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 James Sandoe Correspondence with Mystery Writers, #12004-z, Rare Book Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Transfer 1968

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: Rare Book Literary and Historical Papers Staff

Encoded by: Noah Huffman, December 2007

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.

• Authors, American--Correspondence.
• Cross, Amanda, 1926-2003.
• Detective and mystery stories, American--Competitions.
• Detective and mystery stories, American--Women authors.
• Detective and mystery stories, American.
• Sandoe, James.
• Waugh, Hillary.
• Women authors, American--Correspondence.

James Sandoe received his B.A. from Stanford, M.A. from Columbia, and certificate in librarianship from the University of California. He taught speech and drama at the University of Colorado at Boulder, 1968-1969. As a critic specializing in mystery stories, he wrote many reviews, assays, and introductions, including a section in Howard Haycroft's The Art of the Mystery Story (1974).

The collection includes scattered correspondence between James Sandoe and mystery writers, including Hillary Waugh and Amanda Cross, concerning their lives, especially their writings, and the selection of the best mystery stories of 1967.

Included are three undated notes from Dorothy Davis and Jennie/Elaine Palmer. Scattered items, 1963-1965, include eight letter to or from Lillian (de la Torre) Bueno McCure, E.T. (Ned) Guymon Jr., Doris Bell (Collier) Ball (Josephine Ball), William Anthony Parker White (Anthony Boucher), and Dorothy B. Hughes. There are four letters March-April 1967 to and from Amanda Cross.

Correspondence December 1967-May 1968 relates to Sandoe's serving on the Mystery Writers' Association committee to select the best mystery and the best first mystery by an American published in 1967. Hillary Waugh was chair of the committee, and most of the correspondence is with him and includes duplicated letters containing the opinions of all of committee members, Richard Martin Stern among them.

In a May 1968 letter, Sandoe discussed sending these letters to Mrs. E.A. Cameron.