Archives West Finding Aid

The Walt Morey collection consists largely of fiction manuscripts and correspondence. Biographical material, non-fiction manuscripts, magazines, scrapbooks, children's art work and other personal materials are also included. This inventory represents an incorporation of all the material received between 1967 and 1993. Collection is organized into ten series:

The Biographical Material includes drafts, page proofs and off-print copies from Morey's short autobiography for the Something About the Author series. Also included is biographical information on Morey from the E.P. Dutton Publishing Company, and some miscellaneous biographical material.

The bulk of the Correspondence is with literary agents, mainly the August Lenniger Literary Agency, and publishing companies, in particularly E.P. Dutton. There are also many fan letters, mostly from grade school children, letters from individual writers, and a collection of letters from fans whose unintentional humor Morey found amusing. Also included are letters from school officials, writers' conferences, clubs and associations, and award committees. Personal and miscellaneous letters round out the correspondence section. Noted correspondents include authors Frank Bonham, John Hawkins, Stewart Holbrook, Art Larson, Alfred Powers and Joe Van Wormer. Photocopies of letters from Ernest Haycox to Art Larson (given to Morey by Larson) can be found in Box 2, folder 5. Many of the letters in the correspondence section contain carbons of responses from either Morey or his first wife, Rosalind.

The fiction and non-fiction Manuscripts are arranged alphabetically by title and cover Morey's entire writing career. The manuscripts are mostly novel length, and the files include notes, synopses, drafts, fragments, printer's copies, galley proofs, page proofs, illustrated book covers, reviews, and condensed versions. Notable in the Gentle Ben file is a typed outline and synopsis for the unfinished sequel to Gentle Ben, given the working titles Gentle Ben II and Claws, which Morey was working on at the time of his death. Also included in this section is a folder of original drypoint illustrations from the original Gentle Ben book. The North to Danger file includes a color separation of the book cover illustrations. Braille title pages for several novels are found in Box 79. Also in the manuscript series, arranged alphabetically by title, are short stories. Some were written by Morey and some by other authors, mainly children. Completing the manuscript series is a television script for Ghost Writer by Susan Shadburne, a bound collection of stories and poems from students titled "Rowe Teen Talent, 1964-65," poetry by various authors, and speeches. Tearsheets include publicity on Walt Morey as well as a short story authored by Morey titled "Secret of the Wreck." A French translation of that story is also included. Other short stories in this section were written by authors such as Don James, John Hawkins and Ernest Haycox.

The majority of the Magazines in the collection contain stories written by Morey during his days of pulp fiction. The magazines are arranged in alphabetical order. Notable is the magazine Knockout, which contains Morey's first published work, "The Hellman."

The Comic Books series includes Ivan Tors Gentle Ben comic books, which are based on the TV series Gentle Ben, are arranged chronologically. A Japanese language activity book which contains a condensed version of Gentle Ben is also included.

The series titled Morey Book Lists consists of various publications which describe an assortment of children's books, each publication containing a description of a novel by Morey. Some of the smaller series include publicity materials, programs, children's book recommendations, and awards.

The Personal Material series contains Morey's financial journals covering the years 1946 to 1970, as well as royalty reports from his novel North to Danger. Also included are Morey's high school graduation certificates and announcements, and a collection of title pages of Morey's books in Braille. A section of newspaper clippings contains articles on Morey.

The Class Projects are a series of hand painted and hand drawn artworks by children, usually pertaining to various scenes in Morey's novels. The artwork is arranged by book title in alphabetical order. Two scrapbooks and a bound folder are also included in the class projects section. These were assembled by students and contain illustrated scene interpretations from various Morey novels. A folder of untitled story illustrations from Morey novels and other miscellaneous class artwork and projects finish the class projects series.

The Miscellaneous series includes a collection of scrapbooks, compiled by Rosalind Morey, that contain mainly newspaper articles and other memorabilia regarding Morey's career. Scrapbooks 1 through 5 contain information regarding various Morey novels. Scrapbook 11 serves as a personal journal written by Rosalind Morey concerning a trip with Morey to Alaska. Boxes 87 and 88 contain items such as award plaques, a Gentle Ben hand puppet, a bear statuette, and cassettes. Package #2 contains a Gentle Ben cricket bat. The audio cassettes are recordings of Morey radio interviews, birthday greetings, and three tapes regarding Morey's involvement in writing the Operation Blue Bear book. The video cassettes contain recordings of Morey speeches and autobiographical interviews. The pictorials are a group of paintings, enlarged photographs, and blueprints which have been removed from their original frames. An oil painting of Gentle Ben, done by R. Mowery, is found in package #1.

A series of forty Free-Standing Volumes. All but nine of these are novels written by Morey, including sixteen foreign language versions.

Photographs include Schmitt family photos, including images from Walter Schmitt showing Charles Lindberg; Addison college; and Martin's war service.