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Irving Shulman papers

 Collection
Identifier: 0021

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Scope and Content

This collection contains manuscripts and typescripts of Irving Shulman's screenplays, short stories, novels, and biographies of Jean Harlow, Rudolph Valentino and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. Also included in this collection are publisher's galleys for some of his books and various literary periodical publications from the 1930s. Please refer to the Scope and Content notes of individual series for more information.

Dates

  • Creation: 1931 - 1970

Creator

Language of Materials

English

Conditions Governing Access

COLLECTION STORED OFF-SITE. Advance notice required for access.

Conditions Governing Use

The collection contains published materials; researchers are reminded of the copyright restrictions imposed by publishers on reusing their articles and parts of books. It is the responsibility of researchers to acquire permission from publishers when reusing such materials. The copyright to unpublished materials belongs to the heirs of the writers. Permission to publish, quote, or reproduce must be secured from the repository and the copyright holder.

Biographical Note

Irving Shulman was a novelist, screenwriter and biographer of Rudolph Valentino, Jaqueline Kennedy Onassis, and Jean Harlow. He was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Jewish immigrants from Lithuania on May 21, 1913. Shulman received his BA from Ohio University in 1937, his MA from Columbia in 1938, and his Ph.D. from UCLA in 1972. During World War II he worked for the War Department in Washington, D.C. He married Joan Grager in 1938, and they had two daughters.

"The Amboy Dukes", his first novel (and biggest literary success), mined the neighborhoods in which Shulman had grown up and was published in 1947. Shulman moved to Los Angeles in the late 1940s, where he worked as a contract screenwriter and continued to write novels. As a screenwriter, he is best known as the author of the screenplay for the 1955 movie "Rebel Without a Cause". Shulman later adapted the movie's plot for his novel "Children of the Dark". In the 1960s, Shulman wrote biographies of Jean Harlow (1964), Rudolph Valentino (1967), and Jaqueline Kennedy Onassis (1970). Shulman passed away on March 23, 1995.

Extent

19.67 Linear Feet (19 boxes, 1 map case folder)

Abstract

This collection contains the papers of the novelist, screenwriter, and biographer Irving Shulman, who is best known for writing the screenplay for "Rebel Without a Cause". His papers include manuscripts and typescripts of screenplays, short stories, novels, and biographies.

Related Archival Materials

Ohio University's Robert E. and Jean R. Mahn Center for Archives & Special Collections has the Irving Shulman Collection (MSS# 98).

Processing Information

The finding aid for the Irving Shulman papers in ArchivesSpace documents 18 boxes. However, the collection record for the Shulman papers in Alma lists 19 boxes. There may be description missing from this finding aid for one box of material.

Title
Finding Aid of the Irving Shulman papers
Status
Completed
Author
Rebecca Hirsch and Mandeep Condle
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin
Sponsor
The processing of this collection and the creation of this finding aid was funded by the generous support of the National Historic Publications and Records Commission.

Revision Statements

  • 2021 April: Finding aid updated by Bo Doub: created new container records (under "Unprocessed material") using container lists from a collections move managed by Backstage Library Works.

Repository Details

Part of the USC Libraries Special Collections Repository

Contact:
Doheny Memorial Library 206
3550 Trousdale Parkway
Los Angeles California 90089-0189 United States