Valerie Harms papers
Scope and Contents
The Valerie Harms Papers include personal and professional correspondence; articles; proposals; unpublished manuscripts, journals, notes, and research files for writings, including Voices From Within: Women Prisoner's Poetry, as well as unpublished novels; copies of her books; Magic Circle Press material; conference and workshop material on the "Intensive Journal method"; and audio tapes from "Celebration with Nin" and the "Myth I" and II conferences.
Dates of Materials
- Creation: 1940 - 2020
Creator
- Harms, Valerie (1940) (Person)
Conditions Governing Access
This collection is open for use without restriction beyond the standard terms and conditions of Smith College Special Collections.
Conditions Governing Use
To the extent that they own copyright, Valerie Harms has retained full ownership of any and all copyrights currently controlled in these materials. Copyright in other items in this collection may be held by their respective creators. 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. For those few instances beyond fair use, or which may regard materials in the collection not created by Valerie Harms, 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
Valerie Harms (1940-) was born in Chicago, later moved to Texas as a teen. She earned A.B. from Smith College in English in 1962; married Laurence F. Sheehan (divorced 1981), and had 2 children. In 1955 she started one of the first Elvis Presley fan clubs in west Texas. She lived in France for 3 years; co-founded a Montessori School in Connecticut. Her 1st book, Unmasking: Ten Women in Metamorphosis (1973) grew out of involvement with group of feminists in the arts. Later she co-founded Magic Circle Press, a publication company for books by women. She also edited the journal Celebration in 1973 with Anais Nin, her friend and mentor. Harms has studied and practiced Depth Psychology, Jungian analysis and Intensive Journal Method since the 1970s. Other books she's written include Stars in my Sky: Nin/ Montessori/ Skloff (1976); a biography of Elvis Presley (1977); and Inner Lover: Using Passion as a Way to Self-Empowerment (1992). Recently she's been involved in environmental science, editing the journal of the National Audobon Society, (1987- ). She also wrote the National Audobon Society Almanac of the Environment/Ecology of Everyday Life (1994). Harms organized first Women Writers Conference. She consults, gives workshops and private counseling since 1980.
Extent
22.292 linear feet (29 containers)
0.07 Gigabytes (1 website)
Language of Materials
English
Abstract
Publisher, Magic Circle Press; Editor; Consultant; Instructor; Therapist. The Papers include personal and professional correspondence; articles; proposals; unpublished manuscripts, journals, notes, and research files for Harms' writings, including Voices From Within: Women Prisoner's Poetry, and her unpublished novels; copies of her books; Magic Circle Press material; conference and workshop material on the "Intensive Journal method"; and audio tapes from "Celebration with Nin" and the "Myth I" and II conferences.
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 papers were donated to the Sophia Smith Collection by Valerie Harms in 1995-2022.
Processing Information
Processed by Margaret Jessup in 1995.
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
- Magic Circle Press (Organization)
- Steloff, Frances, 1887- (Person)
- Montessori, Maria, 1870-1952 (Person)
- Nin, Anais, 1903-1977 (Person)
- Presley, Elvis, 1935-1977 (Person)
- Progoff, Ira (Person)
- Harms, Valerie (1940) (Person)
- Smith College -- Students (Organization)
Source
- Harms, Valerie (1940) (Person)
Genre / Form
Topical
- Audiotapes
- Authors, American -- 20th century
- Creative writing -- Study and teaching
- Diaries -- Authorship
- Environmental protection -- United States -- 20th century
- Feminism
- Feminism in art
- Feminist literature
- Feminists -- United States
- Group relations training -- United States
- Negatives
- Publishers and publishing
- Publishers and publishing -- United States
- Small presses -- United States
- Women authors
- Women authors, American -- 20th century
- Women authors, American -- 20th century
- Women publishers -- United States
- Title
- Finding aid to the Valerie Harms papers
- Status
- Legacy Finding Aid (Updated)
- Date
- 2008
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
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)
- 2017-07-26T17:48:19-04:00: This record was migrated from InMagic DB Textworks to ArchivesSpace.
- 2018-10-25: Updated to conform to DACS
- 2021-08-13: Added description to accession 1995-S-0044
- 2022-06-21: Added description of website to finding aid, updated Conditions Governing Use note to match deed
Repository Details
Part of the Sophia Smith Collection of Women's History Repository
