Scope and Content Note
The Larry Warren Collection on Anna Sokolow and Lester Horton collects the research Warren conducted while writing biographies on the two major choreographers. Dates for the collection span from 1903, the earliest photographs of the Sokolow family, through 2007, indicating that Warren continued to collect material even after his books were published. The bulk of the material spans 1967 to 1990, the height of Warren's research for both books. Materials include clippings, correspondence, drafts, notes, personal papers, photographs, printed material, programs, scrapbooks, and writings. Most of the collection is in English, but the Sokolow series includes significant printed material in Spanish and Hebrew, as well as clippings in Dutch, German, Japanese, Polish, Russian, and Swedish.
Anna Sokolow: The Rebellious Spirit was first published in 1991. The Anna Sokolow series collects Warren's extensive research for this biography into five subseries: Chronological Files, Correspondence, Interviews, Photographs, and Subject Files. The clippings, correspondence, photographs, programs, and writings organized here primarily document Sokolow's life and career, but the series also contains material directly related to the publication, publicity, and subsequent edition of Rebellious Spirit.
Warren's collected research on Lester Horton comprises the second series. Warren wrote his graduate thesis on Horton and credits dance critic John Martin for encouraging him to turn the work into a full-length biography. Lester Horton: Modern Dance Pioneer was first published in 1977, with a second edition published in 1991. The series includes clippings, dance notation, letters, notes, photographs, programs, writings by Horton, and significant documentation on Horton's dance technique. It is divided into three subseries: Correspondence, Photographs, and Subject Files.
The final series, Larry Warren Papers, consists of only one small file that contains clippings, correspondence, notes, and collected ephemera.