Call Number:

MSS 0434

Repository:

University of Delaware Library Special Collections

Extent:

.6 linear foot (2 boxes)

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

MSS 0434, John E. Hart collection regarding Albert Halper, Special Collections, University of Delaware Library, Newark, Delaware.

Date:

1962-1988 (inclusive)

Creator:

Hart, John E., 1917-2011

Form:

Letters (correspondence), Research notes, Bibliographies, and Magazines (periodicals)

Abstract:

Correspondence relating to research and publication for Professor John E. Hart's essay "Albert Halper's World of the Thirties" (Twentieth Century Literature, v. 9:4, January 1964), and his book, Albert Halper (1978), part of the Twayne United States Authors Series. The collection contains both original correspondence and other material from Halper, as well as the correspondence Hart conducted with a number of individuals and institutions in connection with his research.

The novelist Albert Halper was born in Chicago in 1904 and died in Poughkeepsie, New York, in 1984. After graduating from high school and working at a number of jobs in Chicago, Halper moved to New York City in 1929 with the goal of becoming a writer. His first published novel,

Union Square, appeared in 1931 and was a Literary Guild selection. Halper followed this novel with a series of books based on his life in Chicago, notably a book of short stories, On the Shore (1934), and the novels, The Foundry (1934), The Chute (1937), Sons of the Fathers (1940), and The Little People (1942). Over the course of his career, Halper published three more novels (Only an Inch from Glory, Atlantic Avenue, The Fourth Horseman of Miami Beach), and two collections of essays and short stories. He also wrote two plays and the memoir, Good-bye, Union Square.

John E. Hart was born in Kansas in 1917. From 1954 until his retirement in 1981, he was professor of English and American Literature at Albion College in Albion, Michigan. Professor Hart's study of the American novelist Floyd Dell was published by Twayne in 1971. His

Albert Halper, also published by Twayne, appeared in 1978.

Biographical information derived from the collection.Hart, John E. "Albert Halper." The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives, Volume 1: 1981 – 1985. Charles Scribner's Sons, 1998. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: The Gale Group 2001. http://www.galenet.com/servlet/BioRC

The John E. Hart Collection regarding Albert Halper consists of correspondence relating to research and publication for Professor Hart's essay "Albert Halper's World of the Thirties" (

Twentieth Century Literature, v. 9:4, January 1964), and his book, Albert Halper (1978), part of the Twayne United States Authors Series. The collection contains both original correspondence and other material from Halper, as well as the correspondence Hart conducted with a number of individuals and institutions in connection with his research.

Hart's correspondence with Halper was conducted between 1962 and 1983. The collection includes a bibliography of Halper's work, compiled and annotated by Halper, as well as signed copies of two Halper stories that appeared in

Boys' Life and a signed copy of Halper's American Scholar essay, "Thoughts on Being Twayned."

Professor Hart's other correspondents included Halper's second wife, Lorna Blaine Halper, several academic libraries, and the Viking Press. The collection contains photocopies of Halper's correspondence (1931 – 1969) with Richard Johns, editor of the literary magazine

Pagany, obtained from the University of Delaware, and photocopies of the correspondence between Halper and the Viking Press (1931 – 1932), related to the publication of Halper's first novel, Union Square (1931). The correspondence between Hart and G.K. Hall, publishers of the Twayne series, related to the publication of Hart's book, is also part of the collection, as is a signed copy of Hart's book, Albert Halper.