The Pierpont Morgan Library in New York City has acquired the archives of the Paris Review at an estimated price of over $500,000. The collection, which includes manuscripts, author correspondence, photographs, original versions of interviews, and editorial and business records, will be cataloged and made available to scholars in the next year.
The purchase was made with financial help from an anonymous “mutual friend” of the library and the literary journal, the New York Times reported September 27.
Library Director Charles E. Pierce Jr. said, “To have such a treasure trove from the end of this century is really an extraordinary opportunity. It extends the range of our 20th-century collection,” which includes an extensive number of contemporary books from the estate of businessman Carter Burden.
Before its move to the library, the collection—including 100 boxes containing more than 200,000 pages of text—was kept in the basement of the journal’s longtime editor, George Plimpton. Plimpton said money from the sale would go to a foundation to help continue the magazine’s publication.
Posted October 4, 1999.