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The papers consist of correspondence, manuscripts, documents, photographs, and printed materials, chiefly concerning 1907-1917. They are particularly useful for the study of the second Russian State Duma (1907), the Russian Social Democratic School on Capri, the "Vpered" group of Social Democrats, the relationship between Maksim Gorḱiĭ and Leonid Andreev, and World War I. Russian Social Democratic correspondents include Aleksandr Bogdanov, Vladimir Lenin, Anatoliĭ Lunacharskiĭ, I︠U︡liĭ Martov, Georgiĭ Plekhanov, Mikhail Pokrovskiĭ, and Lev Trot︠s︡kiĭ. There are letters by such European socialists as Pablo Iglesias Posse, Karl Kautsky, Rosa Luxemburg, and Benito Mussolini, and a series of letters from Gorḱiĭ to Andreev (1899-1915). There is a large number of petitions ("nakazy" "proshenii︠a︡" etc.) sent by people to Aleksinskiĭ when he was a Duma delegate. Authors of manuscripts in the collection include Vicente Blasco Ibáñez, Gorḱiĭ, Lenin, and Lunacharskiĭ. Printed materials consist of Aleksinskiĭ's writings, issues of chiefly Russian emigre periodicals from 1908 to the 1960s, books by various persons, and ephemera.

Correspondence, manuscripts, playscripts, screenplays, diaries, documents, contracts, financial records, photographs, phonograph records, motion pictures, playbills, posters, sheet music, cartoons, art work, memorabilia, scrapbooks, and printed materials. . The collection consists chiefly of correspondence and production files relating to the creation, production, and performance of their works for stage, screen, radio, and television, such as Leave It To Me and Kiss Me Kate (with music by Cole Porter), Boy Meets Girl, and My Three Angels. Correspondence (with twentieth century authors, playwrights, musicians, political figures, and actors) includes: George Abbott, Jean Arthur, Bennett Cerf, Katharine Cornell, Jo Davidson, George and Ira Gershwin, Alec Guinness, W. Averell Harriman, Lilli Lehmann, Mary Martin, Laurence Olivier, Mary Pickford, Cole Porter, Regina Resnick, Eleanor Roosevelt, Robert E. Sherwood, Lincoln Steffens, Kurt Weill, Rebecca West, and Thornton Wilder. There is also correspondence concerning Bella Spewack's work with the New York Girls' Scholarship, UNRA, and the Sports Center of Israel. In addition to the production files, there are manuscripts and typescript drafts for novels, short stories, and articles by the Spewacks.