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Leonard Wibberley papers

 Collection
Identifier: 0172

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Scope and Content

This collection contains typescripts, manuscripts, and galleys for various works written by Leonard Wibberley. It also includes the texts of some of his lectures and articles and some of his business correspondence. Please see the Scope and Content notes of individual series for more information.

Dates

  • Creation: 1953 - 1983

Creator

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 The copyright to unpublished materials belongs to the heirs of the writers.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

Leonard Wibberley was born April 9, 1915, in Dublin, Ireland. He attended schools in Ireland and England and was an apprentice to a London publisher. At sixteen, he became a copy boy at the Sunday Dispatch; during the Depression, he worked as street fiddler, ditch digger, dishwasher, and cook. From 1932-1936, he was a reporter for the London Daily Mirror and assistant London editor for the Malayan Straits Times and the Singapore Free Press; he then became editor of the Trinidad Evening News in the West Indies. Wibberley worked for the Shell Oil Company in Trinidad from 1939-1941. He emigrated to the U.S. in 1943 to work for Walsh Kaiser Shipyards while also serving as cable editor for the Associated Press. He was the American correspondent for the London Evening News and a staff writer for The Los Angeles Times from 1950 until his death of a heart attack on November 22, 1983, in Santa Monica, California.

Wibberley wrote more than one hundred books, including stories for children, historical novels, satires, plays, and mysteries. Many of these were written under the pseudonyms Leonard Holton, Christopher Webb, and Patrick O'Connor. Wibberley is best known for his five political satires The Mouse That Roared, Beware of the Mouse, The Mouse on the Moon, The Mouse on Wall Street, and The Mouse that Saved the West; the first two were made into successful motion pictures.

Extent

19.33 Linear Feet (18 boxes, 2 map case files)

Language of Materials

English

Abstract

This collection contains the papers of the author Leonard Wibberley (1915-1983). Wibberley wrote over 100 books over the course of his career. His papers include manuscripts, galleys, and typescripts for books written by him.

Acquisition

The Leonard Wibberley papers were donated to USC by Leonard Wibberley in the late 1960s, by his heirs in 2002 and by the archives of Shell Aircraft International in 2004.

Title
Finding Aid of the Leonard Wibberley papers
Status
Completed
Author
Rebecca Hirsch
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 (listed under "Unprocessed material" in the finding aid) 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