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Harvena Richter Papers

 Collection
Identifier: MSS-474-BC

Scope and Content

The collection emphasizes Harvena Richter's career as author and teacher. There are three topical series; published works, unpublished works and classroom materials. Published works consists of manuscripts and early drafts of her books The Human Shore and Virginia Woolf: The Inward Voyage, as well as copies of periodicals containing her poetry and short stories.

Among the unpublished works are manuscripts for two novels and a short story. There is also a presentation outline for a book based on her father's notebooks. The outline contains extensive quotes from the notebooks, which detail Conrad Richter's thoughts on writing.

Harvena Richter's classroom materials are collections of handwritten notes and source materials on various subjects in literature. Some of these notes she took as a student and probably used later as an instructor.

Dates

  • 1933-1985

Creator

Language of Materials

English.

Access Restrictions

The collection is open for research.

Copy Restrictions

Limited duplication of CSWR material is allowed for research purposes. User is responsible for compliance with all copyright, privacy, and libel laws. Permission is required for publication or distribution.

Biography

Harvena Richter, author and educator, was born in Reading, Pennsylvania on March 13, 1919. She grew up in Pennsylvania and New Mexico hearing her father, Conrad Richter, read aloud from his writing. As a teenager she published her first poem in the New Mexico Quarterly.

She attended the University of New Mexico, receiving a B.A. in 1938. Her graduate work was at New York University, where she received an M.A. in 1955 and a Ph.D. in 1967. She was a lecturer in humanities and literature at New York University, 1955-66, and has been a visiting Professor of English at the University of New Mexico since 1969.

Her writing career began in advertising as a copywriter for Saks Fifth Avenue, 1942-43. She went on to write advertising copy for Macy's and Elizabeth Arden, 1943-47, and was advertising director for I. Miller, 1947-48. Leaving advertising to go into newspaper work, she was a New York based feature writer and later a free-lance writer for the North American Newspaper Alliance, the Women's National News Service, the European edition of the New York Herald Tribune and the Christian Science Monitor, 1949-53.

Harvena Richter's published writings are The Human Shore (Little, Brown, 1959), Virginia Woolf: The Inward Voyage (Princeton Univ. Press, 1970) and numerous short stories and poems in magazines including, the Saturday Evening Post, the New Yorker, Atlantic Monthly and New America. She also edited a collection of stories by Conrad Richter, The Rawhide Knot and Other Stories (Knopf, 1978).

Extent

4 boxes (4 cu.ft.)

Related Archival Material

Conrad Richter Letters Center for Southwest Research, University Libraries, University of New Mexico

Processing Information

Inquire with reference staff for access to unprocessed addition (January 2012)- 10 boxes, B3-13A. Included are unpublished poetry, manuscript drafts, correspondence, journal pages, photos, and a large map of colonial Mexico.
Title
Finding aid of the Harvena Richter Papers, 1933-1985
Status
Approved
Author
Processed by CSWR Staff
Date
©2000
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin
Language of description note
Finding aid is in English

Revision Statements

  • June 28, 2004: PUBLIC "-//University of New Mexico::Center for Southwest Research//TEXT (US::NmU::MSS 474 BC::Harvena Richter Papers)//EN" "nmu1mss474bc.sgml" converted from EAD 1.0 to 2002 by v1to02.xsl (sy2003-10-15).
  • Monday, 20210524: Attribute normal is missing or blank.

Repository Details

Part of the UNM Center for Southwest Research & Special Collections Repository

Contact:
University of New Mexico Center for Southwest Research & Special Collections
University Libraries, MSC05 3020
1 University of New Mexico
Albuquerque NM 87131
505-277-6451