Main content
David Weiss Papers
Notifications
Held at: Temple University Libraries: Special Collections Research Center [Contact Us]
This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the Temple University Libraries: Special Collections Research Center. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in their reading room, and not digitally available through the web.
Overview and metadata sections
David Weiss (1909-2002) was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Hyman (a painter) and Rebecca Weiss (nee Goldman). He was orphaned at the age of four and was raised by his Aunt Ida Goldman (his mother's sister), who owned a Russian restaurant across the street from the Academy of Music and which was frequented by famous composers. Weiss received his bachelor's degree in merchandising from Temple University in 1933, after which he held about fifty different jobs (including stevedore, hosiery dye worker, welfare worker, store clerk, ghost writer, and basketball and swimming instructor), all while playwriting on the side, before deciding to move to New York to pursue theater work in 1942. He soon obtained a position as secretary to Erwin Piscator, then head of the Dramatic Workshop at the New School for Social Research. Around 1945, Weiss was chosen for a Fellowship in Playwriting and Directing at the New School (after being fired as Piscator's secretary), where he taught playwriting, assisted John Gassner with editorial work, and became an assistant director for The Actors' Studio. He also spent a number of years as a freelance story editor for David O. Selznick and Selznick Studios, where he worked on the films "Tender is the Night" and "A Farewell to Arms." Simultaneously, he did freelance editorial work for a number of other Hollywood studios (including Paramount, RKO, and Vanguard Films).
Weiss published his first novel, The Guilt Makers, in 1953, and he was honored with the Frieder Literary Award for best novel on a Jewish theme published in America. He went on to publish ten other novels, most of them biographical fiction: The Spirit and the Flesh (1959; inspired by the life of Isadora Duncan), Naked Came I (1963; a biography of August Rodin, and his most successful book), Justin Moyan (1965; based on the career of Marlon Brando, whom Weiss knew at the New School), Sacred and Profane (1968; a biography of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart), The Assassination of Mozart (1970; based on Mozart's mysterious death), No Number is Greater than One (1972; inspired by the Watergate scandal), Myself, Christopher Wren (1974; based on the life of architect Christopher Wren), Physician Extraordinary (1975; based on the life of 17th-century physician William Harvey), The Venetian (1976; based on the life of painter Titian), and I, Rembrandt (1979; based on the life of Rembrandt). In addition to his published novels, he penned several other novels based on the lives and careers of notable personalities (D. W. Griffith, Alma Mahler, and Pablo Picasso), works of fiction about the publishing industry, a summer camp, and Mozart time traveling to the present day, and short biographies of General Omar N. Bradley and actor Sam Jaffe, as well as several memoirs.
He married poet, artist, and playwright Stymean Karlen on November 25, 1945. They were married for fifty-three years before her death in 1998. Karlen's poetry is featured in Weiss's published novels as "Preface Poems." Weiss wrote a biography of Karlen after her death entitled Forever and After. The couple lived in New York, London, and La Jolla, California, during their marriage. Weiss died in La Jolla on November 29, 2002.
The David Weiss Papers date from 1899 to 2002 and document the life of David Weiss and his career in theater and film, and as an author. This collection contains drafts and manuscripts of Weiss's plays, novels, and short stories, as well as research files, clippings, contracts, correspondence with agents, publishers, colleagues, family, and his wife, Stymean Karlen. Researchers will find extensive documentation of Weiss's time working for David Selznick and Selznick Studios (and other Hollywood studios) as a story editor, in which he wrote reports and synopses of books and plays for possible film adaptation.
The collection is arranged into three series as follows:
- Series 1: Theater and film work, 1938-1963, undated
- Subseries 1.1: Plays, 1938-1955, undated
- Subseries 1.2: New School of Social Research, 1940-1950, undated
- Subseries 1.3: Freelance work for studios, 1941-1963, undated
- Series 2: Writing career, 1942-2002, undated
- Subseries 2.1: Manuscripts, 1948-1991, undated
- Subseries 2.2: Correspondence and contracts with agents and publishers, 1937-2002, undated
- Subseries 2.3: TV and film adaptation of novels, 1942-2002, undated
- Subseries 2.4: Notes and research files, circa 1953-2001, undated
- Subseries 2.5: Reviews, clippings, and publicity, 1952-1979, undated
- Series 3: Personal files, 1899-2002, undated
Donated by David Weiss and Stymean Karlen to Temple University in several acquisitions between 1980 and 2003.
Original audiovisual materials, as well as preservation and duplicating masters, may not be played. Researchers must consult use copies, or if none exist must pay for a use copy. Please contact the Special Collections Research Center for more information.
Collection has been arranged and inventoried at folder level. All original boxes and folders have been replaced. Collection processed and finding aid prepared in November 2018 by Jessica Hoffman, Project Archivist.
The original collection contained papers from both David Weiss and his wife Stymean Karlen, and was separated into two collections. The Stymean Karlen Papers can also be found in the SCRC.
People
- Duncan, Isadora, 1877-1927--Fiction
- Gassner, John, 1903-1967
- Griffith, D. W. (David Wark), 1875-1948--Fiction
- Harvey, William, 1578-1657--Fiction
- Karlen, Stymean
- Mozart, Wolfang Amadeus, 1756-1791--Fiction
- Picasso, Pablo, 1881-1973--Fiction
- Piscator, Erwin, 1893-1966
- Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn, 1606-1669--Fiction
- Rodin, Auguste, 1840-1917--Fiction
- Selznick, David O., 1902-1965
- Titian, approximately 1488-1576--Fiction
- Wren, Christopher, Sir, 1632-1723--Fiction
Organization
- Hodder and Stoughton
- New School for Social Research (New York, N.Y. : 1919-1997). Dramatic Workshop
- Selznick Studios
- William Morris Agency
- William Morrow and Company
Subject
- Authors, American--Autobiographies
- Authors, American--Biographical fiction
- Authors, American--Fiction
- Motion picture studios--California
- Plays
- Publishers and publishing
- Short stories
- Theater--New York (State)--New York
Place
- Publisher
- Temple University Libraries: Special Collections Research Center
- Finding Aid Author
- Machine-readable finding aid created by: Rajkumar Natarajan, Sky Global Services India (P) Ltd.
- Finding Aid Date
- 2024
- Access Restrictions
-
Collection is open for research.
- Use Restrictions
-
The David Weiss Papers are the physical property of the Special Collections Research Center, Temple University Libraries. Weiss's intellectual property rights, including copyright, have been assigned to Temple University Libraries. Other creators' intellectual property rights, including copyright, belong to them or their legal heirs and assigns. Researchers are responsible for determining the identity of rights holders and obtaining their permission for publication and for other purposes where stated.
Collection Inventory
Series 1 contains materials regarding Weiss's early career in playwriting and theater and screen work.
Subseries 1.1 contains plays written by Weiss and is arranged alphabetically by play title.
2 copies
Subseries 1.2 contains records related to Weiss's time as secretary to Erwin Piscator and his time in the Dramatic Workshop at the New School of Social Research. This subseries contains correspondence, curriculum and lecture materials, and notes, and is arranged chronologically.
Subseries 1.3 documents Weiss's work as story editor for David O. Selznick and Selznick Studios, as well as his work for other Hollywood studios. This subseries contains correspondence, story treatments of novels and plays for studios, and research for Selznick Studios, and is arranged chronologically.
Series 2 contains materials related to Weiss's writing career.
Subseries 2.1 contains mainly undated manuscripts, notes, and drafts of Weiss's published and unpublished novels, memoirs, and short stories. This series is arranged alphabetically by title or subject and is arranged alphabetically by title or subject (published novels followed by unpublished novels), followed by an alphabetical run of short stories. Weiss changed the titles of his works and reused titles frequently—this is documented in the folder titles when alternate titles were available.
4 copies
2 copies
2 copies
Subseries 2.2 contains extensive correspondence, contracts, and royalty statements from various publishers and authors' agents regarding the publication, distribution, and publicity of Weiss's work and translation into other languages. This subseries is arranged chronologically.
3 copies
3 copies
Subseries 2.3 documents Weiss's attempts to have his novels made into films and television series (in particular, "Naked Came I"). This subseries is arranged chronologically and contains correspondence and contracts with agents and studios, and screenplays and preparations of Weiss's novels for film or TV.
2 copies
Subseries 2.4 contains materials (largely undated) documenting Weiss's research for his novels. This subseries is arranged alphabetically by subject or title and contains type- and handwritten notes and clippings.
Subseries 2.5 contains clippings and advertisements of reviews and publicity of Weiss's novels. Also included here are audio reels of radio interviews given by Weiss regarding "The Guilt Makers, " "Naked Came I, " and "The Spirit and the Flesh, " as well as two large scrapbooks containing newspaper clippings. This subseries is arranged alphabetically by title.
audio reel
audio reel
audio reel
audio reel
audio reel
audio reel
audio reel
audio reel
Series 3 contains personal records, including correspondence with friends, colleagues, and family members, clippings, newsletters, resumes, diaries, invoices, financial documents, transcriptions of oral history interviews with Temple University, and other records. This series documents Weiss's early adulthood and employment, his personal interests, finances, social life, his early years in New York theater, his life in New York, La Jolla, CA, and London with Stymean, and his relationship with Temple University towards the end of his life. This series is arranged chronologically.
2 copies
audio reel