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Finding Aid for the Bob Brown papers, 1844-1960
723
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Title: Bob Brown papers,
Date (inclusive): 1844-1960
Collection number: 723
Creator: Brown, Bob, 1886-1959
Extent:
112 boxes (56 linear ft.)
1 flat box
Abstract: Bob Brown (1886-1959) was a writer, editor, publisher, and traveler. The collection consists of personal papers, manuscripts
(including examples of Brown's visual/conceptual writings), publications, correspondence, photographs, cookbooks and other
gastronomic-related items, clippings, and miscellaneous ephemera.
Language: Finding aid is written in English
Repository:
University of California, Los Angeles. Library. Department of Special Collections.
Los Angeles, California 90095-1575
Physical location: Stored off-site at SRLF. Advance notice is required for access to the collection. Please contact the UCLA Library, Department
of Special Collections Reference Desk for paging information.
COLLECTION STORED OFF-SITE AT SRLF: Open for research. Advance notice required for access. Contact the UCLA Library, Department
of Special Collections Reference Desk for paging information.
Restrictions on Use and Reproduction
Property rights to the physical object belong to the UCLA Library,
Department of Special Collections. Literary rights, including copyright,
are retained by the creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of
the researcher to determine who holds the copyright and pursue the
copyright owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC
Regents do not hold the copyright.
Provenance/Source of Acquisition
Gift of Eleanor Parker Brown, 1961.
[Identification of item], Bob Brown Papers (Collection Number 723). Department of Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research
Library, UCLA.
The collection was partially processed by Simon Elliott in 2002. Nathan Brown completed the processing of the collection in
the Center for Primary Research and Training (CFPRT), with assistance from Elizabeth Sheehan, Winter 2007.
Robert Carlton Brown (1886-1959) was a writer, editor, publisher, and traveler. From 1908 to 1917, he wrote poetry and prose
for numerous magazines and newspapers in New York City, publishing two pulp novels,
What Happened to Mary and
The Remarkable Adventures of Christopher Poe (1913), and one volume of poetry,
My Marjonary (1916).
During 1918, he traveled extensively in Mexico and Central America, writing for the U.S. Committee of Public Information in
Santiago de Chile. In 1919, he moved with his wife, Rose Brown, to Rio de Janeiro, where they founded Brazilian American,
a weekly magazine that ran until 1929. With Brown's mother, Cora, the Browns also established magazines in Mexico City and
London:
Mexican American (1924-1929) and
British American (1926-1929).
Following the stock market crash of 1929, the Browns retired from publishing and traveled through Asia and Europe, settling
in France from 1929-1933. Brown became involved in the expatriate literary community in Paris, publishing several volumes
of poetry, including
Globe Gliding (1930),
Gems (1931),
Words (1931), and
Demonics (1931), as well as
1450-1950 (1929), a book of visual poetry. While in France, Brown also made plans toward, and wrote a manifesto for, the development
of a "reading machine" involving the magnified projection of miniaturized type printed on movable spools of tape. Arguing
that such a device would enable literature to compete with cinema in a visual age, Brown published a book of "Readies"---poems
by Gertrude Stein, Fillipo Marinetti, William Carlos Williams, Ezra Pound, and others, typeset in a manner appropriate to
operation of his projected reading machine. Although Brown's reading machine was never developed, his papers include letters
and papers pertaining to its projected design and technical specifications, as well as a collection of his own published and
unpublished visual and conceptual writing.
In 1933, Brown returned to New York. In the 1930s, he wrote a series of international cookbooks in collaboration with Rose
and Cora Brown. He also lived in cooperative colonies in Arkansas and Louisiana, visited the USSR, and wrote a book,
Can We Co-Operate (1940), regarding the parameters of a viable American socialism. In 1941, he and Rose returned to South America. While traveling
down the Amazon they amassed a substantial collection of art and cultural artifacts and collaborated on a book,
Amazing Amazon (1942). The Browns eventually reestablished residence in Rio de Janeiro, where they lived until Rose Brown's death in 1952.
Following his wife's death, Bob Brown returned to New York, where he married Eleanor Parker in 1953. Brown continued to write
and ran a shop called Bob Brown's Books in Greenwich Village until his death in 1959. Shortly after Brown's death, a new edition
of 1450-1950 was published by Jonathan Williams's Jargon/Corinth Press.
This collection documents the activities of Bob Brown (1886-1959)--writer, editor, publisher, and traveler. The collection
documents various aspects of his personal and professional life and consists of personal papers, manuscripts (including examples
of Brown's visual/conceptual writings), publications, correspondence, photographs, cookbooks and other gastronomic-related
items, clippings, and miscellaneous ephemera.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.
Brown, Bob, 1886-1959--Archives.
Authors, American--20th century--Archival resources.
Publishers and publishing--Archival resources.