Administrative Information
Acquisition Information
The papers of Herman Wouk were given to the Library of Congress by Wouk between 1995 and 2019.
Processing History
The papers of Herman Wouk were arranged and described by Amanda Loeb with the assistance of Jake Bozza, Andrea Briggs, Melinda Friend, Nate Scheible, Annette Scherber, and Emilia Schrier from 2019 to 2021. Some items have undergone mold remediation. The finding aid was written primarily by Amanda Loeb and Emilia Schrier.
Digital files were received as part of the Herman Wouk Papers on a variety of storage media, each of which was assigned a unique digital ID number. Use the digital ID number to request access copies of the files associated with each media. A description of the standard processes taken on all born digital records can be found in the Processing History Note: Born Digital Collection Material at https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/eadmss.digital. To recover the data from some optical disks, disk images of these media were created and the files were exported from the disk image. Disk images also were created from raw stream files extracted from 5.25" floppy disks. Staff also imaged damaged or corrupt media and extracted the files from the disk image. Audio files in .cda format were ripped to .wav format by staff during processing. Diary files were removed from digital ID sets in accordance with restrictions on the Herman Wouk Papers; access to diaries is restricted until 2039. The Manuscript Division retains a complete copy of all files in digital ID sets with diary files left in their original locations. Researchers can access these digital ID sets only by permission of the donor's designated representative. For names of removed files, researchers can compare the original directory listing with the payload listing or see Appendix: Restricted Digital Files.
Transfers
Items have been transferred from the Manuscript Division to other custodial divisions of the Library. Sound discs, audiotapes, film reels, and videocassettes have been transferred to the Motion Picture, Broadcasting, and Recorded Sound Division. Some photographs, negatives, and albums have been transferred to the Prints and Photographs Division. A selection of Herman Wouk's personal library has been transferred to the Rare Book and Special Collections Division. All transfers are identified in these divisions as part of the Herman Wouk Papers. Patrons are encouraged to contact these divisions in advance of a research visit.
Other Repositories
Other papers of Herman Wouk, predominantly documenting his early writing career, can be found in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library of Columbia University, New York, N.Y.
Technical Requirements
Digital files were created in a Windows operating system, version is unknown. The content is primarily text files in .doc format. Image files in .jpg and .pdf formats, audio files in .wav format, and moving image files in .vob formats are also included. At the time of processing, content from 5.25” and some 3.5” floppy disks was not fully recoverable. Partial and/or unformatted text from the files can be viewed with a text editor such as Notepad.
Digitized Content
Diary Volumes 1-88, commonplace book I, management summary record, and personal business summary journal were digitized by the donor prior to transfer of the physical diaries to the Library. The Library received scans as both TIFF files and PDF files. PDF files have been assigned digital ID numbers mss83183_036_002_r through mss83183_036_091_r. Access to diary scans is restricted until 2039.
Microfilm
Microfilm on 1 reel was received as part of the papers of Herman Wouk and is listed and described in this finding aid. This microfilm is not available for interlibrary loan.
Preferred Citation
Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: Container, reel, or digital ID number, Herman Wouk Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.