Octavian Brown Correspondence, 1982-1983
Scope and Content of Collection
The collection consists of Moritz's travel diaries and the letters he received from Octavian Brown. Moritz traveled extensively to Europe, where he attended music festivals and performances. The diaries consist largely of typewritten outlines of Moritz's daily activities-including, from the late 1970s, his sexual encounters-on his travels. The letters from Brown form the bulk of the collection. Samuel Potter, aka "Octavian", Brown (1916-1995) was an expatriate American living in Rome, who in the 1970s and early 1980s ran a small bed and breakfast and male bordello, that Moritz frequented, out of his apartment. The letters, written in an engaging, breezy style, detail the trials, tribulations, and pleasures of life in Rome, and are filled with gossip about the lives of his "boys" and his clients, from the unnamed to the famous. In 1982, Brown moved to Santa Barbara, California, where he died in 1995. The miscellaneous materials include a letter on family matters from C. E. Moritz, of Denver, Colorado, a 1985 letter to Los Angeles Times columnist Jack Smith, concerning one of the latter's columns, several typed pages of notes for a "philosophy essay" and an autobiography, and two maps of Rome from a late 19th/early 20th century Baedeker.
Dates
- Creation: 1982-1983
Creator
- From the Collection: Moritz, Ralph G. (Person)
Access
The collection is open to researchers. There are no access restrictions.
Extent
From the Collection: 0.4 Linear Feet
Language of Materials
From the Collection: English
Repository Details
Part of the ONE Archives at the USC Libraries, University of Southern California Repository
909 West Adams Boulevard
Los Angeles California 90007 United States
(213) 821-2771
askone@usc.edu