Alexandre Alexeieff and Claire Parker correspondence with Cecile Starr
Overview
Correspondence of animators Alexandre Alexeieff and Claire Parker with their American representative and friend Cecile Starr and promotional material on Alexeieff's animation films.
Dates
- Creation: 1962-1982
Language of Materials
Collection materials are in English, French, and Japanese.
Conditions Governing Access
There are no restrictions on physical access to this material.
Extent
1 linear feet (2 boxes)Correspondence of Alexandre Alexeieff and his wife and collaborator Claire Parker with their American agent and friend Cecile Starr and her family. Matters discussed include: promoting Alexeieff's films in America, including Night on bald mountain and The nose; film and publication rights and payments for his illustrations to Boris Pasternak's Doctor Zhivago and Fyodor Dostoevsky's Brothers Karamazov; discussions of technical aspects of animation; as well as private concerns of both families.
Collection also includes videotapes with copies of Alexeieff's movies, and promotional material on Alexeieff's animation films assembled by Cecile Starr.
Biographical / Historical
Alexandre Alexeieff (1901-1982) was born in Russia, into a diplomat's family. He spent his early childhood in Istanbul. In 1921 he left Russia for France, where he began his career as a designer, book illustrator, and animator. In 1930 he met Claire Parker (1906-1981), an American art student living in Paris. Together they formed a lifelong partnership working on animated films, while Alexeieff also continued working as an illustrator of Russian and Western classics.
Cecile Starr (1921-) is an American film scholar, film maker, and producer. She has worked as a film critic, teacher, lecturer and promoter over a period of five decades. She was married to American film director and screen writer, Aram Boyajian.
Arrangement
Arranged into two series:
- I. Correspondence
- II. Additional material
Immediate Source of Acquisition
2006MT-140. Purchased from Cecile Starr, 35 Strong Street, Burlington, Vermont 05401; received: 2006.
Processing Information
Processed by: Irina Klyagin and Jonathan Gray
- Title
- Alexeieff, Alexandre, 1901-1982. Alexandre Alexeieff and Claire Parker correspondence with Cecile Starr, 1962-1982: Guide.
- Author
- Houghton Library, Harvard College Library
- Description rules
- dacs
- Language of description
- und
- EAD ID
- hou01864
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.
Houghton Library’s Reading Room is free and open to all who wish to use the library’s collections.
Harvard Yard
Harvard University
Cambridge MA 02138 USA
(617) 495-2440
Houghton_Library@harvard.edu