Call Number:

C0224

Repository:

Princeton University Library: Manuscripts Division

Extent:

• 7 boxes
• 3.15 linear feet

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Vance Thompson Papers, Box and Folder Number; Special Collections, Princeton University Library.

Date:

1894-1925 (inclusive)

Creator:

Thompson, Vance, 1863-1925

Form:

Bookplates (Provenance)., American diaries -- 20th century., Diplomatic documents -- United States -- 20th century., Musical scores., Photoprints., and Songs, American -- 20th century.

Abstract:

The Vance Thompson Papers consists of manuscripts, writings for the press, letters, documents, photographs and miscellanea of author and playwright Vance Thompson, Princeton Class of 1883.

Vance Thompson was an author and playwright best known for penning one of the first low-carbohydrate diet books, Eat and Grow Thin. Born in 1863, Thompson graduated from Princeton University in 1883 and received his Ph.D. from the University of Jena in Sachsen-Weimar, Germany. He wrote several dramas and books, and he served as editor-in-chief of M'lle New York and The Outline of Christianity. Thompson died in 1925.

Consists of selected papers of Thompson (Princeton Class of 1883). Included are diaries (1913, 1918); musical scores; two plays, The Peace Girl and Jane Shore; various short stories and scenarios, such as "The Blue Lotus," "In Old Japan," and "Killing the Mandarin"; a group of carbons, typescripts, and tearsheets of The Poetical Works of Vance Thompson, compiled posthumously by his wife, Lilian Spencer Thompson, an actress who used the stage name of Mlle. Severin; and a section of writings for the press containing articles, book and theater reviews, publication contracts, and clippings. Correspondence includes letters (1897-1906) to Dr. William J. O'Sullivan, a friend and lawyer, letters (1918-1925) to his wife, letters from his father, Rev. Charles L. Thompson, and diplomatic correspondence (1918-1919) while he was political adviser to the U.S. embassy at Rome. Also present are diplomatic documents, a scrapbook of clippings concerning his wife's acting career and dramatic productions of his works, bookplates, clippings, tearsheets, and photographs of Thompson, his family, and Belgium in 1918.