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Rex Beach Collection

An inventory of the collection at Syracuse University


Finding aid created by: MRC
Date: 20 Apr 2010

Biographical History

Rex Ellingwood Beach (1877-1949) was an American novelist and playwright. Born in Michigan, he studied law before following the Klondike Gold Rush to Alaska, but after a few years gave up prospecting and turned to writing. He wrote a number of historical and so-called "pot-boiler" novels, several of which were set in Alaska. His books include The Spoilers (1906) and The Silver Horde (1909), which were made into Hollywood movies a combined total of seven times. Beach committed suicide at age 72, suffering from cancer.

Robert Fox was Beach's secretary and long-time friend for more than thirty years.

Scope and Contents of the Collection

The Rex Beach Collection consist of correspondence, memorabilia, and writings.

Correspondence consists of a few letters from G. Reed Salisbury, a dealer in rare books and manuscripts. They are addressed to "John," possibly John S. Mayfield, and concern various items in the collection.

Memorabilia contains two scrapbooks captioned "The Story of a Friendship: Rex E. Beach and Robert T. Fox." Contents include photographs, clippings, letters, souvenirs and other material. The scrapbooks have been carefully assembled; items are labelled and captioned and pages are enclosed in mylar. There are also some loose materials laid-in both volumes. One of the laid-in items is a photograph signed and inscribed to G. Reed Salisbury; this, and the letters that accompany the collection (see above), suggest that the scrapbooks were assembled by Salisbury rather than by Beach or Fox.

Writings appear to be manuscripts by Beach, written in longhand in pencil, as well as an undated letter from Beach to a "Mr. Haggard" in response to a question about The Winds of Chance (1918).

Arrangement of the Collection

Material is in alphabetical order.

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.

Subject Headings

Persons

Beach, Rex, 1877-1949.
Fox, Robert T.
Salisbury, G. Reed.
Stone, Fred, 1873-1959.

Subjects

American fiction -- 20th century.
Authors, American.
Male friendship.
Popular literature -- United States.

Genres and Forms

Clippings (information artifacts)
Correspondence.
Manuscripts for publication.
Photographs.
Scrapbooks.

Occupations

Authors.

Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

Preferred citation for this material is as follows:

Rex Beach Collection,
Special Collections Research Center,
Syracuse University Libraries

Acquisition Information

Based on material in the collection, it may have been acquired and/or donated by John S. Mayfield.

Table of Contents

Correspondence

Memorabilia

Writings

Inventory