Overview
Correspondence and family papers of journalist and author Lewis Gannett, along with compositions and diaries.
Dates
- Creation: 1681-1966
- Creation: Majority of material found within 1900-1960
Language of Materials
Collection materials are in English.
Conditions Governing Access
There are no restrictions on physical access to this material.
Extent
25.5 linear feet (50 boxes)Correspondence, manuscripts, diaries, journals, notebooks, legal and business papers, memorabilia, photos, and other papers, together with Gannett family papers. Includes correspondence of Gannett's grandfather and father, Unitarian clergymen Ezra Stiles Gannett of Boston and William Channing Gannett; 91 letters, 1796-1817, from Gannett's great-grandfather Caleb Gannett to John Mico Gannett, and journals of his grandmother Anna Tilden Gannett. Lewis Gannett's correspondence (including some carbon copies of outgoing letters) reflects his interests in current literature and in political activities such as the American Fund for Public Service. There are many letters from authors of volumes published in Doubleday's Mainstream of America Series, edited by Gannett. Manuscripts include juvenile compositions and early writings reflecting his initial desire to be a naturalist; essays and book reviews; Cream Hill, his book about country life; the Harper Book of Family Verse, which Gannett edited; and an incomplete autobiography.
Biographical / Historical
Gannett was a journalist and author. For many years he wrote the daily book review column for the New York Herald Tribune.
Arrangement
Organized into the following series:
- I. Letters to Lewis Stiles Gannett
- II. Letters from Lewis Stiles Gannett
- III. Other letters
- IV. Compositions
- V. Printed matter, clippings, and memorabilia
- VI. Other papers
- VII. Gannett family papers
- A. Letters to Ezra Stiles Gannett
- B. Letters from Ezra Stiles Gannett
- C. Letters to William Channing Gannett
- D. Other family letters
- E. Other family papers
Please note that item number 81 was inadvertently omitted from this finding aid.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
*71M-111. Deposited by Mrs. Lewis Gannett, Cream Hill Road, West Cornwall, Connecticut 06796; received: 1972 April 10; gift: 1973 September 21 - 1975.
- Title
- Gannett, Lewis, 1891-1966. Lewis Gannett papers: Guide.
- Author
- Houghton Library, Harvard College Library
- Language of description
- und
- EAD ID
- hou00670
Repository Details
Part of the Houghton Library Repository
Houghton Library is Harvard College's principal repository for rare books and manuscripts, archives, and more. Houghton Library's collections represent the scope of human experience from ancient Egypt to twenty-first century Cambridge. With strengths primarily in North American and European history, literature, and culture, collections range in media from printed books and handwritten manuscripts to maps, drawings and paintings, prints, posters, photographs, film and audio recordings, and digital media, as well as costumes, theater props, and a wide range of other objects. Houghton Library has historically focused on collecting the written record of European and Eurocentric North American culture, yet it holds a large and diverse number of primary sources valuable for research on the languages, culture and history of indigenous peoples of the Americas, Africa, Asia and Oceania.
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