Jay and Si Lan Chen Leyda papers, 1913-1987 (bulk 1930-1980) | WorldCat.org (original) (raw)

Summary:Series I includes family and childhood materials, early writings, autobiographical notes and clippings, and professional memorabilia. Series II includes correspondence including James Agee, Alfred Barr, Walter Benjamin, Paul Bowles, Luis Buñuel, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Aaron Copland, Joseph Cornell, Mina Curtiss, Walker Evans, Joseph and Charmian Freeman, Helga Greene, Langston Hughes, Joris Ivens, Paul Jarrico, Romana Javitz, Elia Kazan, Carol King, Lincoln Kirstein, Naum Kleiman, Fritz Lang, Julian Levy, Joseph Losey, Albert Maltz, Ivor Montagu, Jack Rau, Man Ray, Satyajit Ray, Abby Rockefeller, Muriel Rukeyser, Georges Sadoul, Josephine Schwarz, Gilbert Seldes, Marie Seton, Ralph Steiner, Lee Strasberg, Thornton Wilder, and Edmund Wilson. There is also a thick MOMA correspondence file, as well as Leyda's correspondence with his family. Series III contains Leyda's clippings, correspondence, film scripts, research notes, and a typescript relating to his book Dianying; an account of films and the film audience in China (1972). Series IV contains writings, research notes, clippings, reviews, and some correspondence relating ot Soviet cinema. There are articles written under his pseudonym James Lincoln for the Moscow News, 1932-36, letters to Eisenstein, notes for his reconstruction of Eisenstein's Que Viva Mexico, film festival and exhibition catalogs, an editing proposal for Potemkin, and an unpublished typescript "Letters from Russia." Series V mainly documents the balance of Leyda's cinema career, and includes correspondence with the Guggenheim Foundation, 1931-42, regarding his fellowship application, scripts for unproduced movies, including World Unity (1940s) and Conquistador (1943), a partial list of film shots for A Bronx Morning, several files of "Germinations," (project proposals), and several typescripts by novelist and poet Ben Maddow. The Dickinson and Melville material in this series includes Leyda's libretto for the opera Bartelby. The Si Lan Chen Leyda papers document her dancing career and personal activities. Series VI contains her FBI file and documents related to her travels. Series VII is Chen's correspondence principally with her family and Jay Leyda. There is also correspondence with Pearl S. Buck and Langston Hughes, and a file relating to immigration issues. Series VIII documents her dance career with programs, flyers, dance notations and drawings, a scrapbook, and radio interview transcripts. Series IX includes the typsecript of her autobiography, Footnote to History (1984), a diary, autobiographical notebooks and unpublished writings