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Laurence J. Peter Papers, 1959-1987

Overview of the Collection

Creator
Peter, Laurence J.
Title
Laurence J. Peter Papers
Dates
1959-1987 (inclusive)
Quantity
7 Linear feet of shelf space, (15 Boxes and 1 Oversize folder)
Collection Number
Cage 842 (collection)
Summary
The Laurence J. Peter Papers consist of documents about Peter's career as an author, educator, and satirist. Peter, best known for his work The Peter Principle, was a professor of education at the University of Southern California and author of 11 works. This collection primarily contains book manuscripts, correspondence, recorded lectures, and realia representative of Peter's satire.
Repository
Washington State University Libraries' Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections (MASC)
Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections
Terrell Library Suite 12
Pullman, WA
99164-5610
Telephone: 509-335-6691
mascref@wsu.edu
Access Restrictions

This collection is open and available for research use.

Languages
English
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Biographical Note

Laurence Peter was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, in 1919. Peter received both his bachelors and master’s in education from Western Washington University in 1957 and 1958 respectively before receiving his Ph. D. in education from Washington State University in 1963. After graduating, Peter worked in Vancouver before being hired as an Associate Professor of Education, Director of the Evelyn Frieden Centre for Prescriptive Teaching, and Coordinator of Programs for Emotionally Disturbed Children at the University of Southern California in 1967. In 1969, W. Morrow published Peter’s best known publication The Peter Principle, which outlines how employees tend to rise to their level of incompetence, which sold over 200,000 copies in its first year of publication, was translated into 38 languages, and was on the New York Times best sellers list. The work was created in conjunction with free-lance writer Raymond Hull. It is still widely cited today in the corporate world. His publications about education include a four volume work titled Competencies for Teaching: System of Accountability for Teacher Education. He continued to publish a number of other books until his death on January 12, 1990 in his home in Palos Verdes Estates, California.

Peter married twice, first to Nancy Bailey in 1943 and then to Irene Howe in 1967. Nancy and Laurence had four children, John, Edward, Margaret, and Alice.

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Content Description

This collection consists of materials documenting Peter’s career as an author, educator, and satirist. Much of the collection contains typescripts, proofs, and galleys of Peter’s publications. The collection also contains correspondence, files for events attended by Peter, including presentations recorded on reel-to-reel audio tape, photographs of Peter, and selected realia, including a Golden Dinosaur award. Some incoming correspondence was written by celebrities, including George Carlin and Steve Allen.

Some of the items in this collection contain terms that have historically been used to dismiss, discount and marginalize individuals from particular communities. MASC recognizes the harm caused by these terms. We retain the language in this finding aid to document history and preserve context.

Series 1: Publications, 1959-1987. This series contains typescript drafts, proofs, and galleys of Peter's book length works, as well as reviews and other documents about his publications. This series is divided into 10 subseries, 1 for each title represented in the collection and general subseries for files about Peter's work or shorter works, such as articles.

Subseries 1: The Laughter Prescription, circa 1982. This subseries consists of one bound typescript of The Laughter Prescription.

Subseries 2: The Peter Plan, undated. This subseries consists of one bound typescript of the Peter Plan and a set of slides featuring illustrations from the book.

Subseries 3: The Peter Prescription, 1972-1973. This subseries consists of a bound and unbound typescripts of the book. In addition, this subseries contains an audio recording of the book on audio cassette.

Subseries 4: The Peter Principle, 1968-1986. This subseries consists of a bound and unbound typed draft of the book, a set of galley proofs, a follow up book length comic titled The Peter Principle: The Wide World of Incompetence by Matt Wuerker, and a film version of the book on 16 mm film.

Subseries 5: The Peter Pyramid, undated. This subseries consists of an unbound typescript of the book.

Subseries 6: Peter’s Almanac, undated. This subseries consists of one bound typescript of Peter’s Almanac.

Subseries 7: Peter’s People, undated. This subseries consists of one bound typescript of Peter’s People.

Subseries 8: Peter’s Quotations, undated. This subseries consists of an unbound typescript of Peter’s Quotations along with multiple copies of the index and table of subjects.

Subseries 9: Prescriptive Teaching, undated. This subseries consists of one bound typescript of Prescriptive teaching and notes on how to use the book.

Subseries 10: Process of Teaching, circa 1985. This subseries consists of on unbound typescript of the book including the instructor’s manual.

Subseries 11: Why Things Go Wrong, 1979-1984. This subseries consists of one unbound typescript of Why Things Go Wrong and a proposal for a heavily illustrated version of the book featuring several cartoons.

Subseries 12: Reviews and articles, 1959-1987. This series consists of reviews and publicity for works by Peter, articles by Peter, book ideas, and a Russian translation of an excerpt from the Peter Principle.

Series 2: Events and lectures, 1968-1982. This series consists of flyers, programs, and audio recordings of events in which Peter participated.

Series 3: Correspondence, 1965-1986. This series consists of incoming and outgoing correspondence. The file of celebrity correspondence includes correspondence from George Carlin and Steve Allen.

Series 4: Photographs, 1969-1985. This series consists of photographs taken largely for the purpose of publicity.

Series 5: Miscellaneous, 1968-1986. This series consists of farcical documents such as documents about Peter University and risqué personality assessments. The series also contains flyers and posters.

Series 6: Awards and realia, 1987. This series consists of awards both earned by and awarded by Peter, in addition to items that reflect Peter’s humor, including a name plate and branding iron.

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Use of the Collection

Restrictions on Use

Copyright restrictions may apply.

Preferred Citation

[Item description]

Laurence Peter Papers, 1959-1987 (Cage 842)

Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections, Washington State University Libraries, Pullman, WA.

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Administrative Information

Arrangement

The collection is arranged in 6 series: Series 1, Publications, is arranged alphabetically by title; Series 2, Events, is arranged in alphabetical order; Series 3, Correspondence, is arranged chronologically with a separate file titled celebrity correspondence; Series 4, Photographs; Series 5, Miscellaneous, is arranged in alphabetical order; and Series 6, Awards and Realia.

Acquisition Information

The Laurence Peter Papers were donated to Washington State University by Laurence Peter from 1977-1988 (MS 1977-50, MS 1983-25, MS 1986-23, MS 1986-30, MS 1987-25, MS 1988-31).

Processing Note

This collection was processed by Megan Bridge and Steven Bingo in 2016.

Separated Materials

A copy of the Laughter Prescription and issues of Human Behavior Magazine were separated from this collection and cataloged with the WSU Libraries' rare books. The issues of Human Behavior Magazine contain a column titled "Peter's People."

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Detailed Description of the Collection

Finding aid prepared by Megan Bridge and Steven Bingo.
2016

CC Attribution
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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