Collection context
Summary
- Creator:
- Irving, John, 1942- and Irving, Janet Turnbull
- Abstract:
- The Irving mss, 1966-2012, consist of manuscripts, typescripts, and material of novelist and screenwriter John Irving (b. 1942), as well as correspondence and printed matter relating to his career.
- Extent:
- 42 Boxes
- Language:
- English .
- Preferred citation:
[Item], Irving mss., Lilly Library, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana.
Background
- Biographical / Historical:
John Winslow Irving is an American-Canadian novelist and screenwriter. He is the author of over a dozen novels, including The World According to Garp (1978), The Cider House Rules (1985), and A Prayer for Owen Meany (1989). In 2000, he won an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for The Cider House Rules.
Irving was born in 1942 in Exeter, New Hampshire. He was raised by his mother and stepfather, Frances (née Winslow) and Colin Irving, and attended Phillips Exeter Academy, where his stepfather Colin was a teacher. In 1962, while studying German at Harvard in preparation for entering the University of Vienna, he met his first wife, Shyla, whom he married in 1964. Irving graduated with his BA from the University of New Hampshire in 1965, the same year his son Colin was born. He obtained his MFA in 1967 from the University of Iowa, where he was mentored by Kurt Vonnegut. He published his first novel, Setting Free the Bears, in 1968, when he was twenty-six years old. John and Shyla's second son, Brendan, was born in 1969.
After a decade of teaching and two more novels, Irving found critical and popular acclaim in 1978 with The World According to Garp, the success of which allowed him to pursue writing full time. Irving has published over a dozen novels, notably The Cider House Rules (1985), about the relationship between ether-addicted orphanage director, obstetrician, and abortionist Dr. Larch and unadoptable orphan Homer Wells, who is trained to follow in Dr. Larch's footsteps. The novel is a pragmatic examination of unwanted pregnancies that must result in "either an abortion or an orphan" and led to Irving becoming a pro-choice spokesperson in the 1990s and early 2000s for organizations such as Planned Parenthood and NARAL. Irving won an Oscar in 2000 for the screenplay adaptation of The Cider House Rules, which was directed by Lasse Hollström, produced by Richard Gladstein, and stars Michael Caine, Tobey Maguire, Charlize Theron, and Delroy Lindo.
Other significant works include A Prayer for Owen Meany (1989), an examination of religion and the Vietnam War, and the Lambda Award-winning In One Person, about bisexual protagonist Billy Abbott's coming of age. Irving favors a plot-driven, sentimental, and farcical style and focuses throughout his oeuvre on themes of masculinity and sexuality.
Irving and Shyla divorced in 1981. In 1987, Irving married Janet Turnbull, former senior editor at Doubleday Canada Ltd., vice president of Seal Books, and founder of the Turnbull Agency. They have one daughter together, Eva Everett Irving (b. 1991) and divide their time between Toronto and Vermont. Janet is a founder and Trustee Emerita of the Maple Street School, an independent elementary and middle school in Manchester, Vermont established in 1998.
A lifelong wrestler and former wrestling coach, Irving was inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in 1992.
- Scope and Content:
The WRITINGS series consists of materials relating to most of Irving's published novels, including The Cider House Rules (1985), A Son of the Circus (1994), A Widow for One Year (1998), The Fourth Hand (2001), Until I Find You (2005), and In One Person (2011). For most works from the 1980s on, there are one or more typescript drafts with extensive handwritten revisions and corrections by Irving, as well as copyedited drafts with suggested corrections from copyeditor Amy Edelman and/or editor Harvey Ginsberg. Also included for most works are publisher galleys and proofs. Interfiled with the novels from which they are adapted are drafts of Irving's screenplays, including The Cider House Rules (2000) and The Door in the Floor (2004, based on his novel, A Widow for One Year), as well as unproduced screenplays like A Son of the Circus and Diane's Room.
The CORRESPONDENCE series consists of personal and professional correspondence, the bulk of it from 1990-2007, the period during which Irving was working on The Son of the Circus screenplay, The Cider House Rules screenplay, A Widow for One Year, The Door in the Floor, The Fourth Hand, and Until I Find You. The largest subseries of correspondence is the Assistant Faxes: outgoing faxes handled by a series of the Irvings' assistants—Allan Reeder, Lewis Robinson, Dana Wagner, Chloe Bland, Edward McPherson, Kelly Harper Berkson, Alyssa Barrett, and Emily Copeland—sent on behalf of both John and Janet Irving. Correspondents include David Paolini, Nancy and David Calicchio, Ruth Geiger, Robbert Ammerlaan, Richard Gladstein, Lasse Holstrom, Harvey Weinstein, Tod (Kip) Williams, Craig Nova, Ron Hansen, Abraham Verghese, Stephen King, Günter Grass, Michael Ondaatje, and Salman Rushdie. In this series, John's faxes are about his travel plans, his 2000 Oscar bid and opinions about Oscar-nominated movies, his family life, his sports predictions, and his opinions on abortion, the Iraq War, Title IX, and school choice. In this series, Janet's faxes deal with the financials of the Irvings' household and of Garp Enterprises, Ltd., as well as fundraising and management concerns of the Maple Street School, an alternative school founded by the Irvings in 1998, headed by family friend Nancy Calicchio. Some additional correspondence, largely relating to the rights and production of Irving's books, is contained in the AGENT FILES series.
The AGENT FILES series consists of materials relating to the business of Irving's career, including professional correspondence from Janet Turnbull Irving in her capacity as Irving's agent, promotional material for Irving's novels, and interviews and reviews.
ARTICLES RECEIVED FROM PHILLIPS EXETER ACADEMY ARCHIVE contains photocopies of short fiction, nonfiction, and reviews by Irving, as well as photocopies of interviews, reviews, and scholarly articles about Irving collected by his alma mater, Phillips Exeter Academy, from 1969 through 1995. This series serves as a quick snapshot of Irving's career.
The PHOTOGRAPHS series consists largely of professional photographs of Irving, sometimes posed with Janet, Eva, and the family dog, Dickens. Also included are Mary Ellen Mark's photographs of Indian circus performers from the trip that inspired A Son of the Circus.
Born-digital material and four of Irving's typewriters complete the collection.
- Acquisition information:
- Purchase: 2015
- Processing information:
Processed by Kyra Triebold. Completed in 2022.
- Arrangement:
This collection is arranged into the following series: I. WRITINGS, II. CORRESPONDENCE, and III. AGENT FILES, IV. ARTICLES RECEIVED FROM PHILLIPS EXETER ARCHIVE, V. PHOTOGRAPHS, and VI. BORN DIGITAL.
I. WRITINGS is arranged chronologically by work. Screenplays are interfiled with the novels from which they were adapted. Irving's short fiction from the 1970s through the 1990s may be found in the subseries Trying to Save Piggy Sneed (1996).
II. CORRESPONDENCE and III. AGENT FILES are arranged chronologically.
IV. ARTICLES RECEIVED FROM PHILLIPS EXETER ARCHIVE is arranged alphabetically by author.
V. PHOTOGRAPHS is arranged alphabetically by photographer, where possible.
- Physical location:
- ALF (Auxiliary Library Facility)
Access
- RESTRICTIONS:
-
This collection is open for research.
Many collections are housed offsite; retrieval requires advance notice. Please make an appointment a minimum of one week in advance of your visit.
- TERMS OF ACCESS:
-
Photography and digitization may be restricted for some collections. Copyright restrictions may apply. Before publishing, researchers are responsible for securing permission from all applicable rights holders, then filling out the Permission to Publish form.
- PREFERRED CITATION:
-
[Item], Irving mss., Lilly Library, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana.
- CAMPUS:
- Indiana University Bloomington
- LOCATION OF THIS COLLECTION:
-
1200 East Seventh StreetBloomington, Indiana 47405-5500, USA
- CAMPUS:
- Indiana University Bloomington
- CONTACT:
-
(812) 855-2452liblilly@indiana.edu