Series I: Jay Leyda Papers

Subseries A: Biographical/Memorabilia includes Leyda's early school records, writings, autobiographical notes and clippings, contracts, awards and documents, membership cards and credentials to the Film and Photo League and the Mosfilms studios. Note: Leyda's parent's marriage certificate, box 1, folder 11A, was repaired (conservation request# 11-205)

Subseries B: Correspondence contains two sub-subseries: alphabetical and chronological. Leyda's earliest professional mentors Ralph Steiner and Julian Levy are included with his Dayton friends, dancer Josephine Schwarz and artist Jack Rau. Lincoln Kirstein is a lifelong correspondent of Leyda's along with his sister Mina Curtiss. Leyda's connection with the Museum of Modern Art began long before he was hired there, and is evidenced in his correspondence with Alfred Barr and members of the Rockefeller family. There is also a thick MOMA correspondence file. His early liaison with activist attorney Carol King brought him in contact with the likes of Joseph and Charmian Freeman, and his involvement in founding the Film and Photo League introduced him to Romana Javitz of the New York Public Library's circulating picture collection. Most of the era's literary and film world personalities corresponded with Jay at one time or another. Important and/or frequent correspondents include: James Agee, Walter Benjamin, Paul Bowles, Luis Bunuel, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Aaron Copeland, Joseph Cornell, Walker Evans, Helga Greene, Langston Hughes, Joris Ivens, Paul Jarrico, Elia Kazan, Carol King, Naum Kleiman, Fritz Lang, Joseph Losey, Albert Maltz, Ivor Montagu, Man Ray, Satyajit Ray, Abby Rockefeller, Muriel Rukeyser, Georges Sadoul, Gilbert Seldes, Marie Seton, Lee Strasberg, Thornton Wilder, and Edmund Wilson. Also included is Leyda's correspondence with his family, including his mother, Margaret Smith, grandmother Margaret Leyda, maternal aunts Mary and Josephine Leyda, and his half sister Jane Smith and her family.

Subseries C: Chinese Cinema contains Leyda's clippings, correspondence, film scripts and research notes, and a typescript of his book Dianying; an account of films and the film audience in China (1972).

Subseries D: Soviet Cinema contains writings, related research notes and clippings, reviews, and some correspondence documenting Leyda's lifelong interest in Soviet cinema and the work of his mentor and sometime collaborator, Sergei Eisenstein. Some are in Russian. There are articles written under the pseudonym James Lincoln for the Moscow News, 1932-36, other articles on Soviet cinema and on Sergei Eisenstein, and letters to Eisenstein. For The Film Sense there are reviews and correspondence. For Kino, there are partial typescripts, reviews, and research notes. There is an unpublished book-length typescript "Letters from Russia" consisting of a selection of letters spanning several centuries. Also included are the research and lecture notes for his reconstruction of Eisenstein's Que Viva Mexico. Shorter Leyda writings include book introductions and reviews, film festival and exhibition catalogs, including an early MOMA film festival, and an editing proposal for Potemkin.

Subseries E: Other Projects principally documents the balance of Leyda's cinema career as educator, curator, and author, and contains several film scripts, lectures and articles, research notes and clippings, reviews, and some correspondence, including that with the Guggenheim Foundation, 1931-42, regarding his fellowship application. The file on A Bronx Morning contains a partial list of film shots. There are Leyda scripts for unproduced movies, including World Unity (1940s) and Conquistador (1943). The file on Bartelby the Scrivener includes scripts, and there is also some correspondence and publications relating to Leyda's work on Melville and Dickinson. There are several files which contain "Germinations," i.e., various project proposals, and several typescripts by novelist and poet Ben Maddow.