My wife and I were asked by the University of Florida, Special Collections Department, to help re-organize the inventory of the Collection during April to May, 2007. It was a time-consuming, but very rewarding task.  We are continuing the effort since the original time frame was not enough.  We had to deal with 472 boxes, including 53 boxes of photographs, and about 50 boxes of slides.

The inventory will be available through a University of Florida website. As soon it is completed a link will be provided from this page.  Estimated time for completion of the re-organization is June, 2009.

The Collection is a great resource for JDM fans. There are 79 linear feet of JDM manuscripts , letters, tv and film deals, photos, personal correspondence,  ephemera, and much more. It is perhaps the most comprehensive body of materials of a mystery author in the U.S.

In the future we hope to  raise funds for digitizing some of the Collection so that researchers will have instant access.

Note:

I need to add another reference to the inventory work of the late Walter Shine, for without his painstaking labors in the the Collection we would have had more of a problem identifying some materials.  In addition, thanks to Maynard and Liliana MacDonald who first put the photos into labeled envelopes and brought them to the University after the death of Dorothy MacDonald in 1989.

Reviewing the new Inventory in preparation for re-organizing the Collection...

Part of the 79 linear feet..

At 65 degrees in 35% humidity conditions the Collection should be preserved for a long, long time, but digitizing some contents would ensure that archival status...

From 1962 or so until his death in 1986 JDM  sent boxes of material to the Library on a periodic basis.  The material was then placed in boxes similar to the above; the re-organization will involve new and special archival quality boxes to better preserve material.

If one looked into the box above you would find what is shown below: a  McGee manuscript.  But  JDM decided that this  McGee was too heavy and serious;  the next McGee attempt had McGee as  too wry and smart-alecky. The third turned out right:  The Deep Blue Goodby.

By the way, in the first two attempts McGee’s first name was Dallas, which was changed because of the too close relationship to the Kennedy assassination.  A friend suggested that JDM look to names of Air Force bases for a name, and thus we have Travis McGee.

Flo Turcotte (rear), Research Services Archivist, Dept. of Special and Area Studies Collections;  Nola Branche, and in the foreground, Dina Benson, Assistant Coordinator of Public and Support Services

No explanation needed for the photo below.