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Robert Carlton Brown papers

 Collection 0075-LIT

American author, journalist, publisher, and collector Robert Carlton Brown (1886-1959) was born in Chicago. Brown wrote pulp fiction, non-fiction, cookbooks, avant-garde publications, and experimented with a book of visual poetry; he also contributed pieces to various magazines and newspapers in New York City and established journals in Rio de Janeiro, Mexico City, and London. Popular works of Brown's include the novel What Happened to Mary? (1913), an adaptation of which became one of the first successful motion pictures. He was involved with an informal poetry group with avant-garde and modernist writers and artists like William Carlos Williams, Alfred Kreymbourg, and Man Ray in 1913 and 1914. The group put forth a publication entitled Glebe in 1913 and later the influential poetry journal Others. In 1929, he and his wife temporarily settled in France where they became involved in the expatriate literary community in Paris. While there, he also established Roving Eye Press to promote a reading machine that he invented. Brown published a book of verse to be used with the machine, Readies for Bob Brown's Machine (1931), which included contributions from Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound, James T. Farrell, Kay Boyle, Paul Bowles, Kreymborg, Eugene Jolas, and Robert McAlmon. This collection includes correspondence, clippings, visual poetry, photographs, and ephemera. The collection is unprocessed.

Dates

  • Creation: 1929-1959
  • Creation: Majority of material found within 1940-1958

Use and Access to Collection

This collection is open to the public and must be used in the Special Collections reading room. Researchers must register and agree to copyright and privacy laws before using this collection.

This collection is unprocessed. This means that materials are in the same state we received them and have not been reviewed for content or condition. The collection may need to be screened prior to use. Please contact us before visiting the Special Collections reading room to view this collection.

Conditions Governing Use

Photocopies or digital surrogates may be provided in accordance with Special Collections and University Archives duplication policy.

Copyright resides with the creators of the documents or their heirs unless otherwise specified. It is the researcher's responsibility to secure permission to publish materials from the appropriate copyright holder.

Archival materials may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal and/or state right to privacy laws or other regulations. While we make a good faith effort to identify and remove such materials, some may be missed during our processing. If a researcher finds sensitive personal information in a collection, please bring it to the attention of the reading room staff.

Extent

0.25 Linear Feet

Language of Materials

English

Title
Guide to the Robert Carlton Brown Papers
Status
Minimally Processed
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
English
Script of description
Code for undetermined script
Language of description note
Finding aid written in English.

Library Details

Part of the Special Collections and University Archives

Contact:
University of Maryland Libraries
Hornbake Library
4130 Campus Drive
College Park Maryland 20742
301-405-9212