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Guide to the Cyrus Colter Papers

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Collection Overview
Date Span:
Creator: Colter, Cyrus (1910-)
Extent: 1.00 linear foot.
Collection Number: MSC0954
Repository: University of Iowa Special Collections
Summary: Materials relating to The Beach Umbrella.

Access: Thiss collection is open for research.

Use: Copyright restrictions may apply; please consult Special Collections staff for further information.

Acquisition:

Preferred Citation: Cyrus Colter Papers, The University of Iowa Libraries, Iowa City, Iowa.

Repository: University of Iowa Special Collections
Address: Special Collections Department
University of Iowa Libraries
Iowa City, IA 52242
Phone: 319-335-5921
Curator: Greg Prickman
Email: lib-spec@uiowa.edu
Website: http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/sc

Cyrus Colter was born in 1910 in Noblesville, Indiana. He received a bachelor's degree from Ohio State University and his law degree from the Chicago-Kent College of Law. After careers in government service, law, the Army, and academia, Colter began writing at fifty. A Chance Meeting was published in 1960. He continued to publish short stories and in 1970 fourteen of his stories are collected in his first book, The Beach Umbrella. This book won the Iowa School of Letters Award for Short Fiction.
 
Colter went on to write more books concerned with the black experience in the United States, which he treated in a realistic-naturalistic way.

The boxes contain materials concerning the Iowa School of Letters Award for Short Fiction as awarded to Colter, multiple drafts of the stories within the award-winning book, The Beach Umbrella, and copies of the stories within the book as published in different volumes.

Browse by Series:
Series 1: GENERAL

  • Series 1: GENERAL
  • Box 1:
  • Draft of a speech by Vance Bourjaily on behalf of Cyrus Colter for his short story collection award
  • Press concerning the publication of The Beach Umbrella, and the presentation of the Iowa School of Letters Award for Short Fiction to Colter
  • Correspondence from Arthur J. Pflughaupt, manuscript editor at the University of Iowa Press
  • Copies of Colters stories as published in journals. 2 copies, one of which was used in revising the stories included in The Beach Umbrella
  • Review copy of The Beach House, with dust jacket
  • Design sketches for the cover and front matter for The Beach Umbrella. Book and jacket design by John Goetz of Chicago
  • Edited manuscript for The Beach Umbrella, as submitted to the North Central Publishing Company
  • Page proofs Beach Umbrella
    3 folders
  • Box 2:
  • Galley proofs The River of Eros
  • Draft of Girl Friend
  • First draft and first revision of After the Ball

This collection is indexed under the following subject terms.