Call Number:

C0340

Repository:

Princeton University Library: Manuscripts Division

Extent:

• 34 boxes
• 1 item
• 12.9 linear feet

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

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

Date:

1936-1967 (inclusive)

Creator:

Schulberg, Budd

Form:

Manuscripts., Correspondence, Fiction., Screenplays., and Scrapbooks.

Abstract:

Consists of writings, correspondence, and miscellanea of the American novelist, playwright, screenwriter and biographer Budd Schulberg (1914-2009 ).

Budd Schulberg predicted in 1950 that he would be remembered as "the writer who reversed the usual process: started in Hollywood and worked East." He grew up in Hollywood, the son of film mogul B. P. Schulberg.

In a 1965 article in Los Angeles magazine, Schulberg reminisced about his Hollywood childhood. "If life is a series of disenchantments through which we prepare ourselves, then I was richly endowed, for our castles were built on glamorous quicksand" he wrote, referring to the success and failure of his father, who by the time of his death in 1957, was reduced to begging for employment and compulsive gambling.

After graduating from Dartmouth in 1936, Schulberg returned to Hollywood and worked as a screenwriter and, later, as a film producer. Throughout his career, he has returned to Hollywood subjects, most notably in his novels What Makes Sammy Run? (1941) and The Disenchanted (1950).

In addition to Hollywood themes, Schulberg's work has concentrated on larger social issues such as union racketeering, abuse of the public trust, and the moral costs of American success. His acclaimed screenplay "On the Waterfront" (1954) examined the corruption of organized labor on the New York docks. In the novel The Harder They Fall (1947), Schulberg exposed the harsh realities of professional boxing. He continued his journalist search for the truth with his screenplay "A Face in the Crowd" (1957) in which he emphasized the dangers of mass manipulation through television. In his memoirs, Moving Pictures: Memories of a Hollywood Prince (1981), Schulberg returned to where he started. He died in 2009 at the age of 95.

1914 Born March 27 in New York City. 1919 Family moved to Hollywood. Father, B. P. Schulberg, named head of production at Paramount Famous-Lasky studio. 1936 Graduated from Dartmouth College and began work as a Hollywood studio writer. 1938 Received his first screen credit for Little Orphan Annie. 1939 Collaborated with F. Scott Fitzgerald on the screenplay for Winter Carnival. 1941 Published first novel, What Makes Sammy Run?. 1941-1943 Wrote screenplays for Weekend for Three, City Without Men, and Government Girl. 1943 Married Victoria Anderson. 1943-1946 Served in U.S. Navy. Assigned to Office of Strategic Service. Commended for his work gathering war crime evidence for Nuremberg trials. 1947 Published The Harder They Fall. 1950 Published The Disenchanted. 1954 Completed screenplay On the Waterfront. 1957 Father died. Completed screenplay A Face in the Crowd. 1958 Wrote and produced film Wind Across the Everglades. 1964 Adapted What Makes Sammy Run? for the stage. Divorced Victoria Anderson and married Geraldine Brooks. 1977 Geraldine Brooks died. 1979 Married Betsy Ann Langman. 1981 Published Moving Pictures: Memories of a Hollywood Prince. 2009 Died at the age of 95.

The collection consists mainly of Schulberg's writings, with some correspondence, documents, scrapbooks, and miscellaneous material. Included are the manuscripts for the novels What Makes Sammy Run? (New York: Random House, 1941), The Harder They Fall (New York: Random House, 1947), The Disenchanted (New York: Random House, 1950), Waterfront (New York: Random House, 1955), and Sanctuary (New York: World Publishing Co., 1969). In addition, there are manuscripts of several screenplays, including A Face in the Crowd (New York: Random House, 1957), Wind Across the Everglades (New York: Random House, 1958), and On the Waterfront (1954); the play The Disenchanted (New York: Random House, 1959); and the musical What Makes Sammy Run? (New York: Random House, 1965), the last three based on Schulberg's novels. The collection also contains Schulberg's edited manuscript From the Ashes: Voices of Watts (New York: New American Library, 1967), a project of the Watts Writers' Workshop which he helped establish in the aftermath of the 1965 Los Angeles Watts riots. Among his non-fiction works are the manuscript of "Machiavelli on 8th Avenue," the biography of the boxing promoter, Mike Jacobs; articles, essays, and a thesis, "Jefferson Democracy," written as an undergraduate at Dartmouth College; and an introduction to Nathanael West's The Day of the Locust (1965).

The bulk of the correspondence consists of letters by Schulberg's literary agent, Brandt and Brandt, and congratulatory letters on the publication of The Disenchanted and The Harder They Fall. There is also miscellaneous correspondence from Random House, Schulberg's publisher, and the Sidney Cox Fund at Dartmouth, legal contracts and agreements, scrapbooks for What Makes Sammy Run? and Waterfront, and miscellaneous material.

The following standard abbreviations, or their variations, are used to identify materials in this collection: ANS = autograph note signed, TNS = typed note signed, AMsS = autograph manuscript signed, and TMsS = typed manuscript signed.