Collection context
Summary
- Abstract:
- This collection includes Dorothy and Howard Baker's correspondence, written works, academic and personal material mostly from 1918 to 1990. Dorothy Baker was a novelist who published Young Man with a Horn, Trio, and Cassandra at the Wedding among others. Howard Baker, her husband, was a poet, literary critic, and professor who she collaborated with to produce plays and screenplays. The Bakers resided in Berkeley, Porterville, and Terra Bella, California.
- Extent:
- 30 Linear Feet
- Language:
- English .
- Preferred citation:
-
[Identification of item], The papers of Dorothy and Howard Baker (M0903). Dept. of Special Collections and University Archives, Stanford Libraries, Stanford, Calif.
Background
- Scope and content:
-
Series 1 contains both professional and personal correspondence of Dorothy and Howard Baker. Professional correspondence includes letters to and from publishers, literary agencies, magazines, film studios, academic colleagues and universities, fellow writers and poets. Some material from individuals, such as Paul Brooks, Radcliffe and Eileen Squires, and Lucile Sullivan, contain some personal letters but are mostly professional. Personal correspondence consists of letters to and from family and friends, and letters to each other.
Series 2 covers the written works of Dorothy and Howard Baker, including play and screenplay scripts, essays, novels, short stories, poems, reviews and clippings, and many drafts. Play and Screenplay Scripts mostly consist of scripts produced by Dorothy and Howard Baker together, such as The Ninth Day, Trio, and Sparrow and the Characters. Essays and Poems are all mostly by Howard Baker. Reviews include newspaper clippings and reviews of the Bakers' work as well as reviews written by them analyzing specific works of other writers.
Series 3 includes Howard Baker's research and reference notes, copies of scholarly texts, newspaper clippings, mathematical drawings, and photos he took from his trips to Greece. A majority of the research is from his interest in Greek subjects which later became essays. Teaching material includes documents and notes produced from the teaching positions of Dorothy and Howard Baker whereas their school papers consist of yearbooks, class notes, essay and thesis papers, college club material, and some school correspondence.
Series 4 contains personal and miscellaneous material. Personal items include family material, marriage certificates and related items, medical correspondence, royalty statements, travel and tour material, personal photos and more. Also, notable items are Dorothy Baker's journal entries, oral history interview transcript, and her donation letter to the University of California, Berkeley Bancroft Library. Miscellaneous material covers material produced from Howard Baker's farming activities, his invented card game called Musical Rummy, Dorothy Baker's speeches, and more.
- Biographical / historical:
-
Dorothy Baker was born Dorothy Alice Dodds in Missoula, Montana, to Raymond and Alice Dodds on April 21, 1907. She was raised in California and initially attended UCLA, transferred to Whittier College, transferred back to UCLA, and graduated in 1929. She met Howard Baker at Whittier College and married him in France in August 1930. She received a Bachelor of Education degree at Occidental College in 1930 and a Master's degree at the University of California in 1933. She taught at Williams High School in Oakland, California, from 1931 to 1934. She won the Houghton Mifflin Fellowship for creative writing in 1935, thus able to publish Young Man with a Horn in 1938 which was adapted to film later on. She also won a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1942 for fiction. Her published novels include Young Man with a Horn, Trio, Our Gifted Son, and Cassandra at the Wedding. Trio is known for depicting a lesbian relationship and its adaptation to the stage was halted in 1945. Dorothy Baker also wrote play and screenplay scripts alongside Howard Baker and some performed at The Barn Theater in Porterville, California. She died of cancer on June 17, 1968.
Howard Wilson Baker Jr. was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on April 5, 1905 to Howard W. Baker Sr. and Bertha Stavely Baker. He attended Whittier College where he met Dorothy Baker and graduated in 1927. He received his Master's degree at Stanford University in 1929, attended the Sorbonne in Paris, from 1929 to 1931. In France, he contributed to The Gyroscope alongside Yvor Winters, Janet Lewis, Caroline Gordon, and Katherine Anne Porter. He published his first novel, Orange Valley, in 1931 with the help of Ford Madox Ford. He later earned his PhD in Berkeley, California, in 1937. Howard Baker was an English professor at Harvard University from 1937 to 1943, UC Berkeley from 1958 to 1959, and UC Davis from 1963 to 1966. He also won a Guggenheim Fellowship for poetry in 1944. He published Induction to Tragedy, A Letter from the Country and Other Poems, and Ode to the Sea and Other Poems. Howard was very involved in farming as he and Dorothy operated a citrus farm in Terra Bella, California, where they raised their two daughters, Ellen and Joan. After Dorothy's passing, Howard remarried Virginia DeCamp Beattie in 1969 and died of cancer in 1990.
- Acquisition information:
- This collection was purchased by Stanford University, Special Collections in January 1997.
- Physical location:
- Special Collections and University Archives materials are stored offsite and must be paged 36 hours in advance.
- Rules or conventions:
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Indexed terms
- Subjects:
- American literature -- 20th century
American literature--Women authors
Dramatists, American
English essays--20th century
Jazz in literature
Lesbians--Fiction
Lesbians in literature
Novelists, American
Novelists, American--20th century--Correspondence
Poets, American
Poets, American -- 20th century
Poets, American--20th century--Correspondence
Women authors -- San Francisco Bay Area (Calif).
Women dramatists, American
Women novelists, American
Access and use
- Restrictions:
-
Open for research. Note that material must be requested at least 36 hours in advance of intended use. Audiovisual materials are not available in original format, and must be reformatted to a digital use copy.
- Terms of access:
-
While Special Collections is the owner of the physical and digital items, permission to examine collection materials is not an authorization to publish. These materials are made available for use in research, teaching, and private study. Any transmission or reproduction beyond that allowed by fair use requires permission from the owners of rights, heir(s) or assigns.
- Preferred citation:
-
[Identification of item], The papers of Dorothy and Howard Baker (M0903). Dept. of Special Collections and University Archives, Stanford Libraries, Stanford, Calif.
- Location of this collection:
-
Department of Special Collections, Green Library557 Escondido MallStanford, CA 94305-6004, US
- Contact:
- (650) 725-1022