]
]
This collection has access restrictions. For details, please see the restrictions.
This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held in the Wilson Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in our reading room, and not digitally available through the World Wide Web. See the FAQ section for more information.
Expand/collapse
Collection Overview
| Size | 54.0 feet of linear shelf space (approximately 12,000 items) |
| Abstract | Robert Chester Ruark (1915-1965), journalist, author, world traveler, sportsman, and syndicated columnist; born in Wilmington, N.C.; received his A.B. from the University of North Carolina, 1935; eventually resided in London, England, and Palamos, Spain. The bulk of the papers of Robert Chester Ruark consists of typed drafts and copies of novels, short stories, newspaper and magazine articles, and screenplays, 1942-1945. Also included is professional and personal correspondence. Other papers relate to Ruark's service in the U.S. Navy during World War II, and to his travels and safaris in different part of the world, particularly Africa. His correspondents included friends Ernest Hemingway (one letter and one note, 1953-1954), Bernard Baruch (66 letters, 1953-1965), Richard Nixon (6 letters, 1958-1960), and J. Edgar Hoover (4 letters, 1958-1959); associates, especially his secretary, Alan Ritchie, and his literary agent, Harold Matson; and relatives, especially his wife, Virginia Webb Ruark. The correspondence covers a wide range of personal and literary topics, including journalism, literary philosophy, and African politics. Also included are research materials, reviews, photographs, financial materials, and writings by others. Volumes are chiefly scrapbooks of columns and related clippings. |
| Creator | Ruark, Robert Chester, 1915-1965. |
| Language | English |
Expand/collapse
Information For Users
Expand/collapse
Subject Headings
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.
Expand/collapse
Biographical
Information
Robert Chester Ruark, Jr., was born in Wilmington, N.C., on 29 December 1915. He started college at age 15 at the University of North Carolina and was graduated with an A.B. in journalism in June 1935. After graduation, he worked as a cub reporter for the Hamlet News Messenger and later transferred to the Sanford Herald. During the next few years, Ruark worked as an accountant with the Works Progress Administration in Washington, D.C., enlisted as an ordinary seaman, and worked at the Washington Post and the Star before settling down at the Washington Daily News. In 1938, he married Virginia Webb, an interior decorator from Washington, D.C.
During World War II, Ruark joined the Navy as a gunnery officer and later became a press censor the Pacific. He returned to the Washington Daily News in 1945 to become a syndicated columnist. During this time, he began writing. His first novel, Grenadine Etching, was published in 1947. It was followed by I Didn't Know it Was Loaded (1948), One for the Road (1949), and Grenadine's Spawn (1952). Ruark also published articles regularly in the Saturday Evening Post, Colliers, Pic, Esquire, and Field and Stream.
After 1950, Ruark began spending time in Africa. In 1953, he published Horn of the Hunter, about an African safari, and Something of Value in 1955. Something of Value, based on the Mau Mau uprisings, was a major success. He made over a million dollars on the royalties and the film rights which he sold to Metro Goldwyn Mayer. After visiting North Carolina in 1957, Ruark permanently settled in Spain. He wrote three autobiographical novels, The Old Man and the Boy (1957), Poor No More (1959), and The Old Man's Boy Grows Older (1961). In 1962, he published another work on race relations in Africa, Uhuru and his last book was The Honey Badger published in 1964. Ruark died while receiving medical attention for an attack in June 1965.
From: Dictionary of North Carolina Biography. Ed. William S. Powell. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1994.
Back to Top
Expand/collapse
Scope and Content
The bulk of the papers of writer Robert Chester Ruark consists of typed drafts and copies of novels, short stories, newspaper and magazine articles, and screenplays, 1942-1945. Also included is professional and personal correspondence. Other papers relate to Ruark's service in the U.S. Navy during World War II, and to his travels and safaris in different part of the world, particularly Africa. His correspondents included friends Ernest Hemingway (one letter and one note, 1953-1954), Bernard Baruch (66 letters, 1953-1965), Richard Nixon (6 letters, 1958-1960), and J. Edgar Hoover (4 letters, 1958-1959); associates, especially his secretary, Alan Ritchie, and his literary agent, Harold Matson; and relatives, especially his wife, Virginia Webb Ruark. The correspondence covers a wide range of personal and literary topics, including journalism, literary philosophy, and African politics. Also included are research materials, reviews, photographs, financial materials, and writings by others. Volumes are chiefly scrapbooks of columns and related clippings.
Note that the Ernest Hemingway letter and note are in folder 86.
Back to Top
Expand/collapse
Series Quick Links
Expand/collapse
Series 1A. Correspondence, pre-1953.
| Folder 1-3 |
Introductory Materials #04001, Series: "1A. Correspondence, pre-1953." Folder 1-3Folder 1Folder 2Folder 3 |
| Folder 4 |
Navy, 1942-1948 #04001, Series: "1A. Correspondence, pre-1953." Folder 4 |
| Folder 5-7 |
Navy, 1945: Clippings #04001, Series: "1A. Correspondence, pre-1953." Folder 5-7Folder 5Folder 6Folder 7 |
| Folder 8 |
Publishers, 1946-1948 #04001, Series: "1A. Correspondence, pre-1953." Folder 8 |
| Folder 9 |
Frank Sinatra (subject folder) #04001, Series: "1A. Correspondence, pre-1953." Folder 9 |
| Folder 10 |
Africa, pre-1953 #04001, Series: "1A. Correspondence, pre-1953." Folder 10 |
| Folder 11-35 |
Correspondence, 1945-1953 #04001, Series: "1A. Correspondence, pre-1953." Folder 11-35Folder 11Folder 12Folder 13Folder 14Folder 15Folder 16Folder 17Folder 18Folder 19Folder 20Folder 21Folder 22Folder 23Folder 24Folder 25Folder 26Folder 27Folder 28Folder 29Folder 30Folder 31Folder 32Folder 33Folder 34Folder 35 |
Expand/collapse
Series 1B. Correspondence.
Expand/collapse
Series 2. Writings.
Expand/collapse
Series 3. Research Materials.
Expand/collapse
Series 4. Financial Materials.
Expand/collapse
Series 5. Photographs and Film, circa 1944-1965.
Identified photographers include Ralph A. Brooks, New York, N.Y.; Monroe Campbell, Chapel Hill, N.C.; Mario Agosto, Genoa, Italy; Foto Rossi, Capri, Italy; James J. Kriegsman, New York; Rinaldo Serrat and A. Paal, Palamos, Spain; Cecil Maurice, Glebe, Va.; Jonas Brothers Taxidermy Art Studios, Denver, Colo.; Roy R. Erikson, Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; Bert Stoll, East Tawas, Mich.; New Brunswick Travel Bureau; Peter Scheer, Signal Corps, U.S.A.; Hall and Co., Sydney, Australia; M. F. Nichols, Sydney, Australia; Herbert Fishwich, Sydney, Australia; Herald Sun Feature Service, Melbourne, Australia; Leon Trice, New Orleans, La.; Studio Du Vieux Carre, New Orleans, La.; and Miami Herald Staff.
Expand/collapse
Series 6. Volumes.
Expand/collapse
Series 7. Writings by Others.
Expand/collapse
Series 8. Supplementary Material From Other Sources
Expand/collapse
Items Separated
Processed by: SHC Staff, 1975-1997
Encoded by: Jackie Dean, 1997
Revisions: Finding aid updated in January 2006 by Nancy Kaiser; April 2008 by Caroline Moakley; and February 2009 by Nancy Kaiser.
Back to Top