone [Chapter Two] 1 22 Playscript 1977 The Gingerbread Lady 1 23 Playscript undated 1 24 Curtain Time 1971 December God's Favorite 2 25 Playscript 1974 2 26 Playscript 1974 2 27 Poster 1974 2 28 Souvenir program, New York: Gloria Enterprises, 1975. 1975 The Good Doctor 2 29 Playscript 1973 2 30 Playscript 1973 2 31 Script undated The Goodbye Girl 2 32 Film script The Heartbreak Kid 2 33 Screenplay 1972 2 34 Promotional poster 1973 I Ought to be in Pictures 2 35 Playscript 1981 2 36 Screenplay 1981 2 37 Poster, Twentieth Century Fox Films, 1982 1982 Jake's Women 2 38 Playscript 1988 2 39 Playscript 1992 2 39a Playscript 1991 August Last of the Red Hot Lovers 2 40 Playscript 1969 2 41 Screenplay 1971 2 42 Souvenir program, New York: Faye Programs, [1971] 1971 Laughter on the 23rd Floor 2 43 Playbill, Richard Rodgers Theatre, New York, March 1994. Little Me 2 44 Playscript 1971 London Suite 2 44a Script [1996] The Lonely Guy 2 45 Screenplay 1983 2 46 Screenplay 1983 Lost in Yonkers 3 47 Playscript 1990 3 48 Playscript 1991 3 49 Playscript 1991 3 50 Promotional portfolio, Columbia Pictures Industries,1993 1993 Max Dugan Returns 3 51 Screenplay 1982 Mr. Bad News 3 52 Screenplay undated The Odd Couple 3 53 Playscript 1965 3 54 Playbill, The Plymouth Theatre, New York City, January 1966 1966 January Plaza Suite 3 55 Playscript 1968 The Prisoner of Second Avenue 3 56 Playscript 1971 3 57 Playscript 1971 3 58 Film script 1973 3 59 Souvenir program, New York: Faye Programs, [1972] 1972 3 59 Compact disc audio recording 2001 Promises, Promises 3 60 Playscript undated 3 60 Souvenir program, New York: Artcraft Litho. & Ptg. Co., Inc., [1968] (2 items) 1968 Proposals 3 61 Playbill, [New York]: Broadhurst Theatre, Nov. 6, 1997. 1997 November 6 The Slugger's Wife 3 62 Screenplay 1983 The Star Spangled Girl 3 63 Playscript 1966 3 64 Poster 1967 The Sunshine Boys 3 65 Screenplay 1975 3 66 Screenplay 1975 3 67 Promotional film poster 1975 3 68 Handbill, Lyceum Theatre, New York City, [1997] 1997 Sweet Charity 3 69 Playscript undated 3 70 Souvenir program, Universal City Studios, Inc., 1969 1969 They're Playing Our Song 3 71a Screenplay 1984 3 71 Playscript 1978 3 72 Playscript 1980 3 73 Souvenir program, New York: Raydell Publishing & Distributing Corp., [1978] 1978 Series II. Ephemera Photographs 3 74 8x10 black and white publicity photograph of Simon, autographed 3 74 8x10 black and white photograph of Marsha Mason, inscribed to Richard [Hoffman].