Brad Gooch Collection on Dorothy Dean
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Abstract
Editor, proofreader, club bouncer, and member of Andy Warhol's Factory Dorothy Dean (1932-1987) lived in Cambridge, Massachussetts during the 1950s while attending Radcliffe College, and eventually moved to New York where she lived and worked from the 1960s to the late 1970s. This collection contains letters to Dorothy Dean and her personal files, removed from her apartment before she left for Boulder, Colorado in 1980. The largest portion of the letters are from her mother, chronicling the mother-daughter relationship of an upper-middle class African-American family, spanning thirty years. Letters from friend and writer Paul Schmidt describe his experiences as he served in the army through the 1950s and 1960s, and later as a professor. Among her many correspondents, actress Edie Sedgewick, politician Harvey Milk, and playwright Jean-Claude van Itallie wrote to Dean during this time, describing their work and lives. This collection also contains personal files, including eight issues of her short-lived self-published film review newsletter All-Lavender Cinema Courier, files related to a legal dispute with her neighbors, freelance work files on various editing and proofreading jobs, address books, a small number of photographs, and erotic stories written by Dean.
Biographical Note
Editor, proofreader, club bouncer, and member of Andy Warhol's Factory Dorothy Dean was born in 1932. As one of only a few African-Americans attending at that time, she received her undergraduate and graduate degrees from Radcliffe College in the 1950s, and studied art history on a Fulbright Scholarship in Amsterdam. Dean moved to New York in the 1960s and worked as a proofreader and editor at a variety of well-known publishers and magazines, changing jobs frequently. She eventually ended up doing freelance work. Dean was also the door person at famed nightclub and artistic hangout Max's Kansas City. She had many writer and artist friends from her Radcliffe/Harvard days, and upon moving to New York, added to that circle of friends, becoming part of Andy Warhol's Factory. She appeared in several Factory films, including My Hustler, and Afternoon. In 1980, Dean moved to Boulder, Colorado where she worked in a bookstore and as a proofreader until she died in 1987.
Sources: Als, Hilton, Friends of Dorothy,The New Yorker,April 24, 1995. Als, Hilton. The Women. New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 1998. pp. 67-117.
Arrangement
Correspondence files, previously arranged alphabetically, were condensed and rearranged by the archivist, beginning with general correspondence files by decade, followed by folders arranged in alphabetical order by last name, for those with more than two letters to Dean. All other letters were placed in general correspondence. The personal files were not arranged by an archivist, but left in the order in which they were received from the donor.
Scope and Contents
This collection contains letters to Dorothy Dean, as well as personal files taken from her apartment, before she moved to Boulder, Colorado in 1980. The largest portion of the letters are from her mother, chronicling their more than 30 year mother/daughter relationship, offering life, relationship, and monetary advice. These letters also illustrate issues of an upper-middle class African-American family in the 1950s and 1960s, with mentions of race, financial struggles after the death of Dean's minister father, and general family news. A large selection of letters from friend and writer Paul Schmidt describe his experiences in the miliary in the 1950s and 1960s as he moved around, serving in the army and later as a writer and professor. Actress Edie Sedgewick, politician Harvey Milk, and playwright Jean-Claude van Itallie also wrote to Dean, describing their stints in rehab, drug use, sex lives, dating, their work in art and writings, and travel. This collection contains Dean's personal files, including eight issues of her short-lived self-published film review newsletter All-Lavender Cinema Courier, files and diaries related to her legal dispute with neighbors, freelance editing/proofreading work files, address books, a small number of photographs, and erotic stories written by Dean.
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Conditions Governing Access
Materials are open without restrictions.
Conditions Governing Use
NYU's Fales Library & Special Collections is not the copyright owner for this collection. Collection use is subject to all copyright laws. Researchers wishing to reproduce collection material should contact rights holders for permission.
Preferred Citation
Identification of item, date; Brad Gooch Collection on Dorothy Dean; MSS 284; box number; folder number; Fales Library and Special Collections, New York University.
Location of Materials
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Donated by Brad Gooch in September, 2010; the accession number associated with this gift is 2010.284.
About this Guide
Processing Information
Between 2010-2017, a Fales Library student worker removed a portion of the letters from envelopes, foldered them, arranged them alphabetically, and wrote minimal folder titles. In 2017, an archivist refoldered the remainder of the material, and wrote a finding aid. In 2019, correspondence which had been separated from the original accession was cleared and returned by the conservation team. An archivist refoldered and sorted the material by decade and placed it in appropriate sized boxes. These folders were added to existing file entries in the finding aid.
