Edward Sapir Papers

Mss.Ms.Coll.150

Date: 1910s-1990s | Size: 13.75 Linear feet

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Abstract

Papers pertaining primarily to the literary endeavors of the linguist Edward Sapir and the collection of his published works. Consists of handwritten drafts of Sapir's poetry, as well as subsequent typed and published versions; drafts and copies of Sapir's literary prose, reviews, criticism, and aesthetic writings; detailed card files Sapir kept tracking his poetic, literary, aesthetic, and scientific writings, including where they were submitted and accepted or rejected; typed copies of correspondence with Ruth Benedict; condolence letters to Jean Sapir; a small volume of other correspondence between Edward Sapir and others; and later correspondence from the 1970s-1980s among Sapir's children and intellectual heirs primarily concerning the assembling of his Collected Works and the celebration of his centennary. This collection contains no primary source material by Sapir relating to his linguistic or anthropological work. (See Related Materials.)

Scope and content

The collection is currently (as of 2018) arranged into the following series for paging. However, the exact arrangement and items within each series are likely to change once full processing is underway.

Series I. General correspondence	boxes 1-2	1 linear foot
Subseries I. Condolence letters to Jean Sapir	box 1	0.5 linear feet
Subseries II. Other correspondence	box 2	0.5 linear feet
Series II. Works by Sapir	boxes 3-15	6.5 linear feet
Subseries I. Poetry	boxes 3-7	2.25 linear feet
Subseries II. Music	box 8	1 linear foot
Subseries III. Other	box 9-15	3.25 linear feet
Series III. "Collected Works of Edward Sapir", Sapir Centennial	boxes 16-24	4.5 linear feet
Series IV. Works by others and printed materials	boxes 25-26	1 linear foot
Series V. Notecards	boxes 27-28	0.5 linear feet
Series VI. Digital objects	box 29	0.25 linear feet

Series I Subseries I contains condolence letters on the event of Edward Sapir's passing. Series I Subseries II includes: Margaret Mead's typeset selection of letters from Edward Sapir to Ruth Benedict, used in her biography of Benedict; correspondence concerning this; correspondence with Mary Haas; correspondence with Jean Sapir; photocopies of other 1910s Sapir correspondence. Series II Subseries I is mostly chronologically arranged poetry, including some unpublished. Series II Subseries II is sheet music composed by Edward Sapir. Series II Subseries III includes: original typeset reviews, cultural anthropology meta-discourse, and articles on race, as well as many published works by Sapir as reprints, offprints, and photocopies. Series III includes: abundant correspondence between Philip Sapir and editors and collaborators toward the "Collected Works" series and the Sapir Centennial; draft volumes and outlines; a bibliography of Edward Sapir; photographs of some of Edward Sapir's consultants and colleagues; a small volume of work on Hupa from the late 20th century. Series IV contains Edward Sapir's personal copies of others' publications, and reviews and studies of Sapir's research (much gathered for the "Collected Works" series). Series V contains notecards pertaining to Sapir's publications, and Series VI contains several 5 1/4 inch floppy disks of unknown contents.

Collection Information

Provenance

Gift of J. David Sapir, 2008 and 2013.

Processing information

Partially processed by Brian Carpenter (2017) and arranged into series by Paul Sutherland (2018).

Related material

The majority of Edward Sapir's fieldwork and other linguistic and ethnographic materials that are at the APS are found in the ACLS Collection (Mss.497.3.B63c). See the Indigenous Subject Guide for comprehensive listings of collections with Sapir materials.