Contempo Records, 1930-1934

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Summary

Creator:
Contempo.
Abstract:

"Contempo" was a journal of literature and social commentary published by Milton Abernethy and Anthony Buttitta in Chapel Hill, N.C., from 1931 to 1934.

The collection includes incoming correspondence, typescripts of literary works, clippings of articles, and photographs pertaining to "Contempo." Among the correspondents are Conrad Aiken (one letter, one poem), Sherwood Anderson (four letters), Kay Boyle (three letters, one long poem), James Branch Cabell (one letter), Erskine Caldwell (one letter, one short story), Hart Crane (two letters, one poem), e. e. cummings (one letter), Hilda Doolittle (H.D.) (one long poem), T.S. Eliot (one letter), William Faulkner (two letters, one note), Langston Hughes (3 letters); H.L. Mencken (three letters), Eugene O'Neill (one letter), Ezra Pound (twelve letters, one clipping), Upton Sinclair (ten letters), Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas (two letters), Wallace Stevens (two letters), and William Carlos Williams (seven letters, one article).

Extent:
720 items (1.5 linear feet)
Language:
Materials in English
Library Catalog Link:
View UNC library catalog record for this item

Background

Biographical / historical:

Milton Abernethy, Anthony Buttitta, and three other young men began publishing Contempo in Chapel Hill early in 1931, describing it in their first issue as a review of "ideas and personalities of some significance that demand immediate comment." Combining literature and a progressive political slant (while avoiding the championship of "any particular group or definite order"), Contempo featured poetry, fiction, and literary and social criticism by a variety of writers, including Kay Boyle, Erskine Caldwell, William Faulkner, Langston Hughes, Ezra Pound, and William Carlos Williams.

In mid 1933, Buttitta and Abernethy, Contempo's remaining editors, quarreled and parted ways. Abernethy and his wife Mina continued to edit Contempo until February, 1934, when it ceased publication, apparently for lack of funds.

See "A History and Index of Contempo," by Judith Hay, master's thesis, University of Louisville, 1971. The North Carolina Collection, Wilson Library, UNC-Chapel Hill, holds a copy of this thesis as well as a complete run of Contempo

Scope and content:

This collection consists chiefly of letters from contributors or potential contributors to Contempo, and typescripts of their poetry, fiction, and articles. There is also correspondence of a more routine nature, with booksellers and publishers, and a few clippings, photocopies of articles, and photographs.

[The Contempo Collection in The Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at The University of Texas, Austin, houses "a substantial portion of the correspondence files from the two main editors..and a large and miscellaneous assortment of materials connected with printing the magazine and running the bookstore where Contempo was headquartered - contributors'manuscripts, galley proofs, page proofs, and various bookkeeping records from The Intimate Bookshop," according to the Library Chronicle of The University of Texas at Austin, New Series No. 27.]

Acquisition information:

Received from the Gotham Book Mart, New York, New York, in April 1985.

Processing information:

Processed by: Laura K. O'Keefe, May 1985

Encoded by: ByteManagers Inc., 2008

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.

Access and use

Restrictions to access:

No restrictions. Open for research.

Restrictions to use:

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

No usage restrictions.

Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], in the Contempo Records #4408, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Special Collections Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Location of this collection:
Louis Round Wilson Library
200 South Road
Chapel Hill, NC 27515
Contact:
(919) 962-3765
wilsonlibrary@unc.edu