Scope and Content Note
The papers of Lewis Varick Frissell (who was known throughout his life as Varick Frissell) span the years 1917-1970, with the greatest portion of the material dated 1925-1931. The diary, correspondence, writings, and business papers of these years reflect a short but intense career of arctic exploration, writing, and documentary and feature film making. Earlier papers are Frissell's juvenilia (mostly fiction), and later papers are those of his family. The collection is organized by type of material.
Frissell's expedition to the Unknown River region of Labrador in 1925 resulted in his identification of the Lower Twin Falls and in the first photograph of the Grand Falls on the Hamilton River (now Churchill River and Falls). The journey is documented in the diary, correspondence, and articles in the collection. This and subsequent explorations in Labrador earned Frissell election as a Fellow of the Royal Geographic Society and as a member of the Explorer's Club.
Much of the general correspondence and most of the business papers, as well as the scripts and related papers in the collection, pertain to the two feature films produced by Frissell. The Great Arctic Seal Hunt(1928), a silent documentary, was written, produced, and photographed by Frissell while he worked as a sealer off the Labrador coast in 1927. The Viking (1931), the first feature-length sound film produced entirely on location, was written and produced by Frissell and was directed by George Melford. The writings file in the collection includes synopses for both films and scripts, continuity notes, and a negative film record for The Viking. Distribution contracts and agreements, schedules of showings for both films, and copies of correspondence between third parties about these arrangements are included in the business papers.
In addition to the papers related to motion pictures, the writings contain numerous articles on Labrador and the Arctic, reflecting Frissell's interest in the promotion and development of the region. Other writings include Frissell's fictional pieces and his poetry.
The largest sequence of general correspondence is between Frissell and Sir Wilfred Thomason Grenfell and his philanthropic organization, the International Grenfell Association. Grenfell, with whom Frissell had stayed on his first and on many later visits to the North, was a well-known medical missionary to the Inuit people of Labrador. Other prominent correspondents are Robert Joseph Flaherty, the noted documentarist, and George Allan England, whose story "Vikings of the Ice" Frissell adapted for The Viking.
Family correspondence in the papers contains letters to and from Frissell and his father, Lewis Fox Frissell, regarding Frissell's plans for and experiences on his northern journeys. A large portion of the correspondence of Frissell's father relates to the search for Frissell that was instituted during the spring of 1931, after the ship on which he was retaking some scenes for The Vikingexploded. Frissell was never found, but the search for him is closely chronicled in telegrams and letters, as well as newspaper clippings in the subject file and in scrapbooks.
The much later, 1965-1970, correspondence of Toni Frissell in the family correspondence reflects her attempts to ascertain and publicize the facts of her brother's career. Several of these letters contain enclosures that are copies of Frissell's correspondence with his lawyers and with the Royal Geographic Society.