Call Number:

SCRC 290

Repository:

Temple University Libraries: Special Collections Research Center

Extent:

53 linear feet (50 boxes + 36 map folders and art items)

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

[Description and date of item], [Box/folder number], Stymean Karlen Papers, SCRC 290, Special Collections Research Center, Temple University Libraries, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Date:

circa 1900-1998 (inclusive)

Form:

Clippings, Correspondence, Drawings, Ephemera, Manuscripts, Paintings, Periodicals, Photocopies, Photographs, Poems, and Publications (documents)

Abstract:

Stymean Karlen (1905-1998) was born Jeanne Rosenfeld in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Adopting the pen name Stymean Karlen, she began her writing career in New York in the 1930s writing plays, short stories, and novels. One of her early plays, "For This Relief Much Thanks," was produced by the Works Progress Administration and attracted the attention of Cheryl Crawford, one of the founders of the New York theatre collective The Group Theatre, after which Karlen was enrolled in their school. She was then financially supported by dramatist and playwright Clifford Odets, with a subsidy that enabled her to write full time. Another of Karlen's plays, "The Eleventh Commandment," won the American Theater Play Contest, along with a play by Langston Hughes. Karlen also won a Rockefeller Grant after being recommended by theater historian and critic John Gassner.

Eventually Karlen grew tired of the competitive New York theater world and turned to drawing, painting, and poetry. Her poetry is included in some of her husband David Weiss's published novels as "Preface Poems," and she published poems in such publications as Voices, Yale Poetry Review, and Poetry. Many of Karlen's poems were featured in two volumes, Observations and Insights, published by Amber Beetle Press. She began to combine her drawing, painting, and poetry in what she called "portrait poems," and she created thousands of these over the rest of her life. She had exhibitions of her portrait poems in New York, Los Angeles, and La Jolla, California.

Karlen married novelist and playwright David Weiss on November 25, 1945. They met in New York in the 1940s after someone suggested that Karlen help Weiss with his playwriting. They lived in New York, London, and La Jolla, California and were married for 53 years. Karlen died in La Jolla on June 17, 1998.

The Stymean Karlen Papers date from circa 1900 to 1998 and document the life and work of Stymean Karlen. The collection contains thousands of Karlen's poems and portrait poems in different forms (from marker and pen on 8x11 sheets of typing and computer paper, to large framed pieces on heavy board with ink and watercolors; typed and handwritten; with and without illustration; color and black & white; and standalone works as well as portfolios), poetry notebooks, and correspondence with David Weiss and other family, publishers and agents, and theater colleagues and connections. The majority of the collection is comprised of portrait poems. Most of the portrait poems are undated, but dates have been estimated where possible.

The collection is arranged into two series as follows:

• Series 1: Writing, 1930-1998
• Subseries 1.1: Poems, 1942-1998
• Subseries 1.2: Plays, 1930-1957
• Subseries 1.3: Prose, 1930-1943
• Subseries 1.4: Correspondence and other records, 1937-1990
• Series 2: Personal files, circa 1900-1998