Cynthia Propper Seton papers
Scope and Contents
The Cynthia Propper Seton Papers consist of 1 linear foot of material dating from 1946 to 1982, with the majority dating from the later 1960's to the end of Seton's life. The collection consists mainly of Seton's writings, including drafts and finished typescripts of her columns, essays, and novels. Personal papers are less extensive, and are primarily Seton's detailed correspondence to her longtime friend and confidante Frances Richardson, whom Seton met in 1951 while their husbands were both at Yale Medical School. These discuss Seton's views on women's rights, writing, travels, her children, and her later battle with Hodgkin's disease. Seton's search for what it means to live a fulfilling life runs heavily throughout the correspondence, a theme she also discusses at length in her writings.
The collection also contains several photographs and some biographical information, mostly articles featuring Seton's politics and experience as an older feminist and mother, but also obituaries and other materials relating to her death. Major themes addressed in the papers are the social movements of the 1960s (especially the women's movement); the impact of feminism on middle-aged women; Smith College; the city of Northampton; and the writing process.
Dates of Materials
- Creation: 1946 - 1982
Creator
- Seton, Cynthia P. (Person)
Conditions Governing Access
This collection is open for research use with the following restrictions on access: At the direction of the donor, materials received as Accession 1997-S-0042 are closed until January 2038.
Conditions Governing Use
Copyright ownership of Cynthia Seton's unpublished works is unknown. Copyright to materials authored by persons other than Cynthia Seton may be owned by those individuals or their heirs or assigns. For reproductions of materials that are governed by fair use as defined under U. S. Copyright Law, no permission to cite or publish is required. Researchers are responsible for determining who may hold materials' copyrights and obtaining approval from them. Researchers do not need anything further from Smith College Special Collections to move forward with their use.
Biographical / Historical
Cynthia Propper was born October 11, 1926, in New York City to Charlotte Jansen and Karl Propper. She graduated from the Fieldston School in Riverdale, New York and earned her B.A. from Smith College in 1948. She was married to Paul Seton, the Smith College physician and psychiatrist; the two had five children: Anthony, Julia, Margaret, Jennifer, and Nora. After living in Natick and Stockbridge, Massachusetts the family moved in 1957 to Northampton, where they remained for the rest of Seton's life. Starting in 1956 Seton worked as a journalist, serving for 12 years as a writer for the Berkshire Eagle of Pittsfield, Massachusetts, where she wrote a column on modern motherhood called "Skirting the Issue." Her column was also printed in the Washington Post for a year, from 1959-60. She published three essay collections and five novels. Additionally, Seton wrote articles for magazines such as The Atlantic Monthly, Redbook, and McCall's, and regularly contributed book reviews to several publications. Many critics praised Seton's work, calling her "a latter-day Jane Austen, writing a comedy of manners." Her third novel, A Fine Romance, was nominated for a National Book Award in 1976. In addition to writing, Seton lectured on literary and feminist topics and taught at the Indiana University Writer's Conference. After a decade-long battle with Hodgkin's disease and leukemia, Seton died in Northampton on October 23, 1982.
Extent
3.272 linear feet (6 containers)
Language of Materials
English
Abstract
Author. Papers consist primarily of typescripts of Seton's columns, essays, and novels; biographical material; detailed correspondence; and a few photographs. Major themes addressed in the papers are Smith College; the city of Northampton; the social movements of the 1960s (especially the women's movement); the impact of feminism on middle-aged women; and writing.
Organization of the Collection
This collection is organized into three series:
- I. BIOGRAPHICAL MATERIALS
- II. CORRESPONDENCE
- III. WRITINGS
Arrangement
This collection has been added to over time in multiple "accessions." An accession is a group of materials received from the same source at approximately the same time.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
The Cynthia Propper Seton Papers were first donated to the Sophia Smith Collection by Cynthia Seton in 1969. Her publisher George Brockway and her friend Frances Richardson donated additional materials in the 1990s. Additional materials were donated by Margaret Seton in 2013.
Processing Information
Processed by Joanna Johnson, 2011
Processing Information
Between September 2022 and February 2023, Smith College Special Collections renumbered many boxes to eliminate duplicate numbers within collections in order to improve researcher experience. A full crosswalk of old to new numbers is available.
Subject
- Seton, Cynthia P. (Person)
- Richardson, Frances (Person)
- Smith College. (Organization)
Source
- Seton, Cynthia P. (Donor, Person)
- Richardson, Frances (Donor, Person)
Genre / Form
Geographic
Topical
- Title
- Cynthia Propper Seton papers
- Subtitle
- Finding Aid
- Date
- 2005
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
- Sponsor
- Encoding funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Revision Statements
- 07/26/2017: This resource was modified by the ArchivesSpace Preprocessor developed by the Harvard Library (https://github.com/harvard-library/archivesspace-preprocessor)
- 2017-07-26T17:48:15-04:00: This record was migrated from InMagic DB Textworks to ArchivesSpace.
- 2021-07-02: Content description added from accession inventory
Repository Details
Part of the Sophia Smith Collection of Women's History Repository
