About this Item
An archive of American author William Eastlake consisting of original manuscripts and galley proofs, over 100 letters to him, and other associated documents. Included are corrected typescript manuscripts for five of his major novels, including the first two novels of his acclaimed Checkerboard Trilogy: *Go in Beauty* and *The Bronc People*. Among the letters are 28 from Edward Abbey, author of *The Monkey Wrench Gang*, together with multiple letters from other leading contemporary authors and personal friends, including William Van Tilburg Clark, Jim Harrison, John Nichols, Martha Gelhorn, Barry Lopez, Ray Carver, Gary Snyder, Studs Terkel, Tim O'Brien, Robert Redford, and others, all rich in literary and personal content. Born in Brooklyn in 1917, Eastlake hitchhiked across the United States and made his way to Los Angeles in the early 1940s, where he worked at the Stanley Rose bookstore: frequented by the writers Nathanael West, John Steinbeck and William Saroyan, and the artist Martha Simpson, whom he married in 1943. During the war Eastlake enlisted in the U.S. Army and was stationed at Camp Ord in California, where he was assigned to oversee draftees of Japanese ancestry into the U.S. Army. He led a battalion at the Battle of the Bulge and was awarded the Bronze Star. After the war he stayed in Europe and became an editor for the literary magazine *Essai*, to which he contributed his first published short story: "Ishimoto s Land," about his experiences with Japanese American soldiers. He lived in Paris and returned to southern California in 1950. In 1955, he and his wife purchased a ranch near Cuba, New Mexico, with four hundred acres of land, which became a mecca for several writers and artists, including Edward Abbey, Julian and Juliette Huxley, and many others whose letters are retained in the collection. At his ranch near Cuba, Eastlake wrote many of his novels set in New Mexico and the Southwest, including the manuscripts for three novels in this collection: *Go in Beauty* (1956), *The Bronc People* (1958), and *Dancers in the Scalp House* (1975). At the height of the Vietnam War Eastlake was a correspondent for *The Nation*, stationed in Vietnam (1968-69) [cf. letter from Ernie Pyle]. Eastlake also wrote war novels and political novels, of which this collection includes the manuscripts of *Castle Keep* (1965: a "Gothic mystery, savage modern satire, heroic epic" set during World War II), and *The Bamboo Bed* (1969: one of the first novels to dramatize the insanity of the Vietnam War). Eastlake s *Castle Keep*, about U.S. soldiers trying to defend a Belgian castle filled with art treasures during the Battle of the Bulge was made into a 1969 movie directed by Sydney Pollack, and starring Burt Lancaster and Peter Falk. Other collection highlights among the manuscripts include: the screenplay and two corrected typescripts (an early draft and final setting copy) of *Castle Keep*; together with corrected typescripts of *The Bamboo Bed* and *Dancers in the Scalp House*. Also notable is publisher William Bamberger s retained archive of Eastlake s short story collection: *Jack Armstrong in Tangier* (1984), consisting of typescripts, pre-publication drafts and galleys, and associated correspondence. Among the letters in the collection, most were written to Eastlake by contemporary authors in Eastlake s literary circle, and most are notable for their remarkable literary and personal content. Here is but a small taste from the 28 letters by Edward Abbey, most of which date from the mid-1970s, when his most famous novel *The Monkey Wrench Gang* was in publication: Kanab, Utah, February 22, 1971: "… I wonder if you or Doug Peacock could refer me to some of the literature on sabotage industrial and civil, bridges, power plants, dams, etc. What I need is detailed information on techniques and materials. For a novel only not for real. I ve about decided to postpone work on my Pennsylvania agricultural Tolstoyan novel … and do no. Seller Inventory # 501700
Contact seller
Report this item
