What do authors reference and use for research while writing?
Not only do the Irving Wallace papers have the plethora of writings by Wallace. But the collection holds a variety of items that address a simple question: What was Irving Wallace looking at or reading while he was writing?
Photocopies of chapters, newspaper clippings, magazines, screenplays, and manuals offer a glimpse into what Irving Wallace found worthwhile to review during his own work as an author.
To highlight one item in these reference and research materials, there is a rare copy of screenplay by W. Somerset Maugham—an initial draft from1945 of the film “The Razor’s Edge,” which this series also has a final screenplay of from 1946. Developed for 20th Century Fox, Maugham wrote that this draft was “not to be look upon as a script and will be incomprehensible.” As a screenwriter himself, I wonder if Wallace would return to these screenplays for inspiration.
Stay tuned, Chelsea Fox