mss0508.xml Finding aid for Richard Hoffman - Lorraine Hansberry collection1959-1986 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 (2008 January 27) Finding aid encoded 2008 January 27 English Richard Hoffman - Lorraine Hansberry collection1959-1986 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 - Lorraine Hansberry collection1959-1986 MSS 508 .3 linear feet (1 box) The Richard Hoffman's collection of materials from the African-American playwright Lorraine Hansberry collection spans the dates 1959-1986 and comprises 17 items, including photographs, playbills, programs, a screenplay for A Raisin in the Sun (1959), and articles related to The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window (1964). Materials in English. University of Delaware Library - Special Collections Source

Purchase, August 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 508, Richard Hoffman - Lorraine Hansberry collection, Special Collections, University of Delaware Library, Newark, Delaware.

 Shelving Summary Box 1: Shelved in SPEC MSS manuscript boxes (1 inch) Processing

Processed by Karalee Kopreski, October 2005. Encoded by Jillian Kuzma, January 2009. Updated by Julia Pompetti, November 2010.

 Biographical NotesRichard 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.

Lorraine Hansberry

American playwright Lorainne Hansberry (1930-1965) was born in Chicago, Illinois. She studied drama and stage design at the University of Wisconsin from 1948 to 1950 and then moved to New York to write for the Freedom newspaper. She was politically active in the Civil Rights movement by promoting social change and speaking against the oppression of African-Americans. In 1953, she married Robert Nemiroff, an aspiring writer whom she met on a picket line at New York University. Hansberry's play, A Raisin in the Sun, opened on Broadway in 1959 and won the New York Drama Critic's Circle Award, making her the youngest American, the first woman, and the first African-American to win the award.

In 1960, Hansberry wrote two screenplays of A Raisin in the Sun that were not produced without significant alteration because they were deemed controversial. Her other plays include The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window, which opened on Broadway in 1964, Les Blancs, The Drinking Gourd, and What Use Are Flowers?, all published posthumously in 1972 under the title Les Blancs: The Collected Last Plays of Lorraine Hansberry.

In 1964, Hansberry and Nemiroff divorced, though they remained close and he became her literary executor when she succumbed to cancer in January 1965.

American National Biography. 24 vols. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.

 Scope and Content Note

The Richard Hoffman - Lorraine Hansberry collection spans the dates between 1959 and 1986 and comprises 17 items, including photographs, playbills, programs, a screenplay for A Raisin in the Sun, and articles related to The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window.

Arrangement

I. A Raisin in the Sun screenplayII. Theater programsIII. PhotographsIV. Miscellaneous

 Selected Search Terms Personal Names Hansberry, Lorraine, 1930-1965. Topical Terms American drama--20th century. American drama--African American authors--20th century. Form/Genre Terms Photographs. Playbills.Theater programs.Correspondence.Screenplays. Occupation Playwrights. Personal Contributors Hansberry, Lorraine, 1930-1965. Related Materials in this Repository

MSS 484 Richard Hoffman - Neil Simon collection

MSS 485 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 510 Richard Hoffman - August Wilson Collection

 Series I. A Raisin in the Sun screenplay undated

This series consists of the original version of Hansberry's screenplay of A Raisin in the Sun that was altered significantly in order to be used for the 1961 Columbia studios film production. The title bears the autograph note in an unknown hand: "Unfilmed original screenplay by Hansberry. Different from published version."

1 F1 Screenplay undated Series II. Theater Programs 1959-1974

This series comprises theater programs from several stage and screen productions of A Raisin in the Sun and one musical adaptation, dating between 1959 and 1974.

 1 F2 Playbill New York, Vol. 3, No. 11. (copy 1) 1959 March 16

A Raisin in the Sun. New York: Ethel Barrymore Theatre, 1959. Philip Rose and David J. Cogan present Sidney Poitier in A Raisin in the Sun: A New Play by Lorraine Hansberry; with Claudia McNeil, Ruby Dee … directed by Lloyd Reynolds.

 1 F2 Playbill New York, Vol. 3, No. 11. (copy 2) 1959 March 16

A Raisin in the Sun. New York: Ethel Barrymore Theatre, 1959. Philip Rose and David J. Cogan present Sidney Poitier in A Raisin in the Sun: a new play by Lorraine Hansberry; with Claudia McNeil, Ruby Dee … directed by Lloyd Reynolds. Autographed on the cover by the entire cast: Ruby Dee, Ivan Dixon, Lonne Elder III, John Fiedler, Louis Gossett, Ed Hall, Claudia McNeil, Sidney Poitier, Diana Sands, Glynn Turman, and Douglas Turner.

1 F2 Souvenir program 1959

Inside cover bears note "Ethel Barrymore Theatre, 6/20/59, NY." Includes biographies of the cast, the producers Philip Rose and David J. Cogan, and director Lloyd Richards. Also includes feature article about Hansberry, "A Playwright, A Promise" by Faye Hammel, reprinted courtesy of Cue Magazine [1959].

 1 F2 Washington, D.C.: National Theater. [playbill] 1961

Philip Rose and David J. Cogan present Claudia McNeil in New York Drama Critics’ Circle award-winning play a raisin in the sun by Lorraine Hansberry. Week beginning May 29, 1961. With autograph note signed by Claudia McNeil, 1974, laid in.

 1 F2 Raisin: The New Musical based on Lorraine Hansberry's " A Raisin in the Sun." New York: 46th Street Theatre [handbill] 1974 1 F2 A Raisin in the Sun. S.1.: Columbia Pictures [program] 1961

Columbia Pictures presents Sidney Poitier … with Claudia McNeil, Ruby Dee. Screenplay by Lorraine Hansberry from her play … produced by David Susskind and Philip Rose. Directed by Daniel Petrie.

Series III. Photographs circa 1959-1960

Series III. contains 4 black-and-white photographs of cast members from various stage productions of A Raisin in the Sun, including several from the original 1959 production.

 1 F3 Claudia McNeil and Diana Sands from original production [circa 1959]

On verso, "R102 - Please credit photo Friedman—Abeles 351 West 54th Street."

 1 F3 Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Claudia McNeil, Glynn Turman and John Fiedler from original production [circa 1959]

On verso, "R219 - Please credit photo Friedman—Abeles 351 West 54th Street."

 1 F3 Claudia McNeil and Ossie Davis (who replaced Sidney Poitier) [1959-1960]

On verso, "R211 - Please credit photo Friedman—Abeles 351 West 54th Street." Autographed "Ossie Davis to Joseph." Handwritten note on verso "6/2/86—Black Film Festival Party."

 1 F3 Diana Sands, Frances Foster, Claudia McNeil [1959-1960]

Autographed by all three actresses. On verso: "Rec'd 1-17-61. A Raisin in the Sun"

 Series IV. Miscellaneous 1962-1967

Series IV. consists of material relating to Lorraine Hansberry's literary reception and career, including a card autographed by Hansberry, clippings, and two letters from Hansberry's ex-husband and literary executor, Robert Nemiroff, addressed to Morris Schappes of Jewish Currents magazine.

 1 F4 Card signed by Lorraine Hansberry 1962

With certificate of authenticity.

 1 F4 "No Men are Strangers: At Least, a Medal," by Joseph North. The Worker [newsclipping] 1964 December 13

Regarding Hansberry's play The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window.

 1 F4 "Crusader of Genius: an editorial." The Worker [newsclipping] 1965 January 17

Editorial appreciation on the death of Hansberry.

 1 F4 "Simone Signoret … to the Paris stage in Lorraine Hansberry's The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window." New York Post. [newsclipping] 1965 October 26 1 F4 "Strategy Meeting." New Yorker, p. 49-51 1964 December 5

Regarding Hansberry's play The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window.

 1 F4 Correspondence 1965, 1967