Joanna Russ Papers

The Joanna Russ Papers house manuscripts of books, poetry, articles, and book reviews; class papers written in Russ' last year at Yale University; speeches; and a manuscript diary. The manuscripts are arranged alphabetically by title.

The collection is primarily focused on the early years of Russ' career, beginning with her childhood in the Bronx. A prolific writer from the start, the earliest story in the collection is dated 1942 (marked "dictated"), when she would have been around 5 years old. The bulk of the writing comes from Russ' high school and college years, where she wrote poems, short stories, and plays- both for classes and for pleasure. Russ was published in Epoch magazine while in high school, but her first paid story was "Nor Custom Stale", sold to Fantasy and Science Fiction in 1959. Both stories, along with her numerous poems and stories published in The Cornell Writer can be found in the collection.

As indicated, a substantial amount of juvenilia is included in the collection. These early works by Russ are most often short stories and poems, written in notebooks or hand sewn together into collections and illustrated with crayon and colored pencil. Most of the stories and materials are handwritten, but several typed school papers are included in this category as well.

In 1953, Joanna Russ was a recipient of a Westinghouse Science Talent Search award. Photographs, program, newspaper and magazine articles about this award are included in the awards series.

In 1966, Russ began occasionally reviewing science fiction books for the magazine Fantasy and Science Fiction. Original manuscripts of those reviews are included as well.

Russ began to turn towards literary criticism in the 1960s, and some of that is reflected here. Of particular interest is the original manuscript for her article "Dream Literature and Science Fiction", featured in Extrapolation: A Journal of Science Fiction and Fantasy in 1969.

Box 5 of the collection includes a manuscript for The Two of Them, the last science fiction novel written by Russ, published in 1979. In a letter dated December 17, 1976, Russ notes that this manuscript for The Two of Them is strictly a rough draft. It appears to be in reverse pagainated order, and many page numbers are repeated multiple times, sometimes with similar content and sometimes not. No attempt has been made to reorganize the manuscript, as it is believed to be in the condition that Russ delivered it in.

Researchers will be particularly interested in the notations made by Russ on each manuscript, presumably just before donating them to the Browne Popular Culture Library. These range from indications of the manuscript version to commentary on her own feelings about a particular story. Nearly every manuscript is heavily edited by the author.

Russ is a keystone figure in New Wave Science Fiction as well as feminist literary criticism. This collection offers scholars of her work a significant insight into her development as a writer and thinker.