Call Number:

C1316

Repository:

Princeton University Library: Manuscripts Division

Extent:

• 1 box
• 0.2 linear feet

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Maxwell Bodenheim Collection, Box and Folder Number; Special Collections, Princeton University Library.

Date:

1923-1955 (inclusive)

Creator:

Princeton University. Library. Special Collections and Bodenheim, Maxwell, 1893-1954

Form:

Correspondence -- 20th century, Poems -- 20th century., and Typescripts -- 20th century.

Abstract:

Consists chiefly of correspondence of the American poet and novelist Maxwell Bodenheim.

Maxwell Bodenheim was an American poet and novelist who was known as the "King of Greenwich Village Bohemians." His writing brought him international fame during the Jazz Age of the 1920s. He began publishing his earliest verse in Poetry Magazine in 1914, and over the next ten years, he established himself as a leading American author. His poetry books include Minna and Myself (1918), The King of Spain (1928), Bringing Jazz! (1930) and Selected Poems 1914-1944 (1946). His novels include Blackguard (1923), Ninth Avenue (1926), and A Virtuous Girl (1930). However, Bodenheim deteriorated rapidly after his success in the 1920s and 1930s. Before he married his second wife, Grace, he had become a panhandler. His third wife, Ruth, was 28 years his junior. She lived with him in his derelict lifestyle. They were homeless and slept on park benches. Bodenheim and Ruth were eventually murdered by a 25-year-old sociopath dishwasher, Harold Weinberg, whom they befriended on the streets of the Village.

The collection Consists chiefly of correspondence of the American poet and novelist Maxwell Bodenheim. Included are eleven letters to the author and editor Harry Hansen, primarily regarding the publishing of essays and poems of Bodenheim. There is also a letter from Bodenheim to Walter Winchell, the American newspaper and radio commentator. Also included are two signed typescript poems by Bodenheim. The first is an unpublished work titled "Street Level Jazz" (2 pp.), and the second, titled "To Noel Coward," may have been the one referred to in Bodenheim's letter to Winchell.

In addition, there is a letter from Roy J. Snell to Harry Hansen about Bodenheim. A second letter from Edward T. De Voe to Hansen, dated August 30, 1955, requests information about Bodenheim.