Research Catalog

Title

Lorraine Hansberry papers, 1947-1988.

Author

Hansberry, Lorraine, 1930-1965.

Supplementary Content

Finding aid

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

• Baldwin, James, 1924-1987.
• Bates, Daisy.
• Burnham, Louis E.
• Mayfield, Julian, 1928-1984.
• Nemiroff, Robert.
• Worthy, William, 1921-2014.

Description

49 lin. ft. (93 archival boxes,13 record cartons, 2 flat boxes)

Summary

• The Lorraine Hansberry Papers document Lorraine Hansberry's life as an award-winning playwright and activist, and chronicles her activities during the Civil Rights Movement. Virtually all of Hansberry's writings, autobiographical materials, journals, diaries, personal and professional correspondence are included here, as well as related materials generated by her late husband, Robert Nemiroff, and his third wife, Jewell Gresham-Nemiroff, as the executors of Hansberry's estate. Significant correspondents include Daisy Bates, Louis Burnham, Julian Mayfield, Robert Nemiroff, and William Worthy.
• The largest and most substantive series, Writings, contains the bulk of Hansberry's play scripts, including "A Raisin in the Sun," "The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window" and "Les Blancs," plus production files for each play, as well as other produced, unproduced and incomplete plays among them "Toussaint," "The Drinking Gourd," "What Use Are Flowers," and "Masters of the Dew." Included are lectures and speeches Hansberry gave primarily as the result of the success of "A Raisin in the Sun," articles she wrote as a journalist and editor, and files for the book, "The Movement: Documentary of a Struggle for Equality." There are also short stories, poems, and letters Hansberry penned from 1947 to 1964. The Professional series includes correspondence and materials relating to Hansberry's activism including files for Camp Unity, Labor Defense League, and the Montevideo Peace Conference. The Legacy series was largely created by Robert Nemiroff to acknowledge Hansberry's contribution to American letters, and features files detailing his activities as the executor of the Lorraine Hansberry Estate, including three major projects, "To Be Young, Gifted and Black," "Raisin," and "All The Dark and Beautiful Warriors." Also included are Hansberry's FBI file, diaries, interviews, and biographical information about Hansberry during her life and posthumously.

Subjects

• Foreman, James, 1928-2005
• Nemiroff, Robert
• African American political activists
• Kicks and Co. (Musical)
• Lomax, Louis E., 1922-1970
• Kitt, Eartha
• Hansberry, William Leo
• Bond, Julian, 1930-
• Diaries
• Marshall, Thurgood, 1908-1993
• Jackson, Mahalia, 1911-1972
• Du Bois, W. E. B (William Edward Burghardt), 1868-1963
• African American dramatists
• Women in the theater > United States
• Burnham, Louis E
• American drama > African American authors
• Du Bois, Shirley Graham, 1896-1977
• Screenplays
• Dramatists, American > 20th century
• Inter-American Congress for Peace (1952 : Montevideo, Uruguay)
• Political activists
• Mayfield, Julian, 1928-1984
• Play scripts
• Worthy, William, 1921-2014
• Civil rights workers
• Camp Unity (New York, N.Y.)
• Bontemps, Arna Wendell, 1902-1973
• Baldash, Seymour L
• Gresham-Nemiroff, Jewell Handy, 1923-2005
• Brown, Oscar, Jr., 1926-2005
• Short stories
• African American authors
• Communists > United States
• Robeson, Paul, 1898-1976
• African American theater
• Bancroft, Anne, 1931-2005
• Labor Youth League
• Bates, Daisy
• Robeson, Eslanda Goode, 1896-1965
• African American women
• Black author
• Freedom (New York, N.Y. : Newspaper)
• American drama > 20th century
• Hansberry, Lorraine, 1930-1965
• Hughes, Langston, 1902-1967

Genre/Form

• Diaries.
• Play scripts.
• Short stories.
• Screenplays.

Note

• Photographs transferred to Photographs and Prints Division.
• Audiotapes, videotapes and films transferred to Moving Image and Recorded Sound Division.

Terms of Use (note)

• All requests subject to limitations noted in divisional policies on reproduction.

Source (note)

• Jewell Gresham-Nemiroff

Biography (note)

• Lorraine Hansberry, African-American playwright, writer and activist, is best known for her play, "A Raisin in the Sun." Born in 1930 in Chicago to real estate broker, Carl Hansberry and Nannie Louise Perry (her uncle was the Africanist scholar, William Leo Hansberry), Lorraine grew up on the south side of Chicago. "A Raisin in the Sun" was inspired by her father's legal battle against a racially restrictive covenant that prohibited African-American families from buying homes in certain neighborhoods. In 1950 Hansberry moved to New York City to become a writer and served as an editor for Paul Robeson's newspaper, "Freedom." In 1959, "A Raisin in the Sun" became the first play written by an African-American woman produced on Broadway. The play received the New York Drama Critics Award making Hansberry the youngest and first African American to receive the Award. Hansberry's second play, "The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window," was mounted as she battled pancreatic cancer. She died in 1965 at age 34.

Indexes/Finding Aids (note)

• Finding aid is available.

Call Number

Sc MG 680

OCLC

456433644

Author

Hansberry, Lorraine, 1930-1965.

Title

Lorraine Hansberry papers, 1947-1988.

Terms Of Use

All requests subject to limitations noted in divisional policies on reproduction.

Biography

Lorraine Hansberry, African-American playwright, writer and activist, is best known for her play, "A Raisin in the Sun." Born in 1930 in Chicago to real estate broker, Carl Hansberry and Nannie Louise Perry (her uncle was the Africanist scholar, William Leo Hansberry), Lorraine grew up on the south side of Chicago. "A Raisin in the Sun" was inspired by her father's legal battle against a racially restrictive covenant that prohibited African-American families from buying homes in certain neighborhoods. In 1950 Hansberry moved to New York City to become a writer and served as an editor for Paul Robeson's newspaper, "Freedom." In 1959, "A Raisin in the Sun" became the first play written by an African-American woman produced on Broadway. The play received the New York Drama Critics Award making Hansberry the youngest and first African American to receive the Award. Hansberry's second play, "The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window," was mounted as she battled pancreatic cancer. She died in 1965 at age 34.

Indexes

Finding aid is available.

Connect to:

NYPL Digital Collections

Finding aid

Local Subject

Black author.

Added Author

Baldwin, James, 1924-1987.

Bates, Daisy.

Burnham, Louis E.

Mayfield, Julian, 1928-1984.

Nemiroff, Robert.

Worthy, William, 1921-2014.

Hansberry, Lorraine, 1930-1965. Raisin in the sun.

Hansberry, Lorraine, 1930-1965. All the Dark and Beautiful Warriors.

Hansberry, Lorraine, 1930-1965. Blancs.

Hansberry, Lorraine, 1930-1965. Movement: documentary of a struggle for equality.

Hansberry, Lorraine, 1930-1965. Sign in Sidney Brustein's window.

Hansberry, Lorraine, 1930-1965. Toussaint.

Hansberry, Lorraine, 1930-1965. What use are flowers?

Hansberry, Lorraine, 1930-1965. Drinking gourd.

Nemiroff, Robert. To be young, gifted, and black.

Nemiroff, Robert. Raisin.

Research Call Number

Sc MG 680