Mari Sandoz Collection

Restrictions: None

Copyright: To inquire about usage, please contact Archives & Special Collections, University of Nebraska–Lincoln Libraries. For more information see the Use Guidelines

Preferred Citation: Mari Sandoz Collection (MS 080). Archives & Special Collections, University of Nebraska–Lincoln Libraries.

Formats: Microfilm

Mari Sandoz was born 11 May 1896 on the family homestead in Sheridan County in northwestern Nebraska. Upon completing her elementary education, she qualified as a teacher and taught for the next seven years in rural schools in Sheridan and Cheyenne Counties in western Nebraska. She married in 1914, but the marriage was dissolved five years later.

Although she never attended high school, she avidly aspired to have a college education. She was able to persuade the University of Nebraska officials to admit her and, for some ten years, between 1922 and 1932, she attended classes as a part time student, but never received her degree. She supported herself during the period at Lincoln, Nebraska as a worker in a drug laboratory, as an English assistant, as a research assistant in the Nebraska State Historical Society, and as a proofreader of the Nebraska State Journal.

Her writing career - or rather, experimentation with writing - began early. She had her first story published in a newspaper when she was ten years old. In spite of her father's violent disapproval of her artistic endeavors, she continued writing. In 1927, the Prairie Schooner carried in its first issue her short story "The Vine."

Her literary recognition came with the publication of Old Jules, a biography of her father. The manuscript of the book was rejected over and over again by publishers until it was finally accepted, and it won the Atlantic nonfiction prize in the amount of five thousand dollars in 1935.

The Trans-Missouri Series (or the Great Plains Series) that opened with Old Jules and was concluded with The Cattlemen in 1958 is undoubtedly Mari Sandoz' central achievement. She undertook the detailed, almost laboratory study of one region, i.e., the Trans-Missouri Country, from the early stages of human civilization to the recent times in order to learn more about the human nature in general. The Series also included Crazy Horse, Cheyenne Autumn, The Buffalo Hunters, and The Beaver Men. Crazy Horse, the biography of the Oglala Sioux Chieftain, was named, in 1954, as one of the Ten Best Books of the West. Cheyenne Autumn, depicting the struggle of a small band of homesick Indians on their way to their ancestral home, was made into a movie.

Mari Sandoz also wrote several novels. Slogum House, published in 1937, portrays realistically pioneering days in Nebraska. It was followed in 1939 by Capitol City, which was described by reviewers as an indictment of the sordidness of political and social life in a middle-western capitol. Other novels of note are Miss Morissa, The Tom-Walker, and Son of the Gamblin' Man.

The awards she received for her literary achievements were numerous. The National Achievement Award by the Westerners Chicago Corral in 1955 should be singled out as it recognized her contribution to the preservation of the cultural background of the American West through her writing, and for her unequalled achievement in having four of her books selected by Westerners in a nationwide poll as ranking in the One Hundred Best Books on the West.

In her busy writing career, Mari Sandoz also shared her literary talent with students. In 1941, she was a staff member of the Writers' Conference at the University of Colorado and in 1946 at the University of Indiana. Between 1947 and 1956, she was in charge of Advanced Novel Writing, Writers' Institute, Summer Session, University of Wisconsin. The University of Nebraska awarded her in 1950 an honorary degree of Doctor of Literature, and in 1954, Governor Robert B. Crosby declared August 23 as "Mari Sandoz Day" in Nebraska.

Sandoz traveled widely, mainly in pursuit of research materials for her books. Eventually she established a permanent home in New York's Greenwich Village to be close to essential libraries and archives, as well as to her publishers. In the eastern self-imposed exile she wrote about the West she loved.

Mari Sandoz died in her outpost in New York on 10 March 1966, after a lingering illness. According to her wish her body was buried on the Old Jules place in the Nebraska Sandhills.

Scope and Content: 

The Sandoz Collection is composed of manuscripts, correspondence, research files, notes, maps, and Sandoz's personal library. In addition to her own work the collection also contains books, articles and taped interviews about Sandoz. This collection is an important source for history and literature of Nebraska and the Great Plains region. It also documents the career of one of Nebraska's most successful and distinguished writers.

A grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities allowed the University Libraries to create preservation microfilm for selected materials in the Sandoz Collection. Please see the series description for access to microfilm information.

Subjects: 

Aldrich, Bess Streeter, 1881-1954

Botkin, Benjamin Albert, 1901-

Cather, Willa, 1873-1947

Cerf, Bennett, 1898-1971

Crazy Horse, ca. 1842-1877

Dull Knife, ca. 1828-1879 or 1883

Little Wolf, d. 1904

Mencken, H. L. (Henry Louis), 1880-1956

Neihardt, John Gneisenau, 1881-1973

Norris, George W. (George William), 1861-1944

Pound, Louise, 1872-1958

Sandoz, Jules Ami, 1857?-1928

Sandoz, Mari, 1896-1966

Truman, Harry S., 1884-1972

American bison

Authors, American -- 20th century

Authors, American -- 20th century -- Correspondence

Cattle trade -- West (U.S.)

Cheyenne Indians

Cheyenne Indians -- Biography

Cheyenne Indians -- Government relations

Cheyenne Indians -- History

Crazy Horse, ca. 1842-1877 -- Portraits

Frontier and pioneer life -- West (U.S.)

Fur trade -- North America -- Maps

Fur trade -- Northwest, Canadian

Fur trade -- West (U.S.)

Great Plains -- History

Hunting -- West (U.S.) -- History

Indians of North America -- Literary collections

Little Bighorn, Battle of the, Mont., 1876

Nebraska -- Social life and customs

North America -- History -- Maps

Northwest, Canadian -- History

Oglala Indians

Oglala Indians -- Biography

Pioneers -- Nebraska -- Biography

Sandoz, Mari, 1896-1966 -- Childhood and youth

Sandoz, Mari, 1896-1966 -- Correspondence

Sandhills (Neb.) -- Literary collections

Sioux Indians

West (U.S.) -- History -- To 1848

West (U.S.) -- History -- 1848-1950

Women historians -- Nebraska -- Biography

Women novelists, American -- 20th century -- Biography

This series is associated with Sandoz's personal library, which she used extensively for research. The books relate to Great Plains history, American Indians, and other topics that she deems of interest. The library includes first editions of her books, some of which are inscribed. The books are main available through the Libraries' Quick Catalog Search.

This series of materials includes resources that Sandoz gathered together and used for her research. The Research Files include documents and original source materials along with newspaper clippings. The Card Index is comprised of approximately 45,000 3" x 5" index cards that reference interviews, notes, articles and publications, and other resources Sandoz consulted or created for her research and publications. The majority of these materials pertain to Nebraska and Great Plains history and literature. The files and cards are filed according to the subjects that Sandoz designated and as much as possible in the original order in which she placed them. The spelling of individual or family names may vary. Some of the cards may include transcriptions, but it may be neccesary to study the original cards to determine exact words or wording.

Full length book manuscripts, short stories, articles, reviews, speeches, authored by Sandoz are included in this series. For each of her books there are original manuscripts with handwritten edits, author's proofs, and gallery proofs along with revisions, interviews, and reference sources for her books. For example, The Beaver Men, materials include revision sheets for the entire book; reference notes on the fur trade in chronological order from 1700 to the 1890s; and reference notes on fur companies, American Indians, fur traders, expeditions, forts, places and events; published sources and clippings related to the fur trade; duplicates of correspondence dealing with the book; and map notes. Another example of the variety of materials are those for Miss Morissa, which include edited typescripts and a rough draft and Sandoz's opinion of Hal Kanter's screenplay of the book.

The correspondence consists of letters Sandoz received beginning in the middle 1920's until her death in 1966. Sandoz kept carbon copies of her replies to letters. The files also include materials on her participation in various writers' institutes, carbon copies of criticism written for the American Association of University Women's national contests from 1956 to 1964 and submitted to the annual Mary Roberts Fellowship for the American Journal of Nursing. There is voluminous personal and family news clippings, appointment calendars and address books, autobiographical materials, and photographs of the Sandoz, her family, and friends.

Sandoz utilized maps extensively in her research and writing. The collection contains 350 maps, including the author's hand-drawn originals for her nonfiction works. Each of the maps in the map collection is numbered and filed chronologically. This series also contains a number of awards, trophies, paintings, and various artifacts.