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Rauner Library Acquires Budd Schulberg '36 Papers

The collected papers of literary giant Budd Schulberg '36 have joined Rauner Special Collections Library. Provost Barry Scherr, whose office provided the funding for the acquisition, says, "Budd Schulberg is an alumnus and an important figure in the world of the arts, so his papers have a special interest for us. The collection contains correspondence and significant material related to the films on which he worked and to his literary writings. It is a major addition to our holdings."

Screenwriter and novelist Budd Schulberg '36 (center) with Watts Writers Workshop members Harry Dolan (left) and Johnnie Scott (right), testifying at a 1966 Senate subcommittee on social justice. This photo is a part of the Schulberg papers recently acquired by Rauner Special Collections Library. (Photo Dartmouth College Library)

Schulberg is best known as the author of the novel What Makes Sammy Run? and the Academy Award-winning screenplay for On the Waterfront, but the 92-year-old writer is also remembered for his contentious role in the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) hearings and for his decades of social justice work.

The collected papers document Schulberg's work and provide a window into his personal life and the high-profile figures with whom he associated and collaborated. The collection features correspondence with his long-time friend Elia Kazan (director of On the Waterfront), Robert F. Kennedy, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and a host of Hollywood celebrities and power brokers.

The papers are still undergoing review by library staff, but already gems including a hand-noted draft of the script for On the Waterfront and early drafts of other projects have come to light.

Dean of the Libraries and Librarian of the College Jeffrey Horrell says, "We are thrilled the Schulberg papers have become part of the Rauner collection. They provide extraordinary insight into events that shaped America's cultural and political landscape. The research potential of the Schulberg papers for the Dartmouth and greater scholarly communities will be extremely valuable for generations to come."

"To have my papers at Dartmouth is truly a dream come true," says Schulberg. "When I was a freshman writing for The Dartmouth I could not have foreseen that I would be honored this way. I am truly delighted."

Jay Satterfield, special collections librarian, adds, "Budd Schulberg has been enmeshed in the social and political fabric of American culture for nearly 80 years and this collection elucidates the 20th-century interrelationship of art, politics, and even sports in America."

Schulberg was born in 1914, the son of B.P. Schulberg, who headed Paramount Pictures, and Adeline Jafee-Schulberg, sister to agent/film producer Sam Jaffe. He attended Deerfield Academy before coming to Dartmouth, where he wrote for both The Dartmouth and The Jack-O-Lantern.

Three years after graduating, Schulberg returned to the College with F. Scott Fitzgerald to collaborate on a screenplay for a film set at Dartmouth's Winter Carnival, a project from which Fitzgerald was ultimately fired. Schulberg later wrote about the experience in his roman á clef, The Disenchanted.

In 1941 Schulberg published his first novel, What Makes Sammy Run? The novel introduced the iconic character of Sammy Glick, and chronicled the cutthroat world of the Hollywood screenwriter. Although it was enormously successful and hailed by critics, including Fitzgerald, it was criticized for its depiction of unions and cost Schulberg his screenwriting job.

Schulberg, like a number of his fellow writers, had once belonged to the Communist Party. He split with the party due to differences over Stalin's Soviet regime and because he believed that the party wished to influence his work. In 1951, writer Richard Collins, a former Communist Party member who had been blacklisted, agreed to give friendly testimony before HUAC in which he named Schulberg as another former member. Schulberg, faced with the prospect of blacklisting, and disillusioned with the party, agreed to be a "friendly witness" and named so-called Communist sympathizers. His willingness, along with Kazan, to "name names" earned him the enmity of his colleagues and remains a polarizing issue.

In 1954, Schulberg and Kazan collaborated on the film On the Waterfront. The film, which stars Marlon Brando and Eva Marie Saint, tells the story of an ex-prize fighter and dock worker who goes against the waterfront code and "names names" in the investigation of mobsters. Winner of eight Academy Awards, the film was considered to be Schulberg and Kazan's response to their critics.

Throughout his life and career, Schulberg has demonstrated his love of boxing. He served as Sports Illustrated's first boxing editor and is the author of Sparring with Hemingway: and Other Legends of the Fight Game (1995), and Loser and Still Champion (1971), a biography of Muhammad Ali. In 2003, he was inducted into the Boxing Hall of Fame.

Schulberg's work with issues of social justice and civil rights is also well-known through a series of writing workshops he initiated in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles after the riots of 1965.

Access to the collection in Rauner will be limited until it is fully processed, but those interested in seeing it can make an appointment with the Rauner Library staff.

By GENEVIEVE HAAS

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