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Kotker, Zane

Zane and Norman Kotker Papers

1956-2016
54 boxes 27 linear feet
Call no.: MS 948
Finding aid
Depiction of Zane Kotker, photo taken by her husband Norman, ca. 1972
Zane Kotker, photo taken by her husband Norman, ca. 1972

The writer Zane Kotker was born Mary Zane Hickcox in Southbury, Connecticut, in 1934. After graduating from Middlebury College (1956), Kotker led a busy life working short stints in and out of Manhattan as a secretary, researcher, writer, teacher, and editor, collaborating on the side with a friend to publish a little magazine while earning a master’s degree in history from Columbia University. In 1965, she married a fellow writer, Norman Kotker, and while raising their two children, David (born 1967) and Ariel (1969), the couple began writing in earnest. An editor at Horizon Books, Norman used his weekends to write his first book, The Holy Land in the Time of Jesus (1967), following up with two novels, Miss Rhode Island (1978) and Learning About God (1988). A stay-at-home, free-lancing mother, Zane used her “free” time for writing as well, completing her first novel by taking advantage of a babysitter on Tuesday and Friday mornings, and going on to publish five other novels, numerous short stories, and a volume of poetry. Norman Kotker died in 1999 years after first being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Zane Kotker continues to write and publish; her novella Goodnight Ladies was released in 2016.

The records of a highly productive literary couple, the Zane and Norman Kotker Papers contain manuscript drafts, notes, research materials, correspondence, and reviews. Reflecting both the co-operation and the competition connecting married writers, the collection offers insight issues ranging from the financial challenges of supporting the writing careers of two novelists to the challenges of a woman attempting to define herself professionally during the early 1970s and the publishing scene in New York City in the 1970s through 1990s. The collection also include materials related to the founding of the Well Spouse Association–Zane was a founding member of the organization created to provide a support system for individuals caring for chronically ill and/or disabled spouses–including her nonfiction writing published under the name Maggie Strong.

Gift of Zane Kotker, Sept. 2016

Subjects

Judaism and cultureJudaism--HistoryMotherhood--FictionMultiple sclerosis--PatientsReligion--FictionWell Spouse AssociationWomen writers

Contributors

Kotker, NormanKotker, Zane
Related collections: Arts & literature, Literature & language, Prose writing, Women
Leff, David K.

David K. Leff Papers

1955-2018 Bulk: 1980-2018
11 boxes 10.75 linear feet
Call no.: MS 907
Finding aid
Depiction of David K. Leff
David K. Leff

A writer, poet, and environmental and historic preservation advocate, David K. Leff worked for many years as an agricultural and environmental policy adviser to the Connecticut legislature and as deputy commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). A graduate of UMass Amherst (BA 1975) and the University of Connecticut School of Law (1978), Leff began writing and lecturing from early in his career and in addition to publishing dozens of magazine articles and serving as a regular contributor to the Hartford Courant, he has written nonfiction, including The Last Undiscovered Place (2004), Deep Travel: In Thoreau’s Wake on the Concord and Merrimack (2009), Hidden in Plain Sight (2012), Maple Sugaring (2015), Canoeing Maine’s Legendary Allagash (2016), and Doppelganger: A Memoir of Mirrored Selves (2020); poetry, including The Price of Water (2008), Depth of Field (2010), Tinker’s Damn (2013), The Breach: Voices Haunting a New England Mill Town (2019), and The Blue Marble Gazetteer (2022); and a novel in verse, Finding the Last Hungry Heart (2014). Leff was active as a lecturer and instructor on various topics, ranging from the environment to local history and writing. In 2016, he was named the first Poet-in-Residence of the New England Trail. He passed away in 2022 at the age of 67.

In addition to containing a nearly comprehensive collection of the published writings of David Leff, the collection includes selected correspondence, unpublished poetry and short stories, a draft of an unpublished novel (Hungry Heart), talks, interviews, notes, newsclippings, more than 400 pages of interviews with sugarmakers that Leff conducted for his book on maple sugaring, and selected materials relating to Leff’s work with the DEP in Connecticut and other endeavors. The collection also includes several thousand photographs (mostly digital) taken by Leff and used to illustrate his publications and lectures. Leff’s extensive daily journals are closed for five years after his death.

Gift of David K. Leff, 2016

Subjects

Maple sugar industry--ConnecticutNewspaper columnists--ConnecticutPoets--Connecticut

Types of material

Photographs
Related collections: Connecticut, Conservationism, Environment, Literature & language, Poetry, Prose writing
Langland, Joseph

Joseph Langland Papers

1939-2007
6 boxes 5.5 linear feet
Call no.: FS 181
Digital (+)
Finding aid
Joseph Langland with his wife, Judith
Joseph Langland with his wife, Judith

The poet Joseph Langland was raised on the family farm in northeastern Iowa, and earned both a BA (1940) and MA (1941) from the famed writing program at the University of Iowa, before being inducted into the military service during the Second World War. While still in Germany serving with the Allied military government, Langland had printed for his family his first book of poetry, a chapbook titled For Harold (1945), for his younger brother who had been killed in action in the Philippines. Returning home, he taught part-time at Iowa, then joined the faculty at the University of Wyoming (1948-1959), and finally UMass Amherst. Part of a wave of energetic young writers and scholars to arrive on campus, Langland became active in the early years of the Massachusetts Review and became founder the university’s MFA Program for Poets and Writers. A prolific writer, he contributed regularly to literary magazines and was author of The Green Town (1956), The Wheel of Summer (1963), The Sacrifice Poems (1975), Any Body’s Song (1980), and Selected Poems (1991). Langland was recipient of the National Council of the Arts Award, the Melville Cane Award, the Amy Lowell Traveling Poetry Fellowship, and a Ford Faculty Fellowship, among other honors. After his retirement from UMass in 1979, he served as emeritus until his death in 2007.

The Langland Papers include a substantial number of original manuscripts of poetry, many unpublished, correspondence with major poets, and an extensive run of Langland’s letters written home to his wife and family during the war. Other Langland Papers are housed at Luther College in Iowa.

Gift of Paul Langland and Elizabeth Langland, 2016

Subjects

Poets--MassachusettsUniversity of Massachusetts Amherst--FacultyUniversity of Massachusetts Amherst. Department of EnglishWorld War, 1939-1945

Types of material

DiariesLetters (Correspondence)ManuscriptsPhotographs
Restrictions: Copyright retained by the family
Related collections: Literature & language, Poetry, UMass (1947- ), UMass faculty, World War II
Battey, Elizabeth

Elizabeth Battey Papers

1900-1914
13 items 0.25 linear feet
Call no.: MS 947
Digital
Finding aid

Elizabeth Battey served as a Housekeeper for aristocratic English families during the Victorian and Edwardian eras. At the turn of the century, she was employed by Frances Evelyn Greville the Countess of Warwick, and former mistress of the Price of Wales, to oversee the female staff at Warwick Castle, and from 1904 until at least 1914, she was Housekeeper under Richard George Penn Curzon, the 4th Earl Howe, at his estates Godshall and the Woodlands.

The letters of Elizabeth Battey offer insight into the daily life of a member of the upper staff at an aristocratic Edwardian estate, revealing an acute class sensibility and attention to the duties of a woman of her station. The letters are filled with information about the estates on which Battey worked, her famous employers the Countess of Warwick and Earl Howe, and the social milieu she witnessed at a servant’s distance.

Gift of I. Eliot Wentworth, Oct. 2016

Subjects

Aristocracy (Social class)--Great BritainGopsall Estate (England)Housekeepers--Great BritainHowe, Francis Richard Henry Penn Curzon, Earl, 1884-1964Howe, Richard George Penn Curzon, EarlWarwick (England)--Description and travelWarwick Castle (Warwick, England)Warwick, Frances Evelyn Maynard Greville, Countess of, 1861-1938

Contributors

McCulloch, Elizabeth E.
Related collections: Europe, Social change
Mayo, Anna

Anna Mayo Papers

1970-2015
2 boxes 2 linear feet
Call no.: MS 945
Depiction of John Gofman and Anna Mayo, 1970s<br />Photo by Lionel Delevingne
John Gofman and Anna Mayo, 1970s
Photo by Lionel Delevingne

Beginning in 1969, the New York-based journalist Anna Mayo wrote a column, “Geiger Counter,” for the Village Voice, that became a sounding board for the antinuclear movement of the 1970s. With roots in community resistance to Columbia University’s plans to install a Triga-type reactor in the middle of New York City, Mayo covered the “nuclear horror stories that the New York Times neglected,” as she later wrote, including Three Mile Island and Chernobyl. A change in ownership at the Voice and ongoing pressure from the nuclear industry led to her being forced out in 1989, although it did not end her commitment to the cause. She contributed to publications such as the Texas Observer, Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, Kursbach, and Liberation (Paris) until the time of her death in March 2016.

The Mayo Papers are an assemblage of writing, research notes, and and some correspondence documenting Anna Mayo’s career as an antinculear journalist. The files include information on major figures in the antinuclear movement, including John Gofman and Ernest Sternglass, and include a special emphasis on the accident at Three Mile Island.

Gift of Meg Mayo, 2016

Subjects

Antinuclear movement--New York (State)Three Mile Island Nuclear Power Plant (Pa.)
Related collections: Antinuclear, Environment, Journalism
Kraner, Doug

Doug Kraner Collection

1978-2014
3 boxes, 7 tubes 4 linear feet
Call no.: MS 942
Depiction of Doug Kraner (right)<br />Photo By <a href='http://www.mylesaronowitz.com/'>Myles Aronowitz</a>
Doug Kraner (right)
Photo By Myles Aronowitz

With an MFA in theater from UMass Amherst (1979), Doug Kraner built a career of thirty five years that grew from scenic design for the stage into production design for feature films and television. After his time in Amherst, Kraner taught at SUNY Stonybrook and worked on and off-Broadway, but by 1981, he moved to Hollywood and began a film career as set decorator for My Dinner With Andre (1981). Among dozens of credits as art director or production designer, Kraner worked on commercially successful films such as Uncle Buck, Lean on Me, Sleeping with the Enemy (which was the start of a long and productive working relationship with the director Danny Cannon), Extreme Measures, and I Still Know What You Did Last Summer. He received an Emmy nomination in 1983 for Little Gloria… Happy at Last, and in his work on the television show Gotham in 2014-2015 earned both Emmy and Art Directors Guild Award nominations. After a lengthy struggle with cancer, Kraner died on April 4, 2016.

Organized project by project, the Kraner collection includes a cross-section of work from a production designer in the film and television industries from the 1980s to 2010s. Although the depth of coverage and contents vary from film to film, the files may contain anything from rough concept sketches to finished designs, photographs of three-dimensional models, and schematics for the construction of sets, and in the aggregate, the work documents the transition from paper-based to purely digital production techniques. Kraner retained a small number of sketches from his time as a graduate student at UMass Amherst, two sketchbooks, and a portfolio of his work for film.

Gift of Ron Duby, Sept. 2016
Related collections: Film & video, Media, UMass alumni
Benedek, Tom

Tom Benedek Collection

1967-1973
3 boxes 1.5 linear feet
Call no.: PH 073
Digital (+)
Depiction of Passengers on a plane, ca.1973
Passengers on a plane, ca.1973

A screenwriter and visual artist, Tom Benedek majored in film as an undergraduate at UMass Amherst, earning the distinction of becoming the first graduate of the Bachelor’s Degree with Individual Concentration program in 1971. From early in his college career, Benedek worked as a photographer the newspaper, the Collegian, while studying with faculty such as Jerome Liebling (at Hampshire College) and Jerrold Maddox (at Amherst), and he spent his junior year in Paris studying at the Ecole du Louvre and l’Institut de Formation Cinematographique. In his career in Hollywood, he has written screenplays for the movies Cocoon, Zeus and Roxanne, and The Adventures of Pinocchio and worked with Robert Zemeckis, Lawrence Kasdan, Ron Howard, Martin Scorsese, Sydney Pollack, Richard Rush, and Harold Ramis, among many others. He is a member of the Writers Branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and teaches screenwriting at the University of Southern California and the University of Michigan.

The hundreds of images in the Benedek Collection document the development of a talented photographer. While some of the images stem from his work for the Collegian, most were taken on his own around campus and beyond, including trips to Boston and New Orleans, and his year studying abroad in Paris following shortly after the events of 1968. The collection consists entirely of 35mm black and white negatives and color slides.

Gift of Tom Benedek, 2016

Subjects

Amherst (Mass.)--PhotographsBoston (Mass.)--PhotographsNew Orleans (La.)--PhotographsParis (France)--PhotographsUniversity of Massachusetts Amherst--Photographs

Types of material

Photographs
Related collections: Photographs, UMass (1947- ), UMass students
American History Workshop

American History Workshop Records

1980-2016
42 boxes 63 linear feet
Call no.: MS 922
Finding aid

Temporarily stored offsite; contact SCUA to request materials from this collection.

Founded by Richard Rabinowitz in 1980, American History Workshop is a consortium of historians, designers, and filmmakers who promote public understanding of history through innovative exhibition and interpretation. Collaborating with a national roster of clients, the AHW provides consultation and assistance in developing, designing, and installing exhibitions that convey current historical scholarship and pedagogical practice for the public. Their exhibits have explored a wide array of critical themes in American history, including slavery, civil rights, and social justice; Constitutional and political history; immigration; urbanization; and labor history. In recent years, they have expanded their operations to include services such as audience analysis, media production, fund raising assistance, and organizational development.

The records of the American History Workshop document over three decades of work by one of the premier firms in historical exhibition and interpretation. The collection contains detailed records of nearly 600 projects prepared in collaboration with organizations ranging from the New-York Historical Society and Arizona Historical Society to the Smithsonian, the Lower East Side Tenement Museum, and the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center.

Gift of Richard Rabinowitz, 2016

Subjects

ExhibitionsPublic history

Contributors

Rabinowitz, RichardSinger, Michael
Related collections: African American, Arts & literature
Amelia Earhart’s Underground Flying Society

Amelia Earhart’s Underground Flying Society Records

1986-2000
1 box 0.2 linear feet
Call no.: MS 940
Digital (+)
Finding aid
logo
Amelia Earhart’s Underground Flying Society logo

Amelia Earhart’s Underground Flying Society, (a.k.a. the Amelia’s) was a lesbian social club based out of Lebanon, N.H., serving the Upper Valley area of Vermont and New Hampshire, and beyond. Reachable via an unnamed post-office box, the club began in 1979 and provided members not only with much sought after social, leisure, and entertainment opportunities, but also a unique community of peers for discussion and activities around political, educational, health, and legal issues of importance to women and lesbians. Like their famous namesake, the Amelia’s did not shy away from risks in supporting women, the feminist movement, or actions promoting and educating about lesbians. The group often overlapped with feminist and lesbian print shop and publishing company, New Victoria Press, and the Amelia’s often used the New Vic building for their meetings.

The Amelia Earhart’s Underground Flying Society Records consist of over 25 issues of the “Amelia’s Newsletter” from 1986-2000; two clippings covering news related to the group, including the repeated vandalization of their “Upper Valley Lesbians” Adopt-A-Highway Program sign; a 1994 audiocassette of interviews for an oral history of the Amelia’s; and a VHS tape of a community event held in 2003 to reflect on the women’s movement in the Upper Valley in the 1970s and 1980s. The newsletter offers detailed documentation of the group and their concerns, including calendars of their social gatherings and other local, regional, and national events of interest, and recaps of relevant news to the lesbian community including updates about politics, legal issues, civil rights and benefits, marriage, discrimination cases, women’s health, education and school issues, and lesbian focused social and entertainment events.

Subjects

Feminism--New England--HistoryLesbian community--New EnglandLesbian community--New HampshireLesbian community--Vermont

Contributors

Dingman, Beth

Types of material

AudiocassettesNewslettersVHS
Related collections: LGBTQ, New Hampshire, Oral history, Vermont, Women, Women & feminism
Lamb, Charles, 1775-1834

Rocco and Barbara Verrilli Collection of Charles Lamb

1741-1932 Bulk: 1798-1834
1 box, 79 volumes 13 linear feet
Call no.: MS 939
Digital
Finding aid
Depiction of Charles Lamb
Charles Lamb

A poet, critic, and essayist, and close friend of Coleridge and Wordsworth, Charles Lamb was a popular figure in literary circles in late Georgian Britain. Born in London in 1775, Lamb began working in the accounting office of the British East India Company at the age of seventeen. Despite struggling with mental illness in his family, he built a reputation as a writer. With an elegant, eccentric, and somewhat antiquated style, he became known first for his poetry, but soon gained notice for prose and criticism. Written with his sister Mary, Tales from Shakespeare (1808) achieved notable success, however Lamb’s fame rests primarily on the essays he wrote during the 1820s under the pseudonym Elia. Lamb died from erysipelas on Dec. 29, 1833.

From the 1960s through 2010s, Rocco and Barbara Verrilli built this extensive collection of first and early editions of Charles Lamb’s writing. Among the volumes they acquired are Lamb’s personal copy of his first publication, Poems on Various Subjects; a rare copy of his first book for children King and Queen of Hearts (1806); and a presentation copy of his best known work, Elia (1823). The twenty-five manuscript items in the collection are particularly noteworthy. Displaying a characteristic combination of charm, wit, and insight, these include a long letter to Robert Southey discussing poetry; humorous letters to his admirer John B. Dibdin; an acrostic by Lamb on the name of Sarah Thomas; and two particularly fine letters to the poet Edward Dyer, including an eye-witness account of the agricultural rebellion known as the Swing Riots.

Gift of Barbara and Rocco Verrilli, 2016

Subjects

Authors, English--19th centuryPoets--Great Britain

Contributors

Verrilli, BarbaraVerrilli, Rocco
Related collections: Books and book history, Europe, Poetry, Prose writing
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