The papers of Arthur Kober illustrate his life and career as a writer. Although superficially the collection appears complete, there is clearly much missing correspondence. In particular, correspondence concerning Kober's relationships with his friends and family is both sparse and scattered, although that which exists is quite interesting. The papers have been arranged into three large series: Correspondence and Related Material, Personal Papers, and Writings. The latter series is comprised mainly of Kober's work.
Kober's CORRESPONDENCE AND RELATED MATERIAL has been arranged alphabetically by writer's last name or organizational name. Most is incoming, and the few copies of Kober's outgoing letters have been filed with the incoming letters. The files date from the 1920's through the 1970's, but are incomplete. Of greatest interest is the file of letters from Lillian Hellman, who remained a close friend of Kober and his family even after her divorce from Kober. There are a few undated letters apparently written before their divorce in 1930, in which Hellman discusses their attempts to have a child and the possibility of their divorce. Later letters are revealing of the nature of their relationship: Hellman selected real estate and new furniture for Arthur and Maggie Kober; had their daughter, Cathy, spend summers with her at Hardscrabble Farm in Pleasantville, New York; and relayed news of Maggie's Frohnknecht relatives. Hellman also discussed her writing, occasionally mentioning Herman Shumlin, Dashiell Hammett, and other friends and acquaintances in the literary world. There are a few of Kober's replies included in Hellman's file.
Other files include letters from family, friends and businesspeople. Among the letters from friends and family are those from Harold and Florence Rome, Irene Lee, Irene Mayer Selznick, and Herman Shumlin, and to his mother, and from his two sisters, Mildred and Kate, and his brother, Will. Business contacts included Bennett Cerf of Random House, who was also considered a friend; Miriam Howell, agent for Curtis Brown, Ltd.; the staff of the New Yorker magazine, among them Wolcott Gibbs, Katherine White, Gus Lobrano, and Robert Henderson; and the staff of the Atlantic Monthly Press; and Robert Lantz and Kenneth McCormick of Doubleday and Co., all concerning publication of Kober's autobiography. All of these letters dealt with revision and publication of Kober's literary manuscripts. Correspondence with agents, with The Author's League of America, Inc. and The Dramatists Guild, Inc.; with producer Kermit Bloomgarden and his assistant, Max Allentuck; with Dramatists Play Service, Inc.; with MCA Management, Ltd. and MCA Artists, Ltd.; with Nat Goldstone Agency; and with Robert Whitehead and Robert Whitehead Productions is also present.
PERSONAL PAPERS include a lengthy run of Kober's diaries, many of which were written on appointment calendars. These are of particular interest to a biographer or researcher, as they contain not only a daily record of appointments and activities, but also Kober's year-end examination of his accomplishments and progress in life. Other personal papers include fragmentary financial, earnings, and pension records; a passport; membership and identification cards; transcribed notes from “The Audience as Collaborator,” a course Kober taught at the New School for Social Research, New York City, in 1953; and other items.
The bulk of the collection consists of Kober's WRITINGS. Since Kober wrote in so many different genres, all of his writings are arranged alphabetically by title. A few of his 1930 newspaper columns, “Hollywood On and Off,” and another unidentified column, were microfilmed with the general reviews and clippings concerning his work, 1930-1969.
Included with his writings are Kober's autobiography, published and unpublished short stories, collections of short stories in book form, plays, screenplays, produced and unproduced teleplays, notes, and story and play ideas. Most of Kober's writings are heavily annotated by him, in an almost-illegible handwriting. Kober apparently wrote at the typewriter, and when he encountered an obstacle, he merely began the sentence or paragraph again. A page of a draft often contains six or eight variations of a topic sentence or paragraph. Kober evidently believed in conserving paper by using not only the front and back of each page, but typing from top to middle and bottom to middle of each. Thus, Kober's drafts often contain several attempts at writing, usually from different works, and the result is extremely confusing to the researcher. In arranging the collection, though an effort was made to collect and file together all pages of each draft, Kober's techniques made this impossible.
At the time of Kober's death, his autobiography (which he often called his “book of reminiscences”) was unpublished, although he had worked on it for many years. Apparently it was to be entitled “Having Terrible Time.” The collection includes numerous drafts of this work, including a version that probably was nearly final. This work clearly reveals Kober's struggles to write. Sections and chapters of the autobiography are worked and reworked, and each page may contain three or four attempts to begin different sections of the book. Some draft pages also appear to contain drafts of either “Teacher Trow” or “Now It Is Summer”; because of this, the arrangement of Kober's autobiography drafts appears disorderly. Also included are chapters prepared for publication as short articles, and notes.
Many of Kober's short stories were published in the New Yorker or other journals, and later collected into book length compilations. A number of these stories are present in the collection, both in draft form, filed alphabetically by title; in printed form, collected under the folder heading “Short Stories Published in the New Yorker”; and in a few cases, in book form, under the title of the book. Others have been microfilmed.
Kober's major works, Having Wonderful Time, Let George Do It!, A Mighty Man Is He, My Dear Bella, Oooh, What You Said!, Thunder Over the Bronx, and Wish You Were Here, are all represented by files of correspondence, royalty statements, and some scripts. Additional records of Having Wonderful Time include box office statements, playbills, song lyrics, and a synopsis of scenes with the author's notes on the sets. From the play Let George Do It!, adapted by Kober from the book by John Foster, records also include character sketches and a scene outline, a production contract, and a synopsis. There are box office statements, a copy of the published play by Kober and George Oppenheimer, and playbills from A Mighty Man Is He. For My Dear Bella there are also captions for the Jim Huff drawings, an outline for a television series, reviews, a copy of the paperback book, and Kober's lists of vocabulary and malapropisms as devised for the Yiddish-American Gross family. Kober's collection of short stories entitled Oooh, What You Said! is only represented by a book manuscript and royalty statements. Likewise, there are only sparse files for Thunder Over the Bronx, consisting solely of a sample book, correspondence with Simon and Schuster, Inc., a draft of Dorothy Parker's preface for the book, promotional postcards, and royalty statements. There are more complete files from Wish You Were Here, including an outline and a program from the Ice Capades skit based on the film, playbills, a scene outline and notes, and sheet music. The reviews and clippings about Having Wonderful Time and Thunder Over the Bronx have been microfilmed.
In the 1930's and 1940's, Kober wrote or edited screenplays in Hollywood; several of those which he edited or for which he wrote scenes are present in the collection. Among the titles represented are Army Wife, Broadway Bad, “City Girl,” The House of Refuge, The Infernal Machine, “It Pays to Advertise,” Make Me a Star, “My Own True Love,” “Quota Girl” (or “Winter Time”), Recipe for Murder, “Two-Faced Quilligan,” and “Will You Remember.”
In the 1950's and 1960's, Kober again went to Hollywood, where he wrote teleplays, several of which were produced. Included are scripts and drafts for episodes of The Danny Thomas Show, General Electric Theatre, Harrigan and Son, Leave It to Beaver, and My Three Sons. There are also a few documents indicating that Kober considered writing scripts for television films and other television series.
