Collection Scope and Content Note

Scope and Contents Note

The Elkin Papers consist primarily of Elkin's own manuscripts, including his plays, filmscripts, essays, and stories, with the bulk of the material being manuscripts and editorial matter toward his novels. Elkin's manuscripts include all stages of his drafts, from autograph notes written on university exam books to word processor diskettes. Also included in the Papers are an extensive general and professional correspondence, manuscripts by other authors, teaching materials, and his own college literary papers.

The Elkin Papers consist of two accruals. Accrual 1 is the original collection. Accrual 2 is Accession 22903. The finding-aid for Accrual 2 was prepared using the original Elkin Papers finding-aid as a model. Thus, the series were created to mirror the original Elkin Papers series. The material in the various "Material Towards..." sections may have been left over material that goes along with Accrual 1, or it could be a gathering of information for later publications. We grouped them to mirror the original Elkin Papers arrangement. Some of the material of Elkin's writings were essays that appeared in a larger book, and that material has been grouped in the series with the material of the larger book.