Correspondence

Extent:
30 Linear Feet
Scope and content:

The series consists of correspondence of Corra Harris from 1905-1935. The family correspondence (1905-1935) contains mainly letters between Harris and her daughter Faith. Other family correspondence includes her husband Rev. Lundy Harris, her father Tinsley Rucker White, and her sister Hope Harris. The Faith Harris and Harry Leach correspondence includes letters between Faith and Harry as well as some letters to others. The letters begin in 1908 (before their marriage in 1910) and continue up to Faith's death in 1919. Much of the general correspondence (1906-1935) relates to Harris' writing, including letters to editors, publishers, writers, friends, and others. Notable among the correspondents are the editors George H. Lorimer, W.F. Bigelow, Edward Bok, Hamilton Holt, and Authur Vance; writers Roark Bradford, Harry Stillwell Edwards, Joel Chandler Harris, E.W. Howe, Jack London, H.L. Mencken, and Medora Fields Perkerson; newspapermen Clark Howell, Walter Hines Page, and William Allen White; and scholars Edwin Mims, and Howard Odum. The miscellaneous correspondence consists mainly of letters addressed to the publishers of Harris' novels, and correspondence addressed to Bettie Raines, when she was managing much of Harris' business.

At the end of the four files of correspondence is one box of photographs originally enclosed with letters. Both the letter to which it was attached and the photograph itself are identified. Also among the correspondence files are the stenographer's notebooks of Bettie Raines. Most of these are undated but those with dates locate them in 1932 and 1933.

Arrangement:

The Corra Harris correspondence is divided into four separate sequences: Family Correspondence, Faith Harris & Harry Leech Correspondence, General Correspondence, and Miscellaneous Correspondence. All letters are arranged chronologically within each of these groupings. Letters with incomplete, illegible, or missing dates are located at the end of their sequence unless a year or month is known, in which case they are found at the end of that month or year.

The chronological order of each sequence is observed in the folder labeling regardless of whether or not correspondence exists for the covered dates. (In other words, the fact that a date falls within the range of a particular folder does not mean that letters exist for that date.)

Contents