Collection Guide

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Administrative Information

Access and Restrictions: This collection is open for research.

Digital Surrogates: Except where indicated, this document describes but does not reproduce the actual text, images and objects which make up this collection. Materials are available only in the Special Collections Department.

Copyright:  Please read The University of Iowa Libraries' statement on "Property Rights, Copyright Law, and Permissions to Use Unpublished Materials"

Use of Collections:  The University of Iowa Libraries supports access to the materials, published and unpublished, in its collections. Nonetheless, access to some items may be restricted by their fragile condition or by contractual agreement with donors, and it may not be possible at all times to provide appropriate machinery for reading, viewing or accessing non-paper-based materials. Please read our Use of Manuscripts Statement.

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Biographical Note

Katherine Eleanor Saltzman was born October 19, 1904, at Mount Ayr, Iowa. She attended high school there, then Drake University where she received her B.A. degree in 1928. She received a Master of Arts degree in 1929 from the University of Iowa. She stayed on at the University of Iowa, first as editorial assistant of the Classical Journal, then as assistant in public relations for the Iowa Child Welfare Research Station.

Crippled at the age of nine by infantile paralysis, she spent much time in the Saltzman Hotel in Benton Harbor, Michigan, which was operated by her cousin Dr. William Saltzman. She died there in 1946 at the age of 41.

Saltzman was a compulsive writer, as she discusses in one of the essays in this collection, "I'm an Incurable." She wrote advice on parenting, beginning with her days with the Child Welfare Program. She wrote novels, two of which were published -- Ever Tomorrow in 1936 and Stuart's Hill in 1946. These were well-received and won modest praise as regional novels, written in a form called "softened realism." "Grave" and "honest" are words used by several critics to describe Saltzman's work. A third novel, Carpthorne, was in production, but because of the war and Saltzman's early death, it was never published. She wrote many short stories and poems, and a good many of them were published in such journals as The Saturday Review, The Household Magazine, and Wallace's Farmer.

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Scope and Contents

This collection includes drafts and correspondence concerning Saltzman's novels Ever Tomorrow and Stuart's Hill and a manuscript of her unpublished novel, Carpthorne. Also included are manuscripts of poetry, short stories, and essays. One critic has said that the chapters of her novels could stand alone as short stories, and indeed some of the manuscripts, which appear in journals as short stories as well as chapters in her books, are treated as short stories here, separate from the manuscripts for the novels. There are some tear sheets for published materials for which we have no manuscript. Each folder contains a manuscript unless otherwise noted. Where we have the manuscript and the published version, the name of the piece is followed by the citation. In those cases in which we have the published version only, this is noted by a short statement following the citation. Where there is correspondence relating to a piece of writing, it is included in the folder with the manuscript or tear sheet.

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Related Materials

There is a single letter of Saltzman's in the Kelm papers

Papers of Karlton and William Kelm

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Acquisition and Processing Information

The core of this collection was given to the University of Iowa Libraries by Mrs. Noah Saltzman, Eleanor Saltzman's mother, in 1947. Additional materials were donated by Katie W. Green in 2004.

Guide posted to Internet: August 2004

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Box Contents List

Box 1

Series 1: Miscellaneous

Series 2: Personal files

Biographical materials

Clippings

Correspondence

Series 3: Writings (continuing in Box 1 and going on to Box 2)

Subseries A: Novels, Short Stories, and Essays

Subseries B: Poetry

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