Scope and Content Note
The papers of John Vance Cheney (1848-1922) span the years 1847 through 1927 with the bulk concentrated in the period from 1898-1922. There is a group of family correspondence, letters which Cheney wrote to his father, Simeon Pease Cheney, 1865-1875, which is of literary and social interest. The bulk of the general correspondence dates from 1900 through 1922 and consists of letters which Cheney received from various publishers, although there are a few letters from Susan B. Anthony, Richard Burton, Bliss Carman, Hamlin Garland, Elbert Hubbard, and Edwin Markham. There is also a group of correspondence consisting primarily of letters from Cheney to his secretary, Jessie Sherk.
A file of copyright manuscripts includes many of Cheney's poems, short stories, articles, and plays in holograph and typescript form, the draft of That Dome in Air, as well as drafts of his unpublished autobiography. The autobiography of his grandfather, Moses Cheney, is also included in the papers. There is a diary which Cheney kept during a trip to Europe in 1908.