Yale Collection of American Literature

The Yale Collection of American Literature documents the creative lives, the artistic communities, and the literary achievements of American writers. The collectionis noted for its strength in nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first-century poetry, fiction, and dramatic writings. The archives of writers of diverse backgrounds underscore the collection’s interest in the indigenous and immigrant cultures that shape American literature.

  • Case Study 3: Gertrude Stein

    August 7, 2020

    Work In Progress : Case Study #3 Gertrude Stein, The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas READ the published text, available online via Project Gutenberg. Stein...

  • The U.S. hid Hiroshima’s human suffering. Then John Hersey went to Japan. (Washington Post)

    August 6, 2020

    In the fall of 1945, a few months after the United States dropped two atomic bombs on Japan, New Yorker writer John Hersey went to lunch with his editor, the legendary William Shawn, to discuss story ideas. One of them would change the world. Hersey and Shawn suspected that the U.S. government’s wartime propaganda machine had covered up the human suffering of the atomic bombs that leveled Hiroshima and Nagasaki 75 years ago this month. Pictures from Japan showed destroyed buildings and decimated neighborhoods, but little was known about the human toll, especially from radiation.

  • Garry Trudeau: Creativity in Isolation

    July 13, 2020

    In response to our invitation to describe the work he is currently pursuing, Garry Trudeau—cartoonist, writer, and creator of “Doonesbury”—described the...

  • The Older Frederick Douglass Revealed In Yale's Newly Acquired Collection Of Family Scrapbooks (WNPR)

    July 13, 2020

    Yale historian David Blight says when he first saw a collection of family scrapbooks of the great abolitionist Frederick Douglass, he was astonished. Blight had been fascinated by Frederick Douglass all of his life. He’d written a book and edited autobiographies about the escaped slave who became the greatest orator of his day. But the scrapbooks offered new insights into Douglass’ life and eventually inspired Blight’s 2018 Pulitzer Prize-winning biography, Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom. The materials belonged to a collector, Dr. Walter Evans, and have recently been acquired by Yale’s Beinecke Library. Connecticut Public Radio’s Morning Edition host, Diane Orson, spoke with David Blight.