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Helen McKelvey Oakley papers

 Collection
Identifier: MG 217

Scope and Contents

The collection, An Alphabet of Christmas Words, spans the years 1963-1967. Included in the collection are preliminary research notes, early drafts, manuscript, galley proofs, mock-up, and three copies of the printed booklet, two signed by the author. The collection also includes correspondence between author, Helen McKelvey Oakley, and her publisher, Oxford University Press, as well as letters from readers and colleagues commenting on the booklet.

Dates

  • Creation: 1963-1967

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

Collection is open for research.

Biographical / Historical

"An Alphabet of Christmas Words" is a Christmas keepsake booklet published by Oxford University Press in 1966. It was written by author Helen McKelvey Oakley and illustrated by Ursula Seuss.

Helen McKelvey Oakley was born in 1906 in New York, New York to Ralph Huntington McKelvey and Helen A. Fairchild. In 1928, she completed a degree from Bryn Mawr College; the following year, she founded a bookstore in New York City, which she worked at for twelve years. In August 1938, she married Walter T. Oakley, with whom she moved to Manhasset, New York and had two daughters. In her later career, she wrote and published several books. Under the name Helen Oakley, she published The Horse on the Hill (1957); The Ranch by the Sea (1959); The Enchanter's Wheel (1962); and Freedom's Daughter (1968). In 1966, as Helen McKelvey Oakley, she published the booklet An Alphabet of Christmas Words through Oxford University Press. As Helen McK. Oakley, she published the booklet “Christopher Morley on Long Island” (1967), and the biography “Three Hours for Lunch: The Life and Times of Christopher Morley” (1976). She died in Manhasset, New York in 2003.

Extent

0.5 Cubic Feet

Language of Materials

English

Abstract

The collection, An Alphabet of Christmas Words, spans the years 1963-1967. Included in the collection are preliminary research notes, early drafts, manuscript, galley proofs, mock-up, and three copies of the printed booklet, two signed by the author; also, correspondence with the publisher Oxford University Press and letters commenting on the booklet.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Materials were found in Special Collection stack area in December 1989.

Title
Guide to Helen McKelvey Oakley papers
Status
Completed
Author
Finding aid prepared by Trixie Zwolfer.
Date
2024
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin
Language of description note
Finding aid written in English.

Repository Details

Part of the University of Idaho Library, Special Collections and Archives Repository