Scope and Content Note
The papers of Thomas Mallon (1951-) span the years 1880-2023, with the bulk of the material dating from 1969 to 2023. The collection documents Mallon's career as an author, columnist, literary editor, and teacher, as well as his personal life and relationships with family, friends, and professional contacts. The papers are primarily in English. The collection is organized into six series: Correspondence, Diaries (Restricted), Personal File, Professional File, Writings File, and Oversize.
The collection documents Mallon’s entire writing career and creative process, from outlines and research, to drafting, revising, editing, and publishing. The collection also documents the business of being a writer, through correspondence with agents and publishers, pitches, contracts, and other administrative files. Mallon’s personal life is well represented, primarily through his diaries and correspondence. Mallon wrote in his diaries daily from 1976 onward, detailing everyday life, including his experience as part of the gay community in New York City at the height of the AIDS crisis in the mid to late 1980s. Mallon’s correspondence with his parents, Arthur Mallon and Carol Mallon, as well as his sister, Loretta Mallon Harney, and his long-term partner, William Bodenshatz, features heavily in the collection and also provides insight into his personal life. Mallon's correspondence with other writers highlights his many connections within the literary field as well as details of his literary circles. Diaries, correspondence, book and article files, memorabilia, and ephemera in the collection demonstrate Mallon’s alignment with the Republican Party for much of his life, until 2016, and how it influenced his writing.
The collection's series are listed briefly described below. A fuller description of each series and a list of its contents can be accessed in the series descriptions within the container list.
The Correspondence series consists of Mallon’s correspondence dating from 1964 to 2023.
The Diaries (Restricted) series consists of Mallon's personal diaries from 1971 to 2022, with daily entries from 1976 until 2022. The diaries detail Mallon's everyday life, along with thoughts on friends, romances, colleagues, workplaces, personal triumphs and failures, politics, and national events.
The Personal File series consists of educational files, family documents, childhood ephemera, photographs, and other memorabilia, in addition to material documenting Mallon's relationship with partner William Bodenschatz.
The Professional File series documents Mallon’s professional activities related primarily to his writing, editing, and teaching careers. This includes awards, fellowships, professional memberships, literary award judging, clippings and interviews, speeches and engagements, and course materials.
The Writings File series documents Mallon’s writing and research processes along with administrative matters relating to the publication of his articles, books, and other writings.
The remaining series contains Oversize material.