An Inventory of His Papers at the Harry
Ransom Center
Creator:
Andrews, Wayne, 1913-1987
Title:
Wayne Andrews Papers
Dates:
1930-1988 (bulk circa 1978-1988)
Extent:
4 boxes (1.68 linear feet)
Abstract:
The Wayne Andrews Papers are composed
principally of his notes, research materials, and typescripts for The Surrealist Parade, published by New Directions in
1988. Also included are Andrews' early mimeographed periodicals dating between
1930
and 1932, as well as related personal correspondence from notable Surrealist
figures, 1930-1939.
Call Number:
Manuscript Collection MS-00094
Language:
English and
French
Access:
Open for research. Part or all of this collection is housed off-site
and may require up to three business days notice for access in the
Ransom Center’s Reading and Viewing Room. Please contact the
Center before requesting this material: reference@hrc.utexas.edu
Wayne Andrews was born on September 5, 1913, in Kenilworth, Illinois. As a teenager
he attended the Lawrenceville School, a preparatory boarding school near Princeton,
New Jersey. Andrews' early interests included the French language and culture,
and
through frequent travels to Paris he made the acquaintance of several leaders
of the
burgeoning Surrealist movement. In 1930, at the age of seventeen, Andrews and
Lawrenceville classmate James Douglas Peck co-founded a mimeographed journal of
French culture (written in French) called La revue de
l'élite. The journal went through several iterations and titles (La revue de l'élite, La revue
intime, and Demain) while maintaining an
essentially similar format and nearly identical content and themes. Andrews and
Peck
sent copies of the periodical to the writers, artists, and critics who inspired
them, to a mixed but largely positive reception.
Andrews graduated from Harvard College in 1936 and subsequently worked as a banker
and then as Curator of Manuscripts for the New York Historical Society. In 1956
he
earned a PhD in art history from Columbia University. During his time at Harvard
and
Columbia Andrews wrote Surrealist prose which was later collected in two volumes,
Pianos of Sympathy (1936) and Who Has Been Tampering with These Pianos? (1948), both
published under the pseudonym Montagu O'Reilly. Upon graduation from Columbia
Andrews began work as an editor at Charles Scribner's Sons, and in 1963 wrote
a
biography entitled Germaine: A Portrait of Madame de
Stael.
In 1964 Andrews accepted a position created expressly for him as the Archives of
American Art Professor at Wayne State University in Detroit. In this portion of
his
life Andrews became known as a prolific architectural historian and photographer,
and wrote extensively on the topic. In earlier works such as Architecture, Ambition, and Americans: A Social History of American
Architecture (1955, revised ed. 1978) and Architecture in America: A Photographic History from the Colonial Period to the
Present (1960, revised ed. 1979) Andrews provided introductions to
national architecture, while later publications centered around regional United
States architecture.
Andrews' interest in European culture remained active during this period with his
continued publication of social and cultural histories and biographies, such as
Siegfried's Curse: The German Journey from Nietzsche to
Hesse (1972) and Voltaire (1981).
Andrews' final book, The Surrealist Parade, presents
a "cunningly brief and amusingly opinionated personal history of Surrealism,"
(Richard Burgin, New York Times Book Review, 1990),
the bulk of which is focused around Andrews' acquaintance and friend, Surrealist
leader André Breton. Andrews died of a heart attack at the age of seventy-three
on
August 17, 1987, while travelling in Paris. He lived permanently with his wife
Elizabeth and daughter Elizabeth (Lisa) Waties in Chicago and had nearly completed
his work on The Surrealist Parade. Though the
manuscript was only "nine tenths" finished, according to publisher James Laughlin,
The Surrealist Parade was published by New
Directions in 1988.
Sources:
Andrews, Wayne. The Surrealist Parade. New York: New
Directions, 1988.
"Wayne Andrews, 73, Author and Professor of Art History." New
York Times, 25 August 1987, http://www.nytimes.com (accessed 18
September 2008).
"Wayne Andrews: 1913-1987." Gale Literary Databases,
http://www.galenet.com (accessed 18 September 2008).
"Wayne Andrews Archive (Esto)." ARTstor Digital
Library, http://www.artstor.org (accessed 18 September 2008).
Scope and Contents
The Wayne Andrews Papers are composed principally of his notes, research materials,
and typescripts for The Surrealist Parade, published
by New Directions in 1988. Also included are Andrews' early mimeographed periodicals
dating between 1930 and 1932, as well as related personal correspondence from
notable Surrealist figures, 1930-1939. The papers are arranged in two series:
I.
The Surrealist Parade (3 boxes) and II.
Periodicals and Related Correspondence (1 box).
Series I. makes up the bulk of the collection and contains typescripts and working
files for The Surrealist Parade. The original order
of the materials has been retained: typescripts are divided by chapter and the
working files (including his notes, clippings, and letters on Surrealist figures
and
topics) are organized alphabetically. Andrews' notes additionally contain materials
related to a course he offered on Surrealism at Wayne State University in the
late
1970s and early 1980s (folder 2.4). As Andrews had not completed work on The Surrealist Parade at the time of his death in 1987
and had not yet written the book's bibliography, his daughter, Elizabeth W. Andrews,
provided New Directions with the notebook filled with bibliographic information
that
her father had kept, a photocopy of which is present (folder 3.8).
Series II. contains Andrews' three mimeographed periodicals organized by title:
La revue de l'élite, La
revue intime, and Demain. The series
additionally contains the bulk of Andrews' correspondence dating between 1930
and
1939, organized alphabetically by correspondent. This correspondence relates almost
entirely to the aforementioned mimeographed periodicals, and contains letters
and
postcards from notable French, British, and American writers and thinkers, including
André Breton, Jean Cocteau, W. Somerset Maugham, Ezra Pound, Bertrand Russell,
Paul
Valéry and William Carlos Williams, among others. All correspondents, including
others scattered elsewhere in Series I., are listed in the following Index of
Correspondents in this guide.
Related Material
Several other collections at the Ransom Center contain correspondence from Wayne
Andrews: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc; Contempo; Pavel
Tchelitchew; and Stanley Thomas Williams. Additionally, the Carlton Lake Collection
of French Manuscripts and the J. H. Matthews Papers contain strong Surrealist
content. Related material elsewhere at the University of Texas at Austin is also
present in the Alexander Architectural Archive, where a collection of Andrews'
architectural photographs is held.
