This collection is organized into eight series.
The Books Series consists of published stage plays and screenplays written by Odets, books belonging to or inscribed by Odets, biographical publications about Odets, novels that Odets adapted into screenplays, and stage plays written by other Group Theatre writers. The bulk of the Correspondence Series is Odets's letters to his friend Bill Kozlenko. Other letters sent by Odets to a variety of correspondents are also included.
The Contracts Series consists of contracts Odets signed with movie studios.
The Manuscripts Series consists of scripts, notes, and test scenes from Odets's various projects, including a scrapped film called Joseph. Also included are proofs of The Time Is Right: The 1940 Journal of Clifford Odets, published posthumously in 1988.
The Photographs Series includes portraits and photos of Odets, portraits of Odets's first wife Luise Rainer, and photos of film and stage productions of Odets's works.
The Magazines Series comprises magazines with articles or advertisements about Odets or his works or colleagues, organized chronologically.
The bulk of the Ephemera Series are playbills and lobby cards for Odets's plays and movies. Also included are one sheets, small flyers, pressbooks, and tickets. Two of the pamphlets feature Odets's writing, while the pamphlet by Margaret Brenman-Gibson is an analysis of Odets and his work.
The A/V Series consists of two LPs: a recording of the original Broadway cast of the Golden Boy musical adaptation and a recording of Odets in conversation with Herman Harvey.
Clifford Odets was an American playwright and screenwriter. In 1931, Odets joined the Group Theatre, a theatre collective in New York City, as an actor. He soon began writing plays of his own, debuting his play Waiting for Lefty in 1935 to great acclaim. Odets quickly became the Theatre Group's premier writer; he wrote and put on three more plays in 1935 alone. Left-wing audiences praised his plays for their progressive, pro-labor ideals and critiques of capitalism and fascism.
Following the success of Waiting for Lefty, Odets began doing credited and uncredited writing for Hollywood movies. Some of his plays, including Golden Boy and The Country Girl, were also adapted into films by other screenwriters. Though the Group Theatre dissolved in 1941 and his career as a playwright waned, Odets continued working in Hollywood up until his death in 1963.
In 1952, Odets was summoned to appear as a witness before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), which was investigating suspected communists in Hollywood. Odets had briefly joined the communist party in 1934 but by 1952 no longer affiliated with the party. He cooperated with HUAC, denouncing communism and naming names of other former communists already known to the committee. Though Odets's testimony saved him from blacklisting, many of his fans and colleagues felt he had betrayed the ideals espoused in his earlier works. Odets found himself ostracized in Hollywood circles, and his guilt about his cooperation with HUAC reportedly made it difficult for him to write.
In 1937, Odets married actress Luise Rainer. The two divorced in 1940. Odets later married Bette Grayson; the couple had two children together. Odets died in 1963 of stomach cancer, at the age of 57.
Dr. Gabriel Miller, the collector of these materials, was a professor of film and drama at Rutgers University. He has authored and edited numerous books, including a biography of Clifford Odets (Clifford Odets, 1989) and an anthology of critical essays about Odets (Critical Essays on Clifford Odets, 1991).
