The Ida Compton papers contain mostly letters written to Ida Kay Compton by Sinclair Lewis and others, dating from 1947 to 1985. Also included are clippings about Sinclair Lewis, including some written by and about Ida Kay Compton. In addition, the papers contain audio recordings of Lewis in the 1940s.
Sinclair Lewis wrote 18 letters and one telegram to Ida Kay Compton from 1947 to 1950. In these letters, Lewis mostly lived or was traveling in Europe. He described the people he was met and his home in Florence. Lewis also wrote about his new secretary, Alex Manson. The remainder of his letters discussed Ida's upcoming visit to Europe in the summer of 1950.
Other correspondence includes letters from Claude and Helen Lewis. Dated mostly around the death of Sinclair Lewis in 1951, these letters chronicle Ida's trip to Minnesota for the memorial service, as well as the disposition of Sinclair's personal property.
Letters written by Mark Schorer, who was writing a biography of Lewis, asked Ida for her memories of Lewis, while letters from Bennett Cerf and Harry Maule discussed an incident involving a confrontation with Sinclair Lewis over World So Wide, a book published in 1951.
Especially noteworthy are letters written by and to Barnaby Conrad, detailing Ida's friendship with Sinclair Lewis. Conrad briefly served as Lewis' secretary in 1947.
Other significant material are the newspaper clippings collected by Ida Kay Compton. Many dealt with the death of Sinclair Lewis, book reviews about publications of Lewis' life, as well as a few about Ida Compton herself, which dated in 1985.
The papers include audio recordings of Lewis from the 1940s and may be the only recordings Lewis' voice that survive. The large vinyl records have been reformatted onto a reel-to-reel tape and an audio cassette.
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