Frederick Exley papers
Creator: Exley, Frederick
Call Number: D.247
Dates: 1924-1998
Physical Description: 36 boxes, 5 package, 4 oversize box
Language(s): Materials are in English
Repository: Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation, River Campus Libraries, University of Rochester

Table of Contents:

Biographical/Historical Note
Scope and Content
Arrangement
Subject(s)
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Access
Use
Citation
Content List
Series I: Correspondence
Box 1: Named correspondence, "A" to "D"
Box 2: Named correspondence, "E"
Box 3: Named correspondence, "F" to "G"
Box 4: Named correspondence, "H" to "McDonell"
Box 5: Named correspondence, "McGrady" to "Ray"
Box 6: Named correspondence, "Remsen" to "U"
Box 7: Named correspondence, "V" to "Z"; Unidentified correspondence
Series II: Exley's manuscripts
Box 8a: Novels—manuscripts and typescripts (from all three); publisher's foul matter
Box 8aa: Novels—manuscripts and typescripts
Box 8b: Novels—manuscripts and typescripts (from all three); publisher's foul matter
A Fan's Notes:
Pages from a Cold Island:
Last Notes from Home: (See also Boxes 9 and 10)
Box 8c: Novels—manuscripts and typescripts (from all three); publisher's foul matter
Last Notes from Home: (See also Boxes 9 and 10)
Foul matter from Random House, received Dec 1988 :
Box 9a: Novels—publisher's foul matter from Last Notes from Home (cont.)
Box 9b: Novels—publisher's foul matter from Last Notes from Home (cont.)
Box 9c: Novels—Publisher's foul matter from Last Notes from Home (cont.)
Box 10: Novels—autograph manuscript material from Last Notes from Home
Box 11: Published articles, 1979-1993—manuscripts and typescripts
Box 12: Unpublished articles/ miscellaneous manuscript material; Printed publications
Unpublished articles, intended for publication-manuscripts and typescripts:
Miscellaneous manuscript material:
Printed publications (clippings/issues, arranged alphabetically by publication title):
Box 13 (flat box): Printed publications—oversize
Series III: Manuscript material by other writers
Box 14: Manuscripts and typescripts by others
Series IV: Printed material and ephemera
Box 15: Clippings from newspapers, magazines, journals, etc.
Box 16: Miscellaneous printed ephemera
Box 17 (flat box): Miscellaneous printed ephemera-oversize
Box 18 (flat box): Yearbooks; Scrapbook
Series V: Financial, legal, medical, and personal materials
Box 19: Frederick Exley's personal items and records
Box 20 (flat box): Court proceedings transcript
Series VI: Ephemera and memorabilia
Box 21: Photographs
Box 22 (flat box): Audio/visual materials
Box 23: Fragile ephemera items
Box 24 (flat box): Clothing
Box 25 (flat box): Typewriter
Series VII: Yardley materials
Box 26: Research notes and materials-folders arranged by Yardley
Box 27: Research notes and materials--folders arranged by Yardley (cont.)
Box 28: Research notes and materials-folders arranged by Yardley (cont.)
Box 29: Miscellaneous correspondence and Misfit ephemera
Box 30: Misfit manuscript material-foul matter from Random House
Box 31: Misfit manuscript material-foul matter from Random House (cont.)
Box 32: Misfit manuscript material-foul matter from Random House (cont.)
Box 33: Correspondence
Manuscript, typescript and printed material authored by Frederick Exley, including his three published novels, published and unpublished magazine articles, as well as unpublished and unidentified fiction, and an unidentified lecture.
Box 35:
Manuscript Material By Other Authors :
Printed materials, mostly relating to Exley's life and work, including reviews of Exley's three published novels; arranged alphabetically by author's last name in each catagory.
Box 36:
About or related to Frederick Exley:
Includes a variety of finanicial documents: royalty statements, expense reports, bills, and tax forms and other personal documents, such as, Exley's selective service card. Arranged chronologically.
Includes photographs and an invitation to a posthumous tribute to Exley at the Lion's Head.
Series VIII: Oversize ephemera
Collection Overview
Title: Frederick Exley papers
Creator: Exley, Frederick
Call Number: D.247
Dates: 1924-1998
Physical Description: 36 boxes, 5 package, 4 oversize box
Language(s): Materials are in English
Repository: Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation, River Campus Libraries, University of Rochester

Biographical/Historical Note
Born and raised in Watertown, NY, writer and novelist Frederick Exley (1929-1992) is best known for his "fictional memoir" A Fan's Notes, published in 1968. While the rest of Exley's writing career was not as successful or lucrative as most of his contemporaries, critics and fans alike consider A Fan's Notes to be a masterpiece of modern American fiction, earning Exley somewhat of a cult following. The substantially autobiographical work was the first and most acclaimed in a trilogy of novels including Pages from a Cold Island(1975) and Last Notes from Home(1988). Exley also contributed articles to a number of magazines throughout his career, including Esquire and Rolling Stone, the latter of which serialized four installments of Last Notes from Home prior to its publication as a novel by Random House.

CHRONOLOGY

(See bibliography in Appendix B for a complete list of Exley's publications.)

1926 Fred's brother William Exley born, September 18.

1929 Frederick Earl Exley born in Watertown, NY, March 28; Twin sister Frances born thirty minutes earlier.

1933 Fred's sister Constance Exley born, August 13.

1945 Charity basketball game for Fred's father Earl Exley, January 1; Earl Exley dies, August 7.

1946 In car accident, May 31; Breaks arm, unable to graduate high school in June.

1947 Graduates from high school in January, after extensive recovery; works at local railroad; awarded $14,000 in damages from accident, buys first car; mother Charlotte Exley remarries to H. Wally Richardson, June 7.

1948 Does post-graduate coursework at John Jay High, Katonah, NY; plays basketball there, named to conference all-star team; Charlotte moves to limestone house at Pamelia Four Corners, outside Watertown.

1949 Enters Hobart College.

1950 Enters University of Southern California; begins to follow football career of fellow student Frank Gifford at USC.

1951 Takes Selective Service physical examination, rejected because of arm injury.

1952 Leaves USC for New York City, without his degree, to find employment; Frank Gifford drafted by the New York Giants, also leaves USC without his degree.

1953 Returns to USC after unable to find employment in New York; graduates USC with A.B. in English; moves to New York City, works at public relations for New York Central Railroad.

1954 Transferred to NY Central Railroad's Chicago office.

1955 Joins Chicago's Rock Island Railroad as public relations representative, February; becomes managing editor of The Rocket, the railroad's employee magazine; first published writing appears in The Rocket.

1956 Loses job in Chicago, heads west in winter of 1956-1957.

1957 After a series of moves and odd jobs around the country, moves into stone house at Pamelia Four Corners with Charlotte and Wally Richardson.

1958 Admitted to Stony Lodge, a private mental institution in Westchester County, NY; meets Francena Fritz, begins courting her after his brief stay at Stony Lodge; admitted to Harlem Valley, state mental institution (prototype for "Avalon Valley" in AFN); begins writing, early stages of A Fan's Notes.

1959 Released from Harlem Valley in the fall; marries Francena, October 31; moves to Greenwich, CT; gets brief teaching position at Port Chester, NY.

1960 First daughter, Pamela Rae Exley, born April 29.

1961 Gets provisional appointment as clerk and crier of the courts in Jefferson County, NY, May; forges signature on check for friend Gordon Phillips's legal client, August 23.

1962 Disbarment proceedings for Gordon Phillips, June 11; Francena obtains a divorce from Fred at her father's request; Fred begins several years of intermittent teaching jobs in Clayton, Gouverneur, Indian River, NY; begins decade of living and vacationing on Singer Island in Riviera Beach, FL; Another stay at Harlem Valley.

1963 Continues working on A Fan's Notes seriously.

1964 Sends manuscript for A Fan's Notes to Houghton Mifflin where it is turned down but Fred is encouraged; sneds manuscript to Joe Fox at Random House, who suggests an agent, Lynn Nesbit; Lynn Nesbit begins shopping manuscript around; David Segal at Harper & Row accepts manuscript, advance to Fred of $3000; Segal begins enthusiastic promotion of A Fan's Notes.

1965 Fred meets Nancy Glenn while on vacation in Palm Beach Shores, FL; gets job as bookkeeper for The Buccaneer, Nancy's husband's resort.

1966 Nancy separates from husband, moves in with Fred; Fred works at Palm Beach Post's copy desk.

1967 Nancy becomes pregnant, moves with Fred into stone house with Charlotte and Wally; Fred and Nancy marry, September 13, move to Syracuse, NY; Wally Richardson dies of a coronary occlusion, October 15.

1968 Second daughter, Alexandra Exley, born January 12; Fred and Nancy separate, Nancy becomes pregnant with another child; Fred has first version of a last will and testament drawn up; Begins working on his second novel, Pages from a Cold Island; A Fan's Notes published by Harper & Row, September; Fred and Nancy reconcile and move back to Syracuse, October.

1969 A Fan's Notesnominated for the National Book Award for Fiction; receives William Faulkner Award for best first novel of 1968; Nancy's son, Robert Brandon Exley, born April 8, with severe birth defects; Fred and Nancy separate again; Fred receives Rosenthal Award from National Institute of Arts and Letters, May 21; Rockefeller Foundation awards Fred $10,000 writing grant, June; Fred and Nancy begin divorce proceedings, September; Paperback edition of A Fan's Notes published by Ballantine Books, Inc., November.

1970 Charlotte purchases small house on Walton St. in Alexandria Bay, NY; Fred temporarily moves in, still spends much time in Florida working on Pages from a Cold Island; Charlotte's home becomes Fred's home base for next 20 years; British edition of A Fan's Notes published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London.

1971 Fred's divorce to Nancy final, January 8; Robert Brandon Exley dies; Fred travels to Rome in fall?; interviews Gloria Steinem, December.

1972 Reads for the Writers Workshop at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, April; returns to Iowa City in the fall as a guest lecturer for the entire semester; movie version of A Fan's Notesreleased in Canada by Coquihala Films, a division of Warner Bros.; William Exley retires from army, falls ill to cancer.

1973 William Exley dies in Hawaii, February 16; Fred continues writing Pages from a Cold Island; occasionally travels the college lecture circuit; begins to develop a "Hemingwayesque" literary persona; Lynn Nesbit sends out sample chapters of Pages from a Cold Island to publishers.

1974 Robert Loomis at Random House signs Fred with an advance of $50,000; Fred receives Playboy's Editorial Award for year's best nonfiction piece, 'Saint Gloria & the Troll."

1975 Pages from a Cold Island published by Random House, April; travels to Hawaii, begins work on third and final novel of trilogy, Last Notes from Home; Vintage Contemporaries reissues A Fan's Notesin paperback, April.

1976 Travels to San Francisco on his way home to Alexandria Bay from Hawaii in the fall; meets with Jann Wenner, editor of Rolling Stone, and Paul Scanlon, managing editor; Scanlon suggests serializing excerpts of Last Notes from Home for Rolling Stone.

1977 Rolling Stone pays Fred $20,000 for up to six excerpts of Last Notes from Home, May.

1978 Fred's papers acquired by collector Robert C. Stevens, December.

1979 Kennedy Center screening of "A Fan's Notes" movie, January (or 1980?).

1981 Robert C. Stevens donates Fred's papers to the University of Rochester, December.

1982 A Fan's Notes included in Jonathan Yardley's list of top 22 books of Twentieth Century American fiction, compiled for The Washington Post.

1984 Fred receives Guggenheim Foundation grant for $21,000, March; Fred's last will and testament revised, final version, April 13; travels to London in the fall for interviews with Sarah Miles and Michael Herr.

1987 Random House receives completed manuscript of Last Notes from Home, November.

1988 Last Notes from Home published by Random House, September; Frank Gifford hosts a publication party for Fred in New York City.

1989 Fred begins work on a spy novel, to be titled Mean Greenwich Time (which was never finished); interviews Diane Sawyer in New York City for article; Charlotte Richardson dies, October 22.

1990 Vintage Contemporaries paperback edition of Last Notes from Home published, February; Fred moves in with aunt Frances Knapp on Crossman St. in Alexandria Bay; travels to London in the fall, becomes very ill while there; Alexandra Exley marries Ken Mowers, October 20, Fred unable to attend wedding; returns to Alexandria Bay, admitted to hospital, diagnosed with congestive heart failure, then released; begins caring for ailing Aunt Frances.

1991 Frances Knapp dies, December.

1992 Collapses from a stroke while alone in his Crossman St. apartment, June 9; found and taken to hospital, June 10; Frederick Earl Exley dies, June 17; ashes buried in Brookside Cemetery in Watertown, NY, next to parents; memorial service at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Clayton, NY, June 27.

1997 Jonathan Yardley's biography of Frederick Exley, Misfit, published by Random House.

1998 "Frederick Exley and Jonathan Yardley: A Novelist and His Biographer," an exhibition honoring Exley and Yardley in the Department of Rare Books and Special Collections at the University of Rochester, April 22, 1998 (through 1999).

Scope and Content
The Frederick Exley collection consists of 36 boxes and 9 oversize items of Exley's personal papers and memorabilia, including 7 boxes of correspondence; 6 boxes of manuscript and printed material by Exley; 1 box of manuscript material by other writers; 4 boxes of printed material and ephemera; 2 boxes of financial, legal, medical and personal documents and materials; 5 boxes of ephemera and memorabilia; 7 boxes of Jonathan Yardley's personal research and manuscript material; 5 packages of oversize ephemera; 1 framed oil portrait; and 3 large exhibit posterboard photos. Several books belonging to Frederick Exley have been removed from the collection and catalogued for Rare Books' stacks (see Appendix C for a detailed listing).

Most of the collection consists of materials relating to Exley's career as a writer and his personal life during those years, as he did not save much from his childhood or his life in general before writing A Fan's Notes. Still, there are several items of interest from these years that can be found throughout the collection including photographs, scrapbooks, yearbooks, and family legal documents (much of which is photocopied and located among Jonathan Yardley's research materials).

Items of particular interest to researchers include: correspondence from many well-known writers and celebrities such as John Cheever, Don DeLillo, William Devane, Frank Gifford, David Markson, Diane Sawyer, William Styron, John Updike, Kurt Vonnegut, and many others, as well as a significant amount of publisher, family, and fan mail correspondence; original manuscripts and typescripts of Exley's magazine articles and novels including A Fan's Notes; illustrations by Jim Spanfeller, who also illustrated the book jackets for Exley's first two novels; research and manuscript materials relating to Jonathan Yardley's biography of Exley, Misfit; photographs of Exley, his family, and well-known friends; a shirt worn by Exley; and the Smith-Corona typewriter on which Exley typed A Fan's Notes.

Arrangement
Abbreviations used:

TS: typescript

MS: manuscript

n.d: no date

pg/pgs: page/pages

GUIDE TO THE REGISTER

Correspondence

This section contains correspondence filed alphabetically by the last name of the letter writer. Most of the letters are written to Frederick Exley. Unless the letter writer is well known or personally important to Frederick Exley (or unless the letter is written to someone other than Exley), only authors of five or more letters have their own folder. Otherwise each author's letter is filed by last name alphabetically in the corresponding miscellaneous folder for that letter. In the case where an individual is affiliated with a company or institution and wrote the letter as a representative of that institution, the letter is filed under the name of the institution rather than the individual's name, and a cross-reference is made in the register after the individual's name. Fan mail is filed chronologically under "Fan Mail" rather than under each individual fan's name. Finally, there is a significant amount of photocopied correspondence found in the Yardley materials, which is cross-referenced in the original correspondence list after the author's name where applicable.

Box 1: Named correspondence, "A" to "D"

Box 2: Named correspondence, "E"

Box 3: Named correspondence, "F" to "G"

Box 4: Named correspondence, "H" to "McDonell"

Box 5: Named correspondence, "McGrady" to "Ray"

Box 6: Named correspondence, "Remsen" to "U"

Box 7: Named correspondence, "V" to "Z"; Unidentified correspondence

Box 33: Named correspondence, "A" to "Z"; Unidentified correspondence

Manuscript and Printed Material by Exley

This section contains manuscript, typescript, and printed material authored by Frederick Exley. This includes autograph manuscripts and typescripts from his three novels: A Fan's Notes, Pages from a Cold Island, and Last Notes from Home; publisher's foul matter; autograph manuscripts and typescripts from his published and unpublished magazine articles; and the printed issues or clippings of the publications where his articles appeared. Throughout all sections of the register, unless otherwise noted, "autograph" refers to the author of the manuscript being described.

Box 8: Novels-manuscripts and typescripts (from all three); publisher's foul matter

Box 9: Novels-publisher's foul matter from Last Notes from Home (cont.)

Box 10: Novels-autograph manuscript material from Last Notes from Home

Box 11: Published articles, 1979-1993-manuscripts and typescripts

Box 12: Unpublished articles and miscellaneous manuscript material; Printed publications

Box 13 (flat box): Printed publications-oversize

Box 34: Novels, published and unpublished articles

Box 35: Novels, published and unpublished articles

Manuscript Material by Other Writers

This box contains a variety of manuscripts and typescripts by other writers. Some items were sent to Frederick Exley by individuals wishing him to read their material and to provide comments, while other items are written about Frederick Exley. Many items contain an introductory letter from the author to Exley, cross-referenced in the original correspondence list. The manuscripts are arranged in folders alphabetically by author's last name.

Box 14: Manuscripts and typescripts by others

Box 35: Typescripts by others (some with MS editing)

Printed Material and Ephemera

This section contains a variety of printed materials, most of which relate to Exley's life and career, including newspaper clippings, brochures, Jim Spanfeller illustrations, yearbooks, and a scrapbook. There are some items in this section that Exley (and/or others) collected for his own interest and have nothing to do with his career, but since they were part of his personal collection they have been kept and included in the register.

Box 15: Clippings from newspapers, magazines, journals, etc.

Box 16: Miscellaneous printed ephemera

Box 17 (flat box): Miscellaneous printed ephemera-oversize

Box 18 (flat box): Yearbooks; Scrapbook

Box 35: Reviews of novels

Box 36: Reviews of novels; articles about Exley

Financial/ Legal/ Medical/ Personal Documents and Materials

This section contains a wide variety of Exley's personal records and legal documents, etc. Included are items such as financial records, bills and receipts, royalty statements, court documents, legal agreements, driver's license and passport, and application materials.

Box 19: Frederick Exley's personal items and records

Box 20 (flat box): Court proceedings transcript

Box 36: Select service card, bills, receipts, and tax documents

Ephemera and Memorabilia

This section contains a variety of non-printed items of Exley ephemera and memorabilia, including photographs, video and audio tapes, an award, a mug, a shirt, and a typewriter.

Box 21: Photographs

Box 22 (flat box): Audio/visual materials

Box 23: Fragile ephemera items

Box 24 (flat box): Clothing

Box 25 (flat box): Typewriter

Box 36: Photographs

Yardley Materials

This section contains items donated by Jonathan Yardley relating to the composition and publication of his biography of Frederick Exley, titled Misfit: The Strange Life of Frederick Exley. Included are all of his notes, research materials, and publisher's foul matter. Yardley's research technique for Misfit was based on the creation of separate legal-size folders dedicated to various aspects of Exley's life and work with which he planned to deal in his book. Into these he inserted photocopies of relevant pages and passages from Exley's books, notes he made along the way, letters and comments from others, etc. All items have been removed from Yardley's original folders and placed in acid-free folders, but every step has been taken to keep the contents of each folder in tact as Yardley kept them, as well as his arrangement and titles for each folder. Yardley's research was very thorough, and as a result this section contains a significant amount of useful biographical information that is not contained in Exley's personal collection, such as photocopies of birth certificates, marriage and death certificates, tax returns, divorce papers, scrapbook pages, and some original photographs and correspondence.

Box 26: Research notes and materials-folders arranged by Yardley

Box 27: Research notes and materials-folders arranged by Yardley (cont.)

Box 28: Research notes and materials-folders arranged by Yardley (cont.)

Box 29: Miscellaneous correspondence and Misfit ephemera

Box 30: Misfit manuscript material--foul matter from Random House

Box 31: Misfit manuscript material--foul matter from Random House (cont.)

Box 32: Misfit manuscript material--foul matter from Random House (cont.)

Box 36: Walter Shurman correspondence related to Misfit.

Oversize Ephemera (Packages 1-5, and four large oversize items)

This section contains printed and illustrated ephemera items that are too large to put into regular boxes. Five packages have been constructed to house the items (four separate items have been moved to different locations in the department; see register for details). Included are oversize photographs, Jim Spanfeller illustrations, and an oil painting of Frederick Exley.

Appendices

Appendix A: List of Frederick Exley's Correspondents

Appendix B: Bibliography of Exley's Published Works

Appendix C: Catalogued Books from the Collection.

Subject(s):
Correspondence
Manuscripts
Photographs
Clothing
Typewriters
Albums (Books)
Legal instruments
Exley, Frederick
Authors, American
Immediate Source of Acquisition
The Frederick Exley Papers were donated by Robert C. Stevens of Pittsford, NY, a long-time friend and supporter of the University of Rochester and its libraries. Mr. Stevens originally purchased the papers from Frederick Exley in 1978, and then officially donated them to the University in 1981. We also owe a debt of gratitude to Exley's sister, Frances Exley Brown of Clayton, NY, for her vigilant care in assuring that many of her brother's personal and manuscript items were rescued, preserved, and added to our collection. In addition to Frederick Exley's papers, the Exley collection also contains materials donated by Jonathan Yardley in 1998. A long-time admirer of Frederick Exley's and literary critic for The Washington Post, Yardley wrote a biography of Exley titled Misfit: The Strange Life of Frederick Exley, published in 1997 by Random House. In 1998, the Department of Rare Books and Special Collections held an exhibit showcasing Exley's and Yardley's work, for which he graciously donated all of his notes, research materials, publisher's "foul matter," and other items relating to the composition and publication of Misfit, to become a permanent part of the Exley collection. The contents of boxes 33 - 36 were added to the collection in 2004 and 2005. The letters from Frederick Exley to Walter Shurman, Shurman's review of A Fan's Notes, and Shurman's memoir of Exley, "One Fan's Notes On Frederick Exley" were purchased from Walter Shurman in January 2005. The Yardley and Cantwell correspondence were donated by Walter Shurman in January 2005. All other items were purchased from Alexandra Exley Mowers, June 2004.Access
The Frederick Exley papers is open for research use. Researchers are advised to contact Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation prior to visiting. Upon arrival, researchers will also be asked to fill out a registration form and provide photo identification.Use
Reproductions are made upon request but can be subject to restrictions. Permission to publish materials from the collection must currently be requested. Please note that some materials may be copyrighted or restricted. It is the researcher's obligation to determine and satisfy copyright or other case restrictions when publishing or otherwise distributing materials found in the collections. For more information contact rarebks@library.rochester.eduCitation
[Item title, item date], Frederick Exley papers, D.247, Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation, River Campus Libraries, University of Rochester
Administrative Information
Author: Finding aid prepared by Rare Books and Special Collections staff
Publisher: Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation, River Campus Libraries, University of Rochester
Address:
Rush Rhees Library
Second Floor, Room 225
Rochester, NY 14627-0055
rarebks@library.rochester.edu
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Content List