Restrictions to Access

No restrictions. Open for research.

Copyright Notice

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], in the Contempo Records #4408, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Received from the Gotham Book Mart, New York, New York, in April 1985.

Sensitive Materials Statement

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. § 132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assumes no responsibility.

The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.

Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.

• Abernethy, M. A. (Milton A.)
• Aiken, Conrad, 1889-1973.
• American literature--Periodicals.
• American fiction--20th century.
• American literature--20th century.
• American periodicals--North Carolina.
• American poetry--20th century.
• Anderson, Sherwood, 1876-1941.
• Authors, American--20th century.
• Boyle, Kay, 1902-1992.
• Buttitta, Tony.
• Cabell, James Branch, 1879-1958.
• Caldwell, Erskine, 1903-1987.
• Contempo, a review of books and personalities (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
• Crane, Hart, 1899-1932.
• Cummings, E. E. (Edward Estlin), 1894-1962.
• Eliot, T. S. (Thomas Stearns), 1888-1965.
• Faulkner, William, 1897-1962.
• H. D. (Hilda Doolittle), 1886-1961.
• Hughes, Langston, 1902-1967.
• Mencken, H. L. (Henry Louis), 1880-1956.
• North Carolina--Intellectual life--20th century.
• Novelists, American--20th century.
• O'Neill, Eugene, 1888-1953.
• Poets, American--20th century.
• Pound, Ezra, 1885-1972.
• Sinclair, Upton, 1878-1968.
• Social problems--Periodicals.
• Stein, Gertrude, 1874-1946.
• Stevens, Wallace, 1879-1955.
• Toklas, Alice B.
• United States--Social conditions--1918-1932.
• United States--Social conditions--1933-1945.
• Williams, William Carlos, 1883-1963.
• Women authors, American--20th century.

• Contempo Collection, Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas, Austin.

Milton Abernethy, Anthony Buttitta, and three other young men began publishing Contempo in Chapel Hill early in 1931, describing it in their first issue as a review of "ideas and personalities of some significance that demand immediate comment." Combining literature and a progressive political slant (while avoiding the championship of "any particular group or definite order"), Contempo featured poetry, fiction, and literary and social criticism by a variety of writers, including Kay Boyle, Erskine Caldwell, William Faulkner, Langston Hughes, Ezra Pound, and William Carlos Williams.

In mid 1933, Buttitta and Abernethy, Contempo's remaining editors, quarreled and parted ways. Abernethy and his wife Mina continued to edit Contempo until February, 1934, when it ceased publication, apparently for lack of funds.

See "A History and Index of Contempo," by Judith Hay, master's thesis, University of Louisville, 1971. The North Carolina Collection, Wilson Library, UNC-Chapel Hill, holds a copy of this thesis as well as a complete run of Contempo

This collection consists chiefly of letters from contributors or potential contributors to Contempo, and typescripts of their poetry, fiction, and articles. There is also correspondence of a more routine nature, with booksellers and publishers, and a few clippings, photocopies of articles, and photographs.

[The Contempo Collection in The Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at The University of Texas, Austin, houses "a substantial portion of the correspondence files from the two main editors..and a large and miscellaneous assortment of materials connected with printing the magazine and running the bookstore where Contempo was headquartered - contributors'manuscripts, galley proofs, page proofs, and various bookkeeping records from The Intimate Bookshop," according to the Library Chronicle of The University of Texas at Austin, New Series No. 27.]

• P-4408/1-4