Elsa Barker papers

The Elsa Barker papers provide a window into the early 20th century literary world on both sides of the Atlantic. Her poems, especially the one written for the Peary Expedition to the North Pole, were popular enough to be set to music. She was a founding member of the Poetry Society of America and the Progressive Stage Society. Her books by the Living Dead Man which she produced by automatic writing (the process or production of writing material that does not come from the conscious thoughts of the writer) were best sellers at the end of World War I. Her detective stories, which featured the debonair Dexter Drake, ran in popular magazines alongside articles by F. Scott Fitzgerald and Mary Roberts Rhinehart. Barker corresponded with Ted Shawn, one of the founders of the modern dance movement, had a play produced in Boston and New York, studied psychology and psychoanalysis briefly with Jung and was a member of the Rosicrucian Order of Alpha et Omega. In short she was part of the major intellectual and emotional movements of the 1920's and 1930's.

Format(s): Manuscripts, Graphics, Letters, Documents
Library: John Hay
NOTE: This collection is housed off-site. Prior notice is needed for retrieval

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Access to the collection:

Online Catalog (BruKnow):
General description of the collection available on BruKnow

Other Online Access:
RIAMCO: Guide to the Elsa Barker papers