MsC 427

Manuscript Register

PAPERS OF MAXINE FINSTERWALD

Collection Dates: 1928 -- 1983

(Bulk Dates: 1940 to 1960)

2.5 linear ft.

This document describes a collection of materials held by the
Special Collections Department
University of Iowa Libraries
Iowa City, Iowa 52242-1420
Phone: 319-335-5921
Fax: 319-335-5900
e-mail: lib-spec@uiowa.edu

Posted to Internet: May 2002

Acquisition Note: These papers were donated to the University of Iowa Libraries by Maxine Finsterwald in 1983.

Access and Restrictions: This collection is open for research.

Photographs: Box 1

Digital Surrogates: Except where indicated, this document describes but does not reproduce the actual text, images and objects which make up this collection. Materials are available only in the Special Collections Department.

Copyright: Please read The University of Iowa Libraries' statement on "Property Rights, Copyright Law, and Permissions to Use Unpublished Materials"

Use of Collections: The University of Iowa Libraries supports access to the materials, published and unpublished, in its collections. Nonetheless, access to some items may be restricted by their fragile condition or by contractual agreement with donors, and it may not be possible at all times to provide appropriate machinery for reading, viewing or accessing non-paper-based materials. Please read our Use of Manuscripts Statement.

Biographical Note

Maxine Finsterwald was born in Marion, Wisconsin, in 1906 and grew up in Detroit, Michigan. She was a graduate of Wellesley College and the Carnegie Institute of Technology. Finsterwald got her start writing for radio while still in Detroit. She wrote, directed, and acted in the Kaffee Klatch and wrote half-hour comedies for Playhouse of the Air. Moving to New York, she wrote for "Words at War" at NBC. She also wrote plays for the theater, newspaper and magazine features, and medical articles. She was published in everything from the Atlantic Monthly and Seventeen to the Medical Tribune and Radiology News. She wrote her plays using the pen name, Maxine Wood. One of her early plays, Giants in Chains, won the Otto H. Kahn prize in 1928. Another of her works, On Whitman Avenue, addressed race relations. Her works have been performed on and off Broadway as well as in regional theaters.

Scope and Contents

The papers of Maxine Finsterwald date from 1928 to 1983 and document her literary career. The papers measure 2.5 linear feet and are arranged in four sections: 1) general files; 2) published material; 3) typescripts; and 4) playbills and programs. The general files include such items as correspondence, photographs, and two scrapbooks (one devoted to her play, On Whitman Avenue and one to biographical articles, notices, programs, and reviews). The published materials series is divided into fiction and nonfiction and includes articles on medical subjects as well as short stories and plays. Her typescripts are separated into plays, radio plays, radio shows, speeches, and teleplays. There is also one entire box of playbills and programs from theater performances she attended, unrelated to her own works.

Related materials

Lee, Canada. Letter to Maxine Wood. Buffalo, NY. 1946 April 10. SPECIAL COLLECTIONS Department. MsL L4773wo.

Carmer, Carl Lamson. Letter to Maxine Wood. New York, NY. 1931 February 18. SPECIAL COLLECTIONS Department. MsL C2872wo.

Box List

General Files

Box 1

Correspondence. 1928 -- 1979 and undated. Includes letters from Maurice Browne, Carl Carmer, Albert Kahn, Canada Lee, and Ellery Sedgwick.

Personal. Resume and notes on published material

Photographs

Miscellaneous

Newspaper clippings

Scrapbook, "On Whitman Avenue"

Programs and notices

Scrapbook. Biographical articles, notices, programs, and reviews

Published Material

Box 2

Fiction

"Comfort's Not Everything." Seventeen, May 1946

"My Father's Ears." The Sign, August 1953

"My Mother Told Me." McCall's, 1951

"On Whitman Avenue." Dramatists Play Service, 1948. Acting Edition, 3 copies

"1-2-3 and a Glide." Seventeen

"A Permit For Wanda Morsky." Seventeen, March 1946

"Raspberry-Down-the-Cellar." Reprinted from The Atlantic Monthly, October 1935

"Renascence." The Sign, November 1951

"The Rich Mrs. Hoyt." The Sign, March 1948

"Sponsor's Daughter." New Liberty, July 1952

"Straight From The Heart." McCall's, 1949

"The Terror of My Life." Victorian, February 1953

"Yankee Bargain." The Sign, October 1952

Blindness -- Ability, Not Disability. Public Affairs Pamphlet No. 295. March 1960

Blindness -- Ability, Not Disability. Public Affairs Pamphlet No. 295A. February 1968

"Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia Tied To Oxygen Toxicity, Respiratory Distress Syndrome." Radiology News, Vol. 6, No. 6, May -- June 1968

A Career With a Challenge: Vocational Rehabilitation Counseling of Blind Persons. American Foundation for the Blind, 1959

A Career With a Challenge: Vocational Rehabilitation Counseling of Blind Persons. American Foundation for the Blind, ( n. d.)

"Consumer Protection: Toward Better Labor Standards." Consumers' Guide, March 20, 1937

The Diary of Marian: A Teen-ager. Edited by Maxine Wood 1956

"Dissecting Consumers' Dollars." Consumers' Guide, May 17, 1937

"Don't Let a Spot Spoil Your Fun..." PM, August 2, 1940

"Doors of Jackson Memorial Always Open." Medical Tribune, October 10, 1960

"Focus on Dr. Henry L. Bockus." Roche Medical Image, Vol. 4, No. 5, December 1962

"For PM, Girl Buys Beauty By Mail." PM's Weekly, June 23 -- August 4, 1940

"Grand Opera Indigestion." Park Avenue Social Review

"The Medical Aspects of Suicide." Medical Tribune, August 27, September 3, September 10, September 17, 1962

"Melons Come to Market." Consumers' Guide, Vol. IV, No. 4, April 19, 1937

"Misconceptions About Alcoholism Mar Therapeutic Effectiveness -- Morris E. Chafetz, M.D." Roche Report: Frontiers of Psychiatry, Vol. 2, No. 6, March 15, 1972

"News of Hospital Practice." Medical Tribune, September 25, October 9, October 23, 1961 and January 8, 1962

Package Label Deadline Today. "Poetry Used in Various Ways in Psychotherapeutic Encounters." Roche Report: Frontiers of Clinical Psychiatry, Vol. 7, No. 7, April 1, 1970

"Rayon Comes of Age." Consumers' Guide

"Rome's Ancient Hospital." Roche Medical Image, Vol. 4, No. 5, December 1962

"Total Treatment Programs For Alcoholics Held Effective." Roche Report:

Frontiers of Hospital Psychiatry, Vol. 5, No. 5, March 1, 1968

"Under the Round Purple Stamp." Consumers' Guide, February 8, 1937

"What Kind of Safeguards?" Consumers' Guide, April 19, 1937

"Women's Lib: What Is It's Impact on Female and Male Psychology?" Roche Report: Frontiers of Psychiatry, Vol. 1, No. 11, June 1, 1971

"Working Heights For Home Workers." Consumers' Guide, April 11, 1938

"Your Glasses Can Be Concealed or Conspicuous." PM's Weekly, August 11, 1940

Typescripts

Box 3

Plays

"But It's Harder To Lie In Bed." With corrections

"Checkmates." Carbon

"A Dowry For My Daughter." Carbon with corrections

"F.O.B." Carbon

"The Fall of Timothy Withers." Carbon

"From These Shores." Copy

"Giants in Chains." Carbon with corrections

"Maid of Honor." Carbon

"March to Freedom." Copy

"May Moon." Carbon

"On Whitman Avenue." Carbon of first draft

"On Whitman Avenue." Carbon of final draft

"Road to Victory: A Drama of The War Fronts." Copy

"Sleeping Lady." Scenario with corrections

"Sleeping Lady." Final draft with corrections

"Sleeping Lady." With Corrections

"The Sparrows." With corrections

Box 4

Radio Plays

"The Great Lovers of Broadway." Eight segments with corrections

"Kaffee Klatch." "Pins & Needles. " 49 segments with corrections. 3 folders

"The Ladder Under the Maple Tree." Carbon with corrections

"The New Hat"

"Wartime Racketeers." Copy

"Consumer Time on the Air." 5 segments

"Comments on Charles J. McGraw's Paper..."

"Design for Glory." Adapted by Harold Gast from the story by Maxine Wood. Copy.

"Winter Wheat." Adapted from novel Winter Wheat by Mildred Walker. Copy with corrections.

Playbills and Programs

Box 5

Playbill/Showbill

"Aaah Oui Genty!" Bijou Theatre. April 1981

"Agnes of God." The Music Box. July 1982

Alvin Ailey. City Center. December 1980

"Amadeus." Broadhurst Theatre. October 1981

"Betrayal." Trafalgar Theatre. May 1980

"A Doll's House." Vivian Beaumont Theatre. February 1975

''The Gin Game." John Golden Theatre. October 1977

"Hadrian VII." Helen Hayes Theatre February 1969

"Home." Cort Theatre. December 1980

"Indians." Brooks Atkinson Theatre. December 1969

"A Lesson from Aloes." Playhouse Theatre. December 1980

"The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickelby." Plymouth Theatre. December 1981

"Morning's At Seven." Lyceum Theatre. November 1980

"Oklahoma." Palace Theatre. Mar. 1980

"On Golden Pond." Century Theatre. November 1979

"The Pirates of Penzance." Minskoff Theatre. December 1981

"Plenty." Plymouth Theatre. March 1983

"Rose." Cort Theatre. May 1981

"Scrambled Feet." Village Gate, Upstairs. November 1980

"The Shadow Box." Morosco Theatre. April 1977

"Shakespeare's Cabaret." Bijou Theatre. March 1981

"Sister Mary Ignatius Explains it All for You." Westside Arts Theatre. November 1982

"Strider." Helen Hayes Theatre. November 1979

"The Suicide." Anta Theatre. October 1980

"Talking With." Manhattan Theatre Club. October 1982

"Talley's Folly." Brooks Atkinson Theatre. September 1980

"Top Girls." Newman Theater. March 1983

Lincoln Center for The Performing Arts

The Chamber Music Society. November 1979, March 1980

Clamma Dale. May 1977

New York Philharmonic. October 1977

"Madame Butterfly." December 1981

''Tosca." March 1975

"Il Trovatore." January 1978

Lincoln Center Theater Company:

"'The Floating Light Bulb." Program and brochure. May 1981

"Macbeth." January 1981

"The Philadelphia Story." November 1980

The Repertory Theater of Lincoln Center:

''Camino Real." 1969 -- 1970

"In The Matter of J. Robert Oppenheimer." 1968 -- 1969

"The Playboy of The Western World." 1970 -- 1971

Istomin-Stern-Rose Trio. February 1980

The Philadelphia Orchestra. January 1980

"The Blood Knot." Roundabout

"The Consul." Lillie Blake School Theatre

"Crazy as Zaloom." Theater for the New City

"Gethsemane Springs." Spectrum Theatre

"Irish Coffee." 78th Street Theatre Lab.

"Ivanov." Royal Shakespeare Company. N.Y.

"The Last Sweet Days of Isaac." East Side Playhouse. March 1970

"'Master Harold' ... and the Boys." Warner Theatre

''Mother Courage and Her Children." Newman Theater. May 1980

"Much Ado About Nothing." Royal Shakespeare Company. Stratford-Upon-Avon

"Pantagleize." APA Phoenix

"Reasons to Be Cheerful." Symphony Space. March 1983

"Sorrows of Stephen." Public Theater Cabaret in Martinson Hall. January 1980

"Spell #7." Anspacher Theater. November 1979

"Summerfolk." Brooklyn Academy of Music

"Yegor Bulichov." Long Wharf Theatre. December 1970 -- January 1971