Scope and Content Note
The papers of Oscar Hijuelos span the years 1913-2016, with the bulk of the material dating from 1990 to 2013. The collection documents Hijuelos’s career as a writer, professional activities, family history, and personal life. The papers are primarily in English, with some Spanish and Finnish. The collection is organized in four series: Writings, Correspondence, Personal File, and Oversize.
The collection focuses chiefly on Hijuelos’s writings, featuring published and unpublished novels, a memoir, articles, essays, short stories, interviews, and speeches. His creative writing process is heavily documented through annotated drafts, fragments, outlines, research notes, and page proofs. Scripts, screenplays, audio recordings, and a scrapbook likewise lend insight into the composition, release, and reception of his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love, and its stage and film adaptations. The collection is also rich in content related to publishing decisions, copyright concerns, and funding opportunities for these projects, as well as publicity events and speaking engagements in which he participated. Personal papers and memorabilia highlight his Cuban heritage, family history, and interests in fine art, cartooning, and travel.
The collection’s series are listed and 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The Writings series documents many of Hijuelos’s published and unpublished books, articles, essays, short stories, musicals, speeches, interviews, and other works of fiction.
The Correspondence series consists of personal, family, and business correspondence with Oscar Hijuelos and Lori Carlson Hijuelos.
The Personal File series is comprised of biographical material, correspondence, clippings, grant applications, programs, promotional flyers, memorabilia, travel journals, a scrapbook, and other papers pertaining to Hijuelos’s professional activities, family history, personal interests, and creative influences Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball.
The Oversize series contains a visual outline of "So Imagined Mercado" ("Blue Antiquity"), a hand-annotated map of Cuba, cartoons and drawings, photographs, printed matter, promotional posters, a scrapbook, and memorabilia.