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Rudy Wurlitzer Papers
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Sous-fonds
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Physical description
13.5 cm textual records
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Name of creator
Biographical history
Rudolph “Rudy” Wurlitzer was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1937. He is married to photographer Lynn Davis, and they split their time between homes in New York state and Nova Scotia, Canada. Wurlitzer is an author and screenwriter. His first novel, Nog, was published in 1968 and his most recent, The Drop Edge of Yonder, in 2008. His first screenplay, Glen and Randa, was produced in 1969, and his most recent, Little Buddha, in 1993.
Custodial history
The full custodial history of the sous-fonds is unknown, but the contents were donated to UBC Library RBSC by Rudy Wurlitzer on 24 March 2017. Mr. Wurlitzer, himself a 20th century American author and screenwriter, found the Lowry letters and typescript while collating his own papers for donation to an archives in the United States. He was not able to provide any information on when, how, or why the Lowry materials came to be in his possession. Where they were before entering his custody is also unknown.
Scope and content
Sous-fonds contains typed copies of approximately 100 letters from Malcolm Lowry to various friends, editors, publishers, and translators of his works. Harold Matson, Albert Erskine, and David Markson are frequently recurring addressees. The only incoming letter to Lowry (also a typed copy) is from Arthur Lowry, Malcolm Lowry’s father.
The sous-fonds also includes a typescript of a prose text of uncertain authorship which in part details Lowry’s 1949 stay at a Vancouver hospital with a broken back and ribs. Excerpts of letters are also included in the prose account.
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Arrangement
Contents of the sous-fonds arrived at UBC Library RBSC in three black plastic binders. Two of the binders contained the correspondence now in files 01-01 to 03, and the third contained the entirety of the “What is the history of ideas?” typescript. The “Deletions to Letters of Malcolm Lowry” listing of Lowry letters was originally housed in the inside cover pocket of the “What is the history of ideas?” binder,