John Ferrone Papers
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Abstract
John Ferrone (August 14, 1924 – April 10, 2016) was an American book editor working for Dell Publishing and Harcourt, Brace, & World (later Harcourt Brace Jovanovich). Ferrone retired from Harcourt Brace Jovanovich in 1990, but over his career, he had numerous clients including: Eudora Welty, Anais Nin, Helen McCully, C.S. Lewis, Alice Walker, and James Beard. Ferrone's close friendship with James Beard led to much collaboration in the kitchen, as well as in the publication world. After James Beard's death in 1985, Ferrone served as Beard's literary executor. The John Ferrone Papers roughly span from 1942 to 2012, with the bulk of the materials dating between 1970 to the early 1990s. This collection contains correspondence; press-clippings containing articles, essays, and columns written by James Beard; and article and manuscript drafts. Most of the materials relate to James Beard, however, there are also papers related to Ferrone's other clients as well.
Biographical note
John Ferrone (August 14, 1924 – April 10, 2016) was an American book editor working for Dell Publishing and Harcourt, Brace, & World (later Harcourt Brace Jovanovich). Ferrone retired from Harcourt Brace Jovanovich in 1990, but over his career, he had numerous clients including: Eudora Welty, Anais Nin, Helen McCully, C.S. Lewis, Alice Walker, and James Beard. Ferrone's close friendship with James Beard led to much collaboration in the kitchen, as well as in the publication world. After James Beard's death in 1985, Ferrone served as Beard's literary executor.
Arrangement
This collection has not been arranged by an archivist. The materials are arranged in the order in which they were received at the time of purchase.
Scope and Contents
The John Ferrone Papers roughly span from 1942 to 2012, with the bulk of the materials dating between 1970 to the early 1990s. This collection contains correspondence; press-clippings containing articles, essays, and recipes written by James Beard; and manuscripts for books edited by Ferrone.
The majority of this collection relates to cookbook author and chef, James Beard, one of Ferrone's biggest clients and closest friends. Ferrone kept a record of his personal and business collaboration with James Beard over several decades by saving their correspondence as well as copies of works written by Beard including magazine articles, columns, essays, and drafts.
In addition to Ferrone's correspondence with Beard, the correspondence files also include papers related to Ferrone's role as literary executor of Beard's estate, including correspondence with various publishers and book distributors regarding royalties and licensing fees. Ferrone also saved his correspondences with the Chalfont Agency, the literary agency in charge of the Beard Estate. Drafts of The Essential James Beard Cookbook, co-edited by Ferrone, are included in this collection. Additionally, Ferrone kept copies of Beard's correspondence with chef and cookbook author Helen Evans Brown. In 1994 Ferrone used this correspondence to publish Love and Kisses and a Halo of Truffles: Letters to Helen Evans Brown, an edited selection of letters from Beard and Brown's correspondence and a manuscript of the book, under the title Beard to Brown: A Mostly Culinary Correspondence, is incuded in this collection.
The rest of the correspondence files include information about John Ferrone's time working at and his departure from Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, as well as his communications with clients other than Beard. The collection contains correspondence with clients who were involved in literary projects that included the writings of Eudora Welty, Anaïs Nin, Jack London, Helen McCully, Virginia Woolf, Violet Trefusis, and C.S. Lewis. Ferrone did not work directly with all of these authors; in some cases he published lesser-known works, correspondences, and compilations created after the author's death. Information about these projects, including correspondence about contracts, liscensing, and editorial decisions can be found in the correspondence files.
This collection also includes the manuscript for Hellen McCully's Waste Not Want Not: A Cookbook of Delicious Foods from Leftovers published in 1975.
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Conditions Governing Access
Materials are open without restrictions.
Conditions Governing Use
This collection is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use materials in the collection in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).
Preferred Citation
Identification of item, date; John Ferrone Papers; MSS 411; box number; folder number or item identifier; Fales Library and Special Collections, New York University.
Location of Materials
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Purchased from James Cummins Booksellers in 2014. The accession number associated with this acquisition is 2014.411.
About this Guide
Processing Information
A graduate student in the Fall 2019 session of Advanced Archival Description HIST-GA.2031 surveyed and wrote a processing plan for this collection. This collection was described by an archivist in the spring of 2021. Materials were placed in new acid-free folders and boxes. Original folder titles were retained when available.
