Scope and Content Note
The papers of Carl Edward Sagan (1934-1996) and Ann Marcia Druyan (1949- ) span the years 1860-2004 with the majority concentrated between 1962 and 1997. The bulk of the collection documents Sagan's career as an astronomer, astrobiologist, science educator, television personality, and author. The papers chronicle his work as a professor at Harvard University and Cornell University, as a consultant and adviser to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and as a popularizer of science through the television series Cosmos: A Personal Voyage, and as an author of numerous articles and best-selling books. The collection also documents the collaboration of Sagan and Druyan, author, producer, and wife of Sagan, on television programs, films, articles, books, the Voyager interstellar record, and their activities in opposition to nuclear weapons. The papers are in English, Russian, and German and are organized into the following series: Correspondence , Academic File , National Aeronautics and Space Administration File , Television and Film File , Subject File , Anti-Nuclear Activism File , The Planetary Society , Organizations File , Writings File , Speech and Engagement File , Miscellany , Photographs and Visual Materials , Artifacts , Classified , Oversize , and Digital Files .
The Correspondence series, 1952-1998, documents Sagan's activities and interests primarily from his time at Harvard University until his untimely death in 1996 and includes some correspondence of Druyan dating chiefly from 1976-1998. The Correspondence is organized into five categories: alphabetical file, chronological file, fan mail, “fissured ceramics,” general, and get-well letters. The alphabetical file contains incoming and outgoing letters with friends, colleagues, scientists, politicians, government officials, entertainers, authors, journalists, publishers, students and former students of Sagan, and a few family letters. Arranged in four sets, the alphabetical file consists chiefly of correspondents that the Sagan staff considered well known and individuals that Sagan and Druyan knew personally. The general correspondence includes letters from colleagues, scientists, politicians, government officials, acquaintances, and the public. Filing in the alphabetical and general correspondence was inconsistent; some names appear in both files. Interfiled in the alphabetical file are newspaper clippings and magazine articles about correspondents, copies of their writings, and other material relating to them.
The alphabetical file and general correspondence relate chiefly to discussions about scientific findings and ideas as well as scientific projects and proposals (including NASA projects such as the Viking and Voyager missions), and requests to involve Sagan and Druyan in speech and writing projects, political causes, entertainment ventures, and other proposals. Also included are letters documenting Sagan and Druyan's activities surrounding their opposition to nuclear weapons and weapons testing.
Correspondence in the chronological file is organized into incoming and outgoing mail. The incoming correspondence consists chiefly of letters that were not filed by Sagan's staff. Most of the outgoing correspondence documents the daily output of letters sent by him. Sometimes a copy of an incoming letter is included (the original is located in the alphabetical or general correspondence) with an outgoing response. The outgoing chronological file is organized into four groups: confidential, Cornell University, general, and personal. The confidential letters relate primarily to financial and legal issues about writing projects, Cosmos, Carl Sagan Productions, and a few personal legal matters. The personal outgoing responses contain letters to family and friends up to Sagan's death in 1996.
Fan mail in the Correspondence series consists primarily of responses to Sagan's writings and television appearances, including some for Cosmos. The majority of fan mail for Cosmos is located in the Television and Film series. The Correspondence series also contains a file of what Sagan considered crank mail, which he called “fissured ceramics.” Following a systematic sample taken by Library staff of the “fissured ceramic” mail, ten percent of that correspondence was retained. Only a portion of the crank mail was received by the Library; a note found with the collection indicated that some crank mail was disposed of by Sagan's staff.
The Academic File , 1952-1996, documents Sagan's endeavors as a student, university fellow in astronomy, and as a professor. Most of the papers document Sagan's tenure as a professor of astronomy and space sciences at Cornell University, 1968-1996; the director of its Laboratory for Planetary Studies, 1968-1996; and associate director of the Center for Radiophysics and Space Research, 1972-1981. The Cornell files contain lecture notes, class assignments, and resource material for various astronomy classes including Sagan's critical thinking class, Astronomy 490.
Grants and proposals comprise the bulk of the Academic File . They document Sagan's efforts to gain financial support for his research and the budgetary reporting and supporting documentation required when grants were obtained. Topics featured are comparative planetology, exobiology, satellites and planetary atmospheres, and NASA projects relating to Galileo, Mariner 9, Viking, and Voyager. The Cornell files include faculty, staff, and student materials that overlap with the Correspondence series. A subject file in the Cornell files further chronicles Sagan's activities and interests while a professor there.
The Academic File also treats Sagan's career at Harvard University, his work as a consultant for the GCA Corporation, and as a staff member of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. The latter are filed with the Harvard papers. Also in the Academic File are notes, notebooks, and student papers from Sagan's graduate and undergraduate work at the University of Chicago, 1954-1960, his fellowship at the University of California, Berkeley, 1960-1962, and class papers from Sagan's Harvard students, David Morrison and James B. Pollack, with whom he later collaborated on many scientific papers and projects.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration File , 1954-1996, pertains to Sagan's work as an adviser and consultant to NASA, including on the Mariner 9 and Viking missions. The Viking landers were the first spacecrafts to land successfully on Mars. The files document Sagan's service as a member of the team to select a landing site for the Viking missions and his role as a member of the imaging team that designed the system to photograph the planet's surface. Also featured are files pertaining to Sagan's proposed biology briefing for the Apollo astronauts in 1967, and his contributions to the Voyager mission to the outer solar system, the Galileo mission to Jupiter, and as a designer of interstellar messages for Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11. Files relating to the Voyager interstellar record, audio records designed by Sagan, Druyan, Timothy Ferris (writer), Frank D. Drake (astronomer), Jon Lomberg (artist), and Linda Salzman (artist and wife of Sagan at the time), are located in the Writings File series under the book entitled Murmurs of Earth: The Voyager Interstellar Record.
The Television and Film File , 1945-2000, documents the thirteen-part series Cosmos (written by Sagan, Druyan and Steven Soter) that first aired in late 1980. As host of the awarding-winning program, Sagan attracted wide public recognition and a large volume of fan mail. The Cosmos files include correspondence and production files (treatment, script drafts, storyboards, episode files, files on art and special effects, research, and location filming) as well as publicity and press material. The book Cosmos is filed under books in the Writings File . Another project featured in the series is the movie Contact that premiered in 1997. The files include Sagan and Druyan's treatment for the movie in 1980, transcripts of story and script meetings in 1994, various versions of the film script from 1993-1997, and discussions of the artwork and graphics for the film.
The Television and Film File also features files pertaining to Carl Sagan Productions, a corporation formed by Sagan and Gentry Lee to promote the popularization of science. Also chronicled in the series is the television project “Nucleus,” an unfinished writing collaboration by Sagan, Druyan, and Steven Soter about the nuclear arms race. The “Nucleus” files chronicle the effort to get the show funded and produced and contain treatment and episode files, advisory board minutes, and a large amount of resource material. Sagan's appearances on The Tonight Show are represented in the alphabetical file of the Correspondence series and by date of appearance in the Speech and Engagement File .
The Subject File , circa 1860-1998, mainly documents scientific topics but also treats political and social issues. Topics featured include creationism/evolution, Mars, Titan, drug policy, nuclear war and nuclear winter (the effect of a nuclear exchange between countries on the global climate), unidentified flying objects, and the environment. An extensive press file, consisting chiefly of newspaper and magazine clippings, chronicles Sagan's research and writing projects, television appearances, and public profiles. The nuclear files in the Subject File overlap with the Anti-Nuclear Activism File .
Papers in the Anti-Nuclear Activism File , 1943-1992, pertain to Sagan and Druyan's opposition to nuclear weapons, weapons testing, and the Strategic Defense Initiative proposed by President Ronald Reagan. The series contains the correspondence, transcripts, and drafts relating to the Conference on the Long-Term Worldwide Biological Consequences of Nuclear War held in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1983. At the conference Sagan and his colleagues, Richard P. Turco, O. B. Toon, Thomas P. Ackerman, and James B. Pollack, discussed publicly for the first time their paper about nuclear winter. They suggested that after “a major nuclear exchange, smoke and dust may darken the earth for weeks and cause a prolonged period of sub-freezing temperatures.” The “TTAPS” paper, named for the initials of the authors, was later published in Science in December 1983. Nuclear winter became a controversial topic on which Sagan wrote and lectured. Documented in the files is Sagan's debate before Congress in 1984 with Edward Teller, one of the inventors of the hydrogen bomb. Also chronicled is the couple's civil disobedience at the Nevada test site in 1986 and 1987 and their involvement in the 1984 presidential campaign supporting Gary Hart and later Walter F. Mondale.
Files in The Planetary Society , 1907-1997, document Sagan's activities as a co-founder and president of the organization. The Planetary Society was created in 1979 as a space-interest group to promote space exploration and the search for extraterrestrial life. The series contains many files relating to the exploration of Mars and The Planetary Report, the society's publication of which Sagan was a frequent contributor.
The Organizations File , 1958-1997, reflects Sagan's contributions as a member and leader of scientific and astronomical organizations such as the American Astronomical Society, American Geophysical Union, American Association for the Advancement of Science, and International Society for the Study of the Origin of Life. Also reflected in this file are Sagan's endeavors as an advisor to a number of groups and institutions. The Organizations File includes correspondence relating to the National Academy of Sciences vote in 1992 refusing Sagan membership because some members felt too much of his work focused on the popularizing of science. The series overlaps with the Speech and Engagement File because some speeches and related papers are filed with the organization sponsoring an event.
The Writings File , 1883-1996, constituting almost one third of the collection, documents the prolific output of Sagan and Druyan through articles, scientific papers and abstracts, books, letters to editors, reviews, forewords and introductions, and the editing of the planetary research journal Icarus. The Writings File chronicles Sagan's life long search for extraterrestrial life and his study of planetary surfaces and atmospheres. Represented are Sagan's articles examining the temperatures of Venus, his exploration of Mars, research about the red haze surrounding Titan, and his study of the environmental impact of nuclear war and nuclear weapons policies. Also included are articles written for Parade magazine by Sagan and Druyan about space exploration, the importance of science, unidentified flying objects, abortion, nuclear war, and the environment.
Book files in the Writings File series include correspondence, drafts, transcripts of audiotapes, and resource material. Titles featured are The Dragons of Eden (a Pulitzer Prize winner), Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors, Cosmos, A Path Where No Man Thought, Contact (Sagan's only novel), Pale Blue Dot, and “Nucleus,” an unpublished book about the nuclear arms race. Also featured in the Writings File is Sagan and Druyan's correspondence with editors about writing projects.
The Speech and Engagement File , 1960-1996, consists chiefly of correspondence and memoranda about travel arrangements, travel itineraries and schedules, and notes and resource material. Sagan liked to speak extemporaneously. Therefore, only a few complete speeches and speech drafts appear in the files.
The Miscellany series, 1911-2004, contains family papers, a school and childhood file, a biographical file, awards and honors, material relating to Sagan's death, and manuscripts of historical interest that he purchased or collected. The biographical files include successive drafts of Sagan's vitae, his submissions to biographical directories, and writings about him. Also in the Miscellany is an “ideas riding” file, containing Sagan and Druyan's ideas for future projects, whether scientific, literary, or a video game.
The Photographs and Visual Materials , 1967-1994, contain portraits of Sagan, family photographs, and visual materials relating to Sagan and Druyan's lectures and publications, NASA missions, Cosmos(the television program), and other topics of interest to Sagan and Druyan. Many of the photograph and slides are copies of NASA photographs. The Artifacts series, 1934-1992, consists mainly of mementos reflective of Sagan's career and interests.
The Digital Files in this collection were created from 1987 to 1997 and consist chiefly of word processing files received on three inch floppy disks. Sagan dictated his thoughts for letters, books, articles, and other projects into a tape recorder, and the tapes were typed by his staff. A list of the Digital Files, arranged by type of material and by digital ID, was compiled by Library of Congress staff. Library staff arranged the files according to the predominant category that the file represented. The bulk of the Digital Files are comprised of outgoing correspondence and writings that are duplicated in the analog portion of the collection. The writings consist chiefly of drafts of Sagan and Druyan's books and articles. Correspondence in the Digital Files are usually labeled by name of correspondent or a correspondent's initials. Numbers after a correspondent's name usually indicates the month and day the letter was written. The Library also received five and a quarter inch disks and eight inch disks as part of the Sagan Druyan collection that are currently not accessible.
Correspondents include George O. Abell, Diane Ackerman, Jerome Agel, Isaac Asimov, Christopher F. Chyba, Arthur C. Clarke, Frank D. Drake, Timothy Ferris, Louis Friedman, Albert Gore (1948- ), David Harry Grinspoon, Lester Grinspoon, Geoffrey Haines-Stiles, Bishun N. Khare, Joshua Lederberg, Gentry Lee, Jon Lomberg, Adrian Malone, Mikhail I︠A︡kovlevich Marov, David Morrison, Bruce C. Murray, Thomas A. Mutch, Lynda Rosen Obst, James B. Pollack, R. Z. Sagdeev, Steven Soter, Steven W. Squyres, Yervant Terzian, W. Reid Thompson, O. B. Toon, Richard P. Turco, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Joseph Veverka, and Timothy E. Wirth.