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Fletcher Pratt Papers

An inventory of his papers at Syracuse University

Overview of the Collection

Creator: Pratt, Fletcher, 1897-1956.
Title: Fletcher Pratt Papers
Inclusive Dates: ca. 1935-1955?
Quantity: 18 cartons
Abstract: Correspondence, manuscripts of the American military, naval, and science fiction novelist.
Language: English
Repository: Special Collections Research Center,
Syracuse University Libraries
222 Waverly Avenue
Syracuse, NY 13244-2010
https://library.syracuse.edu/special-collections-research-center

Biographical History

Fletcher Pratt (1897-1956) was an American military, naval, and science fiction novelist. Born in Buffalo, New York, Pratt is said to have been raised on an Indian reservation. He attended Hobart College for a year. During World War I he served with the War Library Service. During his intensive writing career, Pratt wrote chiefly on military and naval subjects, but also in the field of science fiction, collaborating often with L. Sprague DeCamp.

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Scope and Contents of the Collection

The Fletcher Pratt Papers consists of correspondence-subject files, manuscripts and research material, and a small amount of printed material and memorabila. Correspondence is primarily with publications ( Atlanta Journal, Fantasy and Science Fiction, Harper's Magazine, The Infantry Journal, Pacific Spectator) and publishers (Ballantine Books, Bobbs-Merrill, Doubleday & Company, Gnome Press, Henry Holt and Company, Penguin) but also includes a few organizations (e.g., Science Fiction League of America). Subject files cover miscellaneous topics, most relating to either the Navy (British Navy at War, First Philippine Sea, 4th Fleet, German Navy) or general military (Eleven Generals, Macarthur, Munitions and equipment, Pearl Harbor, Spies/espionage). Manuscripts and research material contains material for more than 150 articles, essays, stories, and other pieces of writing by Pratt, as well as a small amount of printed material (book reviews, published stories and similar). Memorabilia contains clippings and nine scrapbooks.

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Arrangement of the Collection

All series are arranged alphabetically.

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Restrictions

Access Restrictions

The majority of our archival and manuscript collections are housed offsite and require advanced notice for retrieval. Researchers are encouraged to contact us in advance concerning the collection material they wish to access for their research.

Use Restrictions

Written permission must be obtained from SCRC and all relevant rights holders before publishing quotations, excerpts or images from any materials in this collection.

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Subject Headings

Persons

Pratt, Fletcher, 1897-1956.

Subjects

American literature -- 20th century.
Authors, American.
Military art and science in literature.
Military history in literature.
Novelists, American.
Science fiction, American.

Genres and Forms

Correspondence.
Manuscripts for publication.
Research notes.
Scrapbooks.

Occupations

Authors.

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Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

Preferred citation for this material is as follows:

Fletcher Pratt Papers,
Special Collections Research Center,
Syracuse University Libraries

Acquisition Information

Gift of John D. Clark, 1970.

Finding Aid Information

Created by: --
Date: July 1998
Revision history: 6 Dec 2007 - converted to EAD (MRC); 23 May 2008 - acquisition info (MRC); 13 Jul 2021 - scrapbooks rehoused, American Mercury correspondence added (MRC)

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Inventory

Biographical
Box 1 Miscellaneous
Correspondence
Box 1 General A-G
Box 1 General H-Z
Box 1 Harry Altshuler (Author's Agent)
Box 1 American Broadcasting Company
Box 1 American magazines - lists of stories sold with date and topic, sorted by title of magazine (e.g. Atlantic Monthly, Colliers, etc.) (2 folders)
Box 1 American Mercury
Box 1 Atlanta Journal
Box 1 Ballantine Books
Box 1 Bobbs-Merrill Company
Bread Loaf
Box 1 Correspondence/ conference schedules/ address lists
Box 1 The Crumb
Box 1 Drawings/ Creative writings (2 folders)
Box 1 Writer's Conference (Middlebury College Bulletin)
Box 1 Charles Scribner's Sons
Box 1 Civil War Round Table (blank letters and envelopes)
Correspondence
Box 1 "Kicks and Kurses"
Box 1 Navy Department
Box 1 "Nut Letters" and a Ginkgo leaf from 1951
Box 1 Secretary of the Navy
Box 1 Coward-McCann, Inc.
Box 1 Curtis Brown, Ltd.
Box 1 Memorandums
Box 1 Bernard DeVoto
Box 2 Doubleday & Company, Inc.
Box 2 Duell, Sloan & Pearce, Inc.
Box 2 Detective Stories
Box 2 Fantasia
Box 2 Fantasy and Science Fiction
Box 2 Funk & Wagnall's Company
Box 2 Gnome Press
Box 2 Green Leaf Publishing Co.
Box 2 Guggenheimer & Untermyer
Box 2 Harcourt, Brace and Company, Inc.
Box 2 Harper's Magazine
Box 2 Harper and Brothers Publishers
Box 2 Harrison-Hilton Books
Box 2 Harrison Smith and Robert Haas, Inc.
Box 2 Hawthorn Books Inc, Publishers
Box 2 Henry Holt and Company, Inc.
Box 2 The Infantry Journal
Box 2 Journal and Sentinel
Box 2 Little, Brown & Company
Box 2 The Lotos Club
Box 2 Macmillan Company
Box 2 Maps, charts, and Naval photographs (2 folders)
Box 2 National Better Business Bureau
Box 2 New York Author's Club
Box 2 Otis Kline Associates, Inc.
Box 2 Pacific Spectator
Box 2 Penguin Books
Photographs
Box 2 Pratt alone
Box 2 Pratt with others
Box 2 Mrs. F. Pratt
Box 2 Pratt (book covers)
Box 2 Prime Press
Box 2 RKO Radiopictures, Inc.
Box 2 Random House
Box 2 Reviews (written in German)
Box 2 Rinehart & Company, Inc.
Box 2 Robert Hale Limited
Box 2 Science Fiction League of America
Box 2 Smith & Durrell, Inc.
Box 2 Stellar Publishing Corporation
Box 2 Street and Smith Publications, Inc.
Box 2 Twayne Publishers
Box 2 Vanguard Press Inc.
Box 2 Viking Press Inc.-Publishers
Box 2 W.W. Norton & Company
Box 2 William Sloan Associates
Box 2 Yale University Press
Box 2 Ziff-Davis Publishing Company
Subject files
Box 3 Aleutians
Box 3 Army - U.S. History
Box 3 Bases
Box 3 Bismarck Sea
Box 3 Bonins Operations
Box 3 Borneo
Box 3 "The British Navy at War"
Box 3 Casablanca
Box 3 Office of Censorship (and related papers)
Box 3 Central Pacific
Box 3 Communications
Box 3 Coral Sea
Box 3 "Desron 23"
Box 3 "Eleven Generals"
Box 3 Esquire Articles
Box 3 First Philippine Sea
Box 3 "4th Fleet"
Box 3 Freak Weapons
Box 3 German Navy
Box 3 "Hollywood Squadron"
Box 3 Italy/ Sicily
Box 3 Interview with Pratt
Box 3 Japanese Navy
Box 3 Kwajalein (Central Pacific)
Box 3 Leyte Gulf
Box 3 Luzon
MacArthur
Box 3 AREA
Box 3 Command
Box 3 Halsey
Box 3 Offensive
Box 3 Magazine articles
Box 3 Marianas/ Saipan
Box 3 Marshall and Gilbert
Box 3 Mediterranean
Box 3 Midway
Box 4 Munitions and Equipment
Box 4 Naval Africa
Box 4 "The Navy"
Navy Department Communiqués
Box 4 #8-117 (incomplete run) 2/16/41- 9/3/42
Box 4 #301- 400 3/6/43-6/3/43
Box 4 #401- 500 6/4/43
Box 4 #501- 539, 541-582 2/4/44- 3/1/45
Navy Personnel
Box 4 Admiral Halsey
Box 4 Admiral Nimitz
Box 4 Admirals (miscellaneous)
Box 4 Miscellaneous Officers
Box 4 Navy - Italy, France, Sweden, Russia
Box 4 Navy - U.S. History (3 folders)
Box 4 "The Navy's War"
Box 4 New Guinea
Box 4 New Ireland
Box 4 Normandy
Box 4 Okinawa
Box 4 "Ordeal by Fire"
Box 4 Paramushiru
Box 4 Pearl Harbor
Box 4 Propaganda
Box 4 Salt Lake City
Box 4 SAVO Island
Solomons
Box 4 "Solomons"
Box 4 "Battle of Cape Esperance"
Box 4 "Battle of Guadalcanal"
Box 4 "Battle of Santa Cruz"
Box 5 Spies/ Espionage
Box 5 Stanton
SUBS
Box 5 Atlantic
Box 5 Mines
Box 5 Pacific
Box 5 U.S.S. Biloxi
Box 5 U.S.S. Salt Lake City
Box 5 World War I
Box 5 Miscellaneous unsorted (5 folders)
Box 6 Miscellaneous unsorted (9 folders)
Box 6 Legal material- Pratt vs. Future Publications, Inc., and John Raymond
Manuscripts and research material
Box 7 Aaron Wand and The Picket Line
Box 7 Adventure of Joshua Barney
Box 7 All About Rockets and Jets
Box 7 Another Trafalgar
Box 7 Atom Submarine and Her Skipper
Box 7 Atoms, Matter, and Energy
Box 7 Battles That Changed History (2 folders)
Box 7 Bell, Book and Candle
Box 7 Best Reported War in History
Box 7 Big Pacific Push
Box 7 Blood on the Ground
Box 7 Blood, Sweet Blood
Box 7 Book of Famous and Decisive Battles (2 folders)
Box 7 Book Reviews
Box 7 Boyle of the Chasseur
Box 7 Building of the Atom Submarine
Box 7 Burp in Time
Box 7 CA 25
Box 7 Campaign Beyond Glory
Box 7 Campaign in the Coral Sea
Box 7 Campaign in the Java Sea
Box 7 Captain Who Tried to Sell His Ship
Box 7 Cards are Dealt
Box 7 Carnelian Cube - galleys (4 folders)
Box 7 Caribbean Command
Box 8 Case of the 14m man
Box 8 Castles of Chron
Box 8 Chance for a Piece of Change
Box 8 Chinese Invention
Box 8 City of the Living Dead (2 folders)
Box 8 Civil War (2 folders)
Box 8 Civil War in Pictures (text)
Box 8 Code Experts War (2 folders)
Box 8 [Collected Pratt science fiction]
Box 8 Comic Strips
Box 8 Compact History of the United States Navy (3 folders)
Box 9 Crisis of the Computers
Box 9 Curious Literature of the Comic Strips
Box 9 Current Post-War Naval Developments
Box 9 Dr. Grimshaw's Sanitarium
Box 9 Double Jeopardy (2 folders)
Box 9 Elemental Question
Box 9 Eleven Generals (2 folders)
Box 9 Engineers From Europe
Box 9 Estimate of the Situation
Box 9 Facts of Soviet Espionage (outline)
Box 9 Famous Inventors and Their Inventions
Box 9 Fighting Machine
Box 9 First of the Great Raids
Box 9 Frost and Her Playmates
Box 9 Future of Cities (outline)
Box 9 Gavagan's Bar
Box 9 General Can't Write English
Box 9 Goodbye Street
Box 9 Great Steel Panic
Box 9 Green Thumb
Box 9 Grift Goes Legitimate
Box 9 Hail Caesar
Box 9 Harold Shea (3 folders)
Box 9 Here, Putzi!
Box 9 Heroic Years
Box 10 History of the South Atlantic Campaign
Box 10 How the Censor Rigged the News
Box 10 Interviews (notes) with Pacific Fleet Personnel
Box 10 Invention of the Atomic Submarine
Box 10 Inventions
Box 10 Is the Navy Ready?
Box 10 January Easy Chair, by Bernard DeVoto
Box 10 Keyport Auction (outline)
Box 10 Lament of Lamethenon
Box 10 Lantflex and the Lost Plane
Box 10 Longview
Box 10 Loss of the Wasp
Box 10 Lost Battalion - includes mimeographed script for radio adaptation on WNYC, 13 Apr 1938
Box 10 Mad Destroyer
Box 10 Man Who Awoke
Box 10 Man Who Never Lived
Box 10 Man Who Pulls the Trigger
Box 10 Man With a Million Dollars Cash
Box 10 Mathematics of Magic
Box 10 Military and Naval History of the United States (2 folders)
Box 10 Military Genius of Abraham Lincoln (preface)
Box 10 Moon and I
Box 10 Monitor and the Merimac
Box 10 Most Important Job in the Navy
Box 10 Mutinies in Foreign Navies
Box 10 Mysteries of Midway
Box 10 Mystery of the Hittitis
Box 10 Napoleon- research notes
Box 11 Napoleon- research notes (4 folders)
Box 11 Napoleon (2 folders)
Box 11 [Naval aviation book] (3 folders)
Box 11 Naval History of the Civil War (outline, research)
Box 12 Navy Has Wings
Box 12 Nightwork (2 folders)
Box 12 No Pity for Heroes (2 folders)
Box 12 Obscene Language is Not Necessary for Realism
Box 12 Oh, Say Can You See
Box 12 One Destroyer
Box 12 One Man's Meat
Box 12 One-Ship Fleet
Box 12 Ordeal by Fire (3 folders)
Box 12 Ordeal by Fire (television adaptation)
Box 12 Our New Navy
Box 12 Palimpsest of St. Augustine
Box 12 Pardon My Mistake
Box 12 Pattern Repeat
Box 12 Pictorial History of the Civil War
Box 12 Planet Lithia
Box 12 Preble's Boys (2 folders)
Box 12 Preble's Boys-notes (2 folders)
Box 13 Preble's Boys-notes (2 folders)
Box 13 Red King (3 folders)
Box 13 Reign of the Navy
Box 13 Revenge
Box 13 Rhodes, a Study in Sea Power
Box 13 Road to Empire - correspondences
Box 13 Roaring Trumpet
Box 13 Roger Bacon Formula
Box 13 Roger's Reef, by John T. Goodrich
Box 13 Scientific Articles
Box 13 Sea Power and Today's War
Box 13 Second Chance
Box 13 Secret and Urgent (2 folders)
Box 13 Seed From Space
Box 13 Ship That Could Shoot
Box 13 Ship That Fought the War
Box 13 Ship That Made Like a Fleet
Box 13 Should Human Population Increase Be Controlled?
Box 13 Silver Accident (outline)
Box 13 Square-Cube Law
Box 14 Stanton: Lincoln's Secretary of War (3 folders )
Box 14 Strange Deed of Captain Glenney
Box 14 Submarine is on the Ropes
Box 14 Submarines Pacific
Box 14 Super-Carrier Forrestad
Box 14 Superstitions in Sports
Box 14 Symbiosis
Box 14 Thing in the Woods
Box 14 Third King (2 folders)
Box 14 Three Kings - notes
Box 14 This was Trafalgar
Box 14 Three Valdemars
Box 14 Turkey-shoot of Saipan
Box 14 Twilight of the Ideals (2 folders )
Box 14 Undying Fire
Box 14 Unexpected Planet
Box 15 United States Navy History-Revolution
Box 15 United States Navy History-WWI-press stories
Box 15 Violation of Rules
Box 15 Wall of Serpents
Box 15 Wanderer's Return
Box 15 War of the Giants
Box 15 War on Western Waters
Box 15 Weissenbroch Spectacles
Box 15 What Happened to Cicero?
Box 15 Who Gave Their Lives?
Box 15 Who Pays For It?
Box 15 World Around the Corner
Box 15 World War II and the Changing Conception of Sea Power
Box 15 [Untitled science-fiction collection]
Box 15 [Unidentified] (6 folders )
Box 15 Printed Material
Box 15 Book reviews
Box 15 Civil War
Box 15 Foreign Language editions
Box 15 Infantry Journal (4 issues)
Box 15 New Jersey
Box 16 Pratt prints from Pacific Spectator
Box 16 Pratt prints from U.S. Naval Institution Proceedings
Box 16 Pratt stories from Harper's
Box 16 "Roundup of the Fleet", Our Navy
Box 16 "Roundup on the War", Our Navy
Box 16 Science Fiction (5 folders)
Box 16 World War II (5 folders)
Box 16 [Unsorted manuscripts] (3 folders)
Memorabilia
Box 17 Miscellaneous personal items - "Regulations for Correspondents Accompanying U.S. Army Forces in the Field"; humorous song about DESRON 23; story about the Rawalpindi; etc.
Box 17 Newspaper clippings - includes press releases from US military, book reviews, etc. (14 folders)
Scrapbooks
Pages of all scrapbooks are EXTREMELY brittle. Handle as little, and as carefully, as possible.
Box 17 "GIMMI 88" 1929-1930 - newspaper clippings, notes, cartoons, correspondence, etc. relating to a card game released by Katagiri Brothers, similar to bridge, called "Gimmi-88" or "Hachi-hachi"
Oversize 1 Clippings of reviews of Pratt's books 1941-1943 (1 volume)
Oversize 2 Clippings of articles by Pratt for the New York Post 1939-1940 (1 volume)
Oversize 3 Clippings of reviews of Pratt's books 1935-1940 (2 volumes)
Box 18 Miscellaneous scrapbooks (6 volumes)

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