PETER FARB PAPERS

Through the correspondence, research notes and drafts, the material of this collection documents Farb's writing history, his research methodology and the mechanics of publishing scientific material for a non-scientific audience. Through the correspondence with his publishers, one sees the progression of an article from idea, to outline, and finally, to published article. The files also contain Farb's book reviews, and drafts of books written between 1953 and 1969.

Of interest is an exchange of letters between James Russell Wiggins, editor of the Washington Post, and Richard G. Van Gelder, over the distinction between editing and censoring. This appears to have been prompted by the retraction and subsequent reprinting with deletions by the Chicago Tribune and the Washington Post of a book review written by Peter Farb. The review was of Desmond Morris’s The Naked Ape. The deleted portion apparently contained an explicit reference to the male anatomy in a discussion of the sexual behavior of primates.

The collection is organized by articles, book reviews, and then books written by Farb. Within these divisions, the files are arranged by date of publication. Many of the items in the collection are copies of correspondence and were written on highly acidic paper. They are brittle and discolored.

Items pertaining to Farb's articles are found in this series. They are arranged by the date of publication. Because the proposal and review process would often take several years, the reference point for each article is the date of publication. If not published, then the material is filed by the earliest date of the research.

A small number of book reviews make up this series. It includes the controversy over the Naked Ape review.

This series contains drafts and galley proofs of many of Farb's works, including The Living Earth, The Face of North America: A Natural History of a Continent, The Forest, and The Land, Wildlife, and Peoples of the Bible. Also included is correspondence and reference material related to each manuscript.

Printer’s proofs of The Land, Wildife, and Peoples of the Bible, Story of Butterflies, The Face of North America: The Natural History of a Continent, and The Face of North America (Young Readers edition), complete the collection.