Research Catalog

Details

Additional authors

1. Baldwin, James, 1924-1987
2. Bates, Daisy
3. Burnham, Louis E.
4. Mayfield, Julian, 1928-1984
5. Nemiroff, Robert
6. Worthy, William, 1921-2014

Description

1. 49 lin. ft. (93 archival boxes,13 record cartons, 2 flat boxes)

Summary

1. 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.
2. 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.

Subject

1. Hansberry, Lorraine, 1930-1965
2. Baldash, Seymour L
3. Bancroft, Anne, 1931-2005
4. Bates, Daisy
5. Bond, Julian, 1930-
6. Bontemps, Arna Wendell, 1902-1973
7. Brown, Oscar, Jr., 1926-2005
8. Burnham, Louis E
9. Du Bois, Shirley Graham, 1896-1977
10. Du Bois, W. E. B. 1868-1963
11. Foreman, James, 1928-2005
12. Gresham-Nemiroff, Jewell Handy, 1923-2005
13. Hansberry, William Leo
14. Hughes, Langston, 1902-1967
15. Jackson, Mahalia, 1911-1972
16. Kitt, Eartha
17. Lomax, Louis E., 1922-1970
18. Marshall, Thurgood, 1908-1993
19. Mayfield, Julian, 1928-1984
20. Nemiroff, Robert
21. Robeson, Eslanda Goode, 1896-1965
22. Robeson, Paul, 1898-1976
23. Worthy, William, 1921-2014
24. Camp Unity (New York, N.Y.)
25. Labor Youth League
26. Inter-American Congress for Peace (1952 : Montevideo, Uruguay)
27. Kicks and Co. (Musical)
28. Freedom (New York, N.Y. : Newspaper)
29. African American authors
30. African American dramatists
31. African American political activists
32. African American theater
33. African American women
34. American drama -- 20th century
35. American drama -- African American authors
36. Civil rights workers
37. Communists -- United States
38. Dramatists, American -- 20th century
39. Political activists
40. Women in the theater -- United States

Genre/Form

1. Diaries.
2. Play scripts.
3. Short stories.
4. Screenplays.

Call number

1. Sc MG 680

Note

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

Terms of use (note)

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

Source (note)

1. Jewell Gresham-Nemiroff

Biography (note)

1. 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)

1. Finding aid is available.

Author

1. Hansberry, Lorraine, 1930-1965.

Title

1. Lorraine Hansberry papers, 1947-1988.

Terms of use

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

Biography

1. 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

1. Finding aid is available.

Connect to:

1. NYPL Digital Collections
2. Finding aid

Local subject

1. Black author.

Added author

1. Baldwin, James, 1924-1987.
2. Bates, Daisy.
3. Burnham, Louis E.
4. Mayfield, Julian, 1928-1984.
5. Nemiroff, Robert.
6. Worthy, William, 1921-2014.
7. Hansberry, Lorraine, 1930-1965. Raisin in the sun.
8. Hansberry, Lorraine, 1930-1965. All the Dark and Beautiful Warriors.
9. Hansberry, Lorraine, 1930-1965. Blancs.
10. Hansberry, Lorraine, 1930-1965. Movement: documentary of a struggle for equality.
11. Hansberry, Lorraine, 1930-1965. Sign in Sidney Brustein's window.
12. Hansberry, Lorraine, 1930-1965. Toussaint.
13. Hansberry, Lorraine, 1930-1965. What use are flowers?
14. Hansberry, Lorraine, 1930-1965. Drinking gourd.
15. Nemiroff, Robert. To be young, gifted, and black.
16. Nemiroff, Robert. Raisin.

Research call number

1. Sc MG 680