This collection consists of draft scripts of The Country Girl, The Flowering Peach, and The Russian People; reviews of theatrical performances; correspondence; and family photographs accumulated by renowned playwright Clifford Odets. The bulk of this collection comprises reviews of Odets' theatrical performances found in newspaper clippings and magazine articles. A scrapbook contains clippings documenting a variety of Odets' plays performed in 1935, in addition to an article written by Odets describing his internment in Havana during his investigation into the treatment of Cuban writers and artists.

Clifford Odets was an American playwright prolific from the 1930s through the 1950s and renowned for his plays with Marxist leanings. He was born July 18, 1906 in Philadelphia to immigrant Rumanian and Russian parents. His family moved to New York in 1908. After studying drama in high school and pursuing various minor acting jobs in New York and Philadelphia, he joined the Group Theatre of New York and began to write plays for Broadway, including Awake and Sing! In 1935 he joined the Communist Party and traveled to Cuba as the head of a delegation to investigate atrocities against Cuban artists and writers. He moved to California the following year and married Luise Rainer in 1937. He divorced Rainer in 1939 and was remarried in 1943 to Bette Grayson.

0.6 linear feet (1 box and 2 oversize folders)

Property rights reside with the University of California. Literary rights are retained by the creators of the records and their heirs. For permissions to reproduce or to publish, please contact the Head of Special Collections and Archives.

Collection is open for research.