Restrictions to Access

No restrictions. Open for research.

Copyright Notice

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], in the Burton Emmett Papers, #3418, Rare Book Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Alternate Form of Material

Microfilm copy available of original Sherwood Anderson letters in this collection.

Additional Descriptive Resources

A copy of the original finding aid for this collection is filed in folder 1a.

Sensitive Materials Statement

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. § 132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assumes no responsibility.

Processed by: SHC Staff

Encoded by: Noah Huffman, December 2007

Updated by: Kathryn Michaelis, March 2011; Nancy Kaiser, December 2021

This collection was processed with support from the sponsorship of a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Office of Preservation, Washington, D.C., 1990-1993.

The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.

Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.

• American Institute of Graphic Arts.
• Anderson, Sherwood, 1876-1941--Correspondence.
• Artists--United States--History--20th century.
• Beardsley, Aubrey, 1872-1898--Correspondence.
• Cather, Willa, 1873-1947--Correspondence.
• Collectors and collecting--New York (State)--New York.
• Crane, Stephen, 1871-1900--Manuscripts.
• Dramatists, American--20th century--Correspondence.
• Dreiser, Theodore, 1871-1945--Correspondence.
• Ely, Lewis B.
• Emmett, Burton, 1871-1935.
• Hemingway, Ernest, 1899-1961.
• Jeffers, Robinson, 1887-1962--Correspondence.
• Kent, Rockwell, 1882-1971--Correspondence.
• Manuscripts--Collectors and collecting--New York (State)--New York.
• Morley, Christopher, 1890-1957--Correspondence.
• Northwestern University (Evanston, Ill.)--History.
• Novelists, American--20th century--Correspondence.
• O'Neill, Eugene, 1888-1953--Correspondence.
• Parrish, Maxfield, 1870-1966--Correspondence.
• Poets, American--20th century--Correspondence.
• Poets, English--20th century--Correspondence.
• Pound, Ezra, 1885-1972--Correspondence.
• Robinson, Edwin Arlington, 1869-1935--Correspondence.
• Stevenson, Robert Louis, 1850-1894--Correspondence.
• Tarkington, Booth, 1869-1946--Correspondence.
• Walsh, Ernest, 1895-1926.
• Wilder, Thornton, 1897-1975--Correspondence.
• Wister, Owen, 1860-1938--Correspondence.

Burton Emmett was an advertising copywriter and executive in New York City. He collected woodcuts, prints, engravings, and literary manuscripts, and was president of the American Institute of Graphic Arts in the 1920s.

The collection includes correspondence concerning Emmett's collecting activities and his work with the American Institute of Graphic Arts; handwritten and typed versions of poems, plays, and other works by various authors; and miscellaneous other items. Correspondence includes about fifty letters, 1926-1935 and undated, to Emmett from his close friend, Sherwood Anderson, and one or two letters from Robert Louis Stevenson, Ernest Hemingway, Eugene O'Neill, Ezra Pound, Booth Tarkington, Edwin Arlington Robinson, Willa Cather, Robinson Jeffers, Owen Wister, Theodore Dreiser, Christopher Morley, Thornton Wilder, Maxfield Parrish, and Rockwell Kent.

Works by authors include a playscript each by Thornton Wilder and Lewis Ely, two poems by Robinson Jeffers, an untitled poem beginning "In the night..." by Stephen Crane, a speech by Sherwood Anderson, and stories and a poem by Christopher Morley. Other items include typed transcriptions of eight letters, 1925 and undated, from Ernest Hemingway to Ernest Walsh; a photograph purportedly picturing Aubrey Beardsley; two reels of microfilm of drafts of works by Sherwood Anderson and other items relating to Anderson, originals of which were apparently transferred in 1954 or 1955 from the University of North Carolina to the Newberry Library, Chicago; and a scrapbook of Northwestern University memorabilia, 1888-1890, compiled by Emmett.

• Photographs (PF-3418/1)
• Oversize image (OP-P-3418/1)
• Extra-oversize papers (XOP-3418/1-2)
• Microfilm (M-3418/3)