Ruth Comfort Mitchell collection, approximately 1879-1961, bulk approximately 1930-1949

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Summary

Creators:
Mitchell, Ruth Comfort, 1882-1954
Abstract:
Correspondence, typescripts of articles and speeches, research files, photographs, and ephemera of American author Ruth Comfort Mitchell.
Extent:
2.25 Linear Feet (2 document boxes, 1 flat oversize box)
Language:
English.
Preferred citation:

[identification of item], Ruth Comfort Mitchell collection. Mss 84. Department of Special Resarch Collections, UC Santa Barbara Library, University of California, Santa Barbara.

Background

Scope and content:

The collection contains correspondence, typescripts of articles and speeches, research files, photographs, and ephemera of American author Ruth Comfort Mitchell. Correspondents include William C. Morrow, Robert W. Service, and Wendell Wilkie. Much of the collection relates to Mitchell's research and writing on the migrant question of the late 1930s, after the publication of The Grapes of Wrath, as seen from the perspective of the area farmers and ranchers.

The collection also contains a number of books, including some by Ruth Comfort Mitchell, which have been cataloged separately and which may be searched in the UC Santa Barbara Library online catalog.

Biographical / historical:

Ruth Comfort Mitchell, perhaps best known for her novel Of Human Kindness, which she wrote as a counterpoint to John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath, had a long and successful career as a writer, producing numerous novels, poems, short stories, and one-act plays.

Born on July 21, 1882 in San Francisco, Mitchell spent a good deal of time in Los Gatos, California, where her parents owned a summer home. It was here that her first poem was published in the local newspaper, when she was 14 years old. She pursued a literary career after her marriage to Sanborn Young in 1914, when the couple moved to New York City. Within two years, she had a play opening on Broadway and a published volume of poems, to be followed soon after by her first novel.

The Youngs soon returned to Los Gatos and began building their elaborate Chinese-styled home, which they dubbed Yung See San Fong, on a hilltop ranch. In 1925, Sanborn Young was elected to the California State Senate, where he would serve until 1938, becoming a close friend to President Herbert Hoover. Ruth proved to be a tireless campaigner and was active in a number of conservative organizations, even serving twice as a delegate to the Republican National Convention.

Sanborn Young returned to life as a cattle rancher after retiring from the Senate and, as such, he and his wife were upset by Steinbeck's novel The Grapes of Wrath, which appeared soon after, in 1939. Ruth Comfort Mitchell determined to tell their side of the story, the result being her novel Of Human Kindness, in which a gentleman farmer's family must overcome the tribulations brought by migrant workers, union organizers, liberal academics, and Communists.

Ruth Comfort Mitchell continued to write throughout the 1940s and was an active member of the Christian Science Church of Los Gatos. She died at home on February 17, 1954 of heart failure.

Acquisition information:
Gift of William Wreden, 1966.
Physical location:
Special Research Collections, UC Santa Barbara Library
Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Access and use

Restrictions:

The collection is open for research.

Terms of access:

Copyright has not been assigned to the Department of Special Research Collections, UCSB. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Head of Special Research Collections. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the Department of Special Research Collections as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which also must be obtained.

Preferred citation:

[identification of item], Ruth Comfort Mitchell collection. Mss 84. Department of Special Resarch Collections, UC Santa Barbara Library, University of California, Santa Barbara.

Location of this collection:
UC Santa Barbara Library
Santa Barbara, CA 93106-9010, US
Contact:
(805) 893-3062
special@library.ucsb.edu
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