To contact the archives librarian, use the following address: University Archives/Special Collections Brookens Library, Room 144 University of Illinois at Springfield Springfield IL 62794-9243 (217) 786-6520 wood@uis.edu
The following is reprinted from an introduction to James Jones in Illinois: A Guide to the Handy Writers' Colony Collection (1989), by Thomas J. Wood and Meredith Keating (Sangamon State University, Springfield, Illinois). Note: The institution has since been renamed The University of Illinois at Springfield. The article is used here (in slightly altered form) with permissions from the copyright owners.
Copyright 1989 by Illinois Issues and Sangamon State University Library.
The Handy Colony Collection is divided into seven series. Cross-listings have been provided for ease of access.
Series I: Business Records (0.8 cubic feet): The business records contain material relating to the incorporation of the Colony, by-laws, minutes of meetings, documents relating to taxes and audits, correspondence with Kenneth B. Hawkins (the Colony attorney), and financial records of the Handy Colony. These records are arranged chronologically.
Series II: Correspondence (4.15 cubic feet): The arrangement of the Handy Colony correspondence is complicated by the fact that several letters were often sent and filed in the samd envelope; also, the original order of the correspondence was highly irregular. All folders are numbered consecutively throughout the sub-series, regardless of box divisions. Correspondence has been broken down into four sub-series:
Jones-Handy Correspondence (1.16 cubic feet): This sub-series consists of correspondence between James Jones, Lowney Handy, and Harry Handy. The correspondence is filed chronologically.
James Jones Correspondence (0.33 cubic feet): This sub-series involves correspondence between James Jones and people other than the Handys. The Jones Correspondence is filed chronologically by year and alphabetically within each year. Included in this sub-series is Jones' correspondence with editors and publishers including Maxwell Perkins and Burroughs Mitchell (mostly carbons or photostats of letters), Mary Ann Jones (Jones' sister), and Charles E. Jones (Jones' uncle).
Handy Correspondence (2.5 cubic feet): This sub-series contains the correspondence between Lowney or Harry Handy and persons other than James Jones, and is filed chronologically by year and alphabetically within each year. Correspondents include Jeff Jones (James Jones' brother), Upton Sinclair, Olivia de Havilland, and Lt. Fred P. DePalma and Captain Eugene A. Mailloux, regarding Jones' 1944 discharge from the army. Much of this sub-series consists of Lowney's correspondence with her students, family and friends, and ranges in time from 1930 to Lowney's death in 1964.
General Correspondence (0.16 cubic feet): This sub-series contains correspondence involving persons other than Jones or the Handys. Included are photostats of correspondence involving Maxwell Aley, John Hall Wheelock, and Maxwell Perkins); also correspondence of Colony writers who are not represented in Series III (Manuscripts) or Series IV (Personal Papers).
Series III: Manuscripts (17.76 cubic feet): The manuscripts are ordered alphabetically by author; short or fragmentary manuscripts were placed at the end of the series. The sequence of manuscript drafts was often a matter of surmise. The pages of some manuscripts are not in order and are noted as such. The correspondence of writers represented in this series has also been filed here.
Folders contains lengthy manuscripts have been numbered consecutively, regardless of box divisions.
Series III includes several of James Jones' manuscripts (4.93 cubic feet). Included are drafts for some of Jones' short stories, manuscripts for "They Shall Inherit the Laughter" (his first, unpublished novel), and annotated manuscripts and galleys for From Here to Eternity.
Also included are three foreign editions of From Here to Eternity. Some Came Running is represented by two copies of the manuscript and an annotated gallery. Other writers represented in the series are Jere Peacock, Charles Robb, Jerry Tschappat, and Charles Wright.
Series IV: Personal Papers (1.98 cubic feet): This series contains personal papers of Lowney and Harry Handy, and James Jones. The papers of other persons who are not represented in Series III (Manuscripts) have also been filed here. The series contains Lowney's commonplace books, address books, examples of her advice to Colony writers, and newspaper clippings; also memorabilia of the Handys' 1958 trip to Spain; and documents pertaining to Lowney's father and family.
The personal papers of James Jones (0.2 cubic feet) include some of his army documents, his 1951 will, and an address book which also contains some notes on chracters in From Here to Eternity.
Series V: Articles and Clippings (0.8 cubic feet): This series contains newspaper and magazine articles on Jones, Lowney, Harry, the Colony, Tom Chamales, Jere Peacock, and others. There is an additional 0.75 cubic feet in Oversize, boxes 73 and 74.
Series VI: Photographs and Negatives (1.2 cubic feet): This series contains many of the photographs used in the 1951 Life magazine article on Jones and Lowney. It also contains both color and black-and-white photographs of Jones, Lowney, Harry, the Colony, Colony writers, Marshall, and vacation spots such as Florida and Arizona. Oversize photographs are in box 73.
Series VII: Robinson Township Library Collection (0.33 cubic feet): This series consists entirely of photocopies of material in the Robinson Township Library in Robinson, Illinois. Included are correspondence between Lowney and Vera Newlin (the librarian), Jones' stories, obituaries and eulogies for Jones, and articles about Jones, Lowney, and the Colony. Also included is a book about the Turner family, One in the Middle, by Vivian Turner McClellan, one of Lowney's sisters.
Oversize items from all series are in boxes 73-74. Miscellaneous items, Empty Envelopes, Original Clippings, and Duplicates are grouped at the end of the collection (boxes 75-77, 1.0 cubic foot).
The Appendix is an inventory of videotapes from the J. Michael Lennon Papers used to produce the 1984 television documentary James Jones: Reveille to Taps.