Scope and Content Note
The literary manuscripts of John Barth (1930- ) span the years 1955-1978 with the bulk of the material dating from 1955 to 1968. The collection consists of holograph drafts, annotated typed manuscripts, corrected galley and foundry proofs, and miscellaneous editorial material from four of Barth’s novels: The Floating Opera(1955), The End of the Road (1958), The Sot-Weed Factor (1960), and Giles Goat-Boy, or, The Revised New Syllabus (1966). Other literary manuscripts include several of Barth's short stories, nonfiction essays, and speeches. Among the speeches are drafts of “Jorge Luis Borges and the Literature of Exhaustion” that Barth delivered at various universities in 1966 prior to the publication of his essay “The Literature of Exhaustion” in 1967.