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Harry Kondoleon Papers

Call Number

MSS.525

Dates

1970-2016, inclusive
; 1975-1994, bulk

Creator

Kondoleon, Harry

Extent

12 Linear Feet
in 25 manuscript boxes, 4 flat boxes, 1 card box, and 1 flat file folder

Extent

2.3 Megabytes
in 36 documents

Extent

1 VHS

Extent

10 audiocassettes

Extent

4 Half_Inch_Video_Reel

Extent

2 Reels
in 2 Super 8 reels

Language of Materials

Materials primarily in English, with some materials in German, Portuguese, Greek, and French.

Abstract

Harry Kondoleon (1955-1994) was an American playwright, novelist, and poet. Kondoleon was active in New York City's Downtown arts scene in the 1980s, and was one of the first and most prolific writers to engage creatively with the AIDS crisis as it decimated New York City's queer community. The Harry Kondoleon Papers consists of materials created and collected by Kondoleon in the course of his professional life, and date from 1970 to 2016, with bulk of the material dating from 1977 to 1994. The collection documents Kondoleon's creative process with handwritten notes, typed drafts and revisions in both paper and electronic format, and published scripts and novels. The collection also includes Kondoleon's diaries, correspondence, newspaper and magazine clippings, audiovisual recordings, photographs, and subject files used as research or source material in Kondoleon's writing process.

Biographical Note

Harry Kondoleon (1955-1994) was an American playwright, novelist, and poet. Kondoleon graduated from Hamilton College in Clinton, New York in 1977 and received a Master of Fine Arts degree from the Yale School of Drama in New Haven, Connecticut in 1981. His plays include The Vampires, Zero Positive, The Brides, and The Houseguests, and his novels include The Whore of Tjampuan and Diary of a Lost Boy. The latter describes the experiences of a gay man with AIDS in New York City in the early 1990s, mirroring Kondoleon's experiences as a person with AIDS at the time. He received multiple awards and grants during his career, including the Fulbright Program, the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Residency Program, the Guggenheim Fellowship, the Obie Award, and the Oppenheimer Award. Kondoleon died in 1994 of AIDS related complications.

Arrangement

This collection is arranged in alphabetical order by format of material. The inventory lists box and folder numbers for an alphabetical range of titles for Kondoleon's plays.

Scope and Contents

The Harry Kondoleon Papers document the life and work of Harry Kondoleon as a playwright, poet, and novelist. Material in the collection dates from 1970 to 2016, with the bulk of the material dating between 1975 and 1994, and includes scripts, drafts, notes, correspondence, diaries, clippings, photographs, audiovisual recordings, and drawings. The bulk of the collection documents Kondoleon's career as a playwright and includes notes, drafts in various stages of completion in both paper and electronic format, published works, clippings of reviews and articles about Kondoleon, and photographs and audiovisual recordings of Kondoleon's performed works.

Material documenting Kondoleon's work as a playwright includes clippings from and copies of periodicals containing reviews of his plays, playbills, video and audio recordings of performances, photographs of performances and casts, copyright registration forms, and posters documenting performances in the United States and Europe. This material also includes playbills, reviews, and announcements for plays written by others and directed by Kondoleon. Material dating after Kondoleon's death in 1994, includes correspondence, contracts, reviews, and playbills for staged performances organized by his sister, Christine Kondoleon. Plays well documented in the collection include The Vampires, Zero Positive, The Brides, and The Cote d'Azur Triangle. The collection also includes notes and drafts of Kondoleon's poetry and novels, clippings of reviews of his novels The Whore of Tjampuan and Diary of a Lost Boy, screenplays he wrote in the 1980s, and poetry and short stories he wrote in high school and college. Also included is correspondence with Christine Kondoleon, publishing companies, and editors regarding the development of screenplay from Diary of a Lost Boy in the late 1990s.

Kondoleon's diaries document his life between college in the 1970s and his death in 1994. The diaries document Kondoleon's daily life, his travels in Europe and the United States, his experiences at the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center in Italy, and his health regimens. The diaries also include notes and drafts of his writings, drawings by Kondoleon, and inserts of clippings, photographs, tickets, and other items documenting his travels.

The correspondence dates from 1976 to 2007, and includes correspondence between Kondoleon and his parents and his sister; letters from his friends; condolence letters written to Christine Kondoleon after her brother's death in 1994; and correspondence between Christine Kondoleon and others regarding Harry Kondoleon's work after his death. The bulk of the correspondence consists of Harry and Christine Kondoleon's letters to each other from the 1970s until 1994. These include descriptions of Harry Kondoleon's year in Bali in 1977-1978, his life in New York City in the 1980s, and his work. The correspondence after Kondoleon's death in 1994 documents Christine Kondoleon's work to create the Harry Kondoleon Playwriting Fund and agreements for publication and performance of Kondoleon's plays in the late 1990s and the early to mid 2000s.

The collection also contains photographs taken by and of Kondoleon, including formal portraits and snapshots, as well as negatives and contact sheets. The collection also contains drawings, sketches, and collages created by Kondoleon, as well as ephemera related to art shows in which his visual artwork was included. The research files contain clippings regarding theatre and other topics of interest to Kondoleon, poems, photographs, and artwork that may have influenced his work. The health files contain information on AIDS, general health, recipes, and exercises. Other material in the collection includes publications containing poems and short stories written by Kondoleon in high school and college, commencement materials, obituaries, materials from his memorial service, and his will.

Conditions Governing Access

Materials are open without restrictions.

Conditions Governing Use

Copyright (or related rights to publicity and privacy) for materials in this collection, created by Harry Kondoleon, was not transferred to New York University. Permission to use materials must be secured from the copyright holder.

Preferred Citation

Identification of item, date; Harry Kondoleon Papers; MSS 525; box number; folder number or item identifier; Fales Library & Special Collections, New York University.

Location of Materials

Materials are stored offsite and advance notice is required for use. Please request materials at least two business days prior to your research visit to coordinate access.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Donated by Christine Kondoleon in December 2017 and March 2018; the accession numbers associated with these gifts are 2017.299 and 2018.070.

Custodial History

This collection was compiled from material held by Kondoleon's family and friends. After Kondoleon's death in 1994, his sister, Christine Kondoleon, took custody of a large portion of the collection. She added materials from their parents's home Queens, New York. A core group of materials, including notebooks and manuscripts, was reviewed and arranged by Don Shewey, one of Kondoleon's close friends. Stephen Soba contributed his collection of correspondence from Kondoleon. Prior to their transfer to New York University, materials were assessed and reviewed by Fales Librarian for Archival Collections Nicholas Martin at the homes of Christine Kondoleon and Stephen Soba; during those visits materials were packed and curatorial decisions were made. The materials that comprise this collection were transferred from Christine Kondoleon's home in Cambridge, Massachusetts to the Fales Library at New York University.

Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements

Advance notice is required for the use of computer records. Original physical digital media is restricted.

An access terminal for born-digital materials in the collection is available by appointment for reading room viewing and listening only. Researchers may view an item's original container and/or carrier, but the physical carriers themselves are not available for use because of preservation concerns.

Audiovisual Access Policies and Procedures

Audiovisual materials have not been preserved and may not be available to researchers. Materials not yet digitized will need to have access copies made before they can be used. To request an access copy, or if you are unsure if an item has been digitized, please contact fales.library@nyu.edu with the collection name, collection number, and a description of the item(s) requested. A staff member will respond to you with further information.

Collection processed by

Megan O'Shea

About this Guide

This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2024-02-06 14:24:15 -0500.
Using Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language: Finding aid written in English

Processing Information

Paper material for related formats or title of work were brought together physically, with oversized paper materials, audiovisual material, and physical digital media housed together as appropriate. Where necessary, separation sheets were created to sustain the intellectual relationship between paper materials that were initially inserted in diaries.

Paper material was housed in archival folders and boxes. Physical digital media and audiovisual material were housed in archival boxes.

Floppy disks were forensically imaged, analyzed, and arranged in Forensic Toolkit.

New York University Libraries follows professional standards and best practices when imaging, ingesting, and processing born-digital material in order to maintain the integrity of the content.

In June 2021, the collection's subject headings were edited to replace a harmful topical access point about gender and siblings.

Repository

Fales Library and Special Collections
Fales Library and Special Collections
Elmer Holmes Bobst Library
70 Washington Square South
2nd Floor
New York, NY 10012