Materials do not circulate, but may be used in the Special Collections reading room. Materials will be retrieved from and returned to storage areas by staff members.
All rights have been transferred to the Special Collections & Rare Books Division except for individual authors who retain copyright to their manuscripts. This collection is protected by the Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, U.S. Code). It is the user's responsibility to verify copyright ownership and to obtain all necessary permissions prior to the reproduction, publication, or other use of any portion of these materials.
Files in boxes 1-12 are arranged, for the most part, in alphabetical order. Box 13 contains material related to awards received by Haycraft. Box 14 contains untitled material and box 15 is arranged alphabetically.
Howard Haycraft was born in Madelia, Minnesota July 24, 1905 and attended the University of Minnesota, where he edited the student newspaper. After graduating with a bachelor's degree, Haycraft moved to New York city and joined the staff of the H. W. Wilson Company in 1929. While holding a number of administrative and editorial positions in the company, he edited serveral volumes in the Wilson author series. In 1934 Haycraft was elected to Wilson's board of directors and was appointed vice president in 1940. In 1941 he wrote "Murder for Pleasure," one of his most note-worthy volumes.
During World War II, Haycraft served in the Army Special Services, with responsibilities for troop education and recreation. He was discharged from the Army in 1946 as a major and returned to the Wilson Company. In 1953 he was named president of the company, a position he held until 1967, when he became chairman. In 1954 he was the recipient of the University of Minnesota's Outstanding Achievement award. Haycraft retired in 1970.
A member of the Baker Street Irregulars, Haycraft edited many anthologies of detective fiction, including "The Art of the Mystery Story" (1946), "Fourteen Great Detective Stories" (1949), and "The Haycraft-Queen Definitive Library of Detective Crime Mystery Fiction" (1951). Haycraft received two Edgar awards for his work. He died in 1991.
The collection contains material related to various titles written by Haycraft, correspondence and other materials relating to mystery and detective stories, the organization Mystery Writers of America, Sherlock Holmes, and related authors in the genre.
This collection is indexed under the following headings in the catalog of the University of Minnesota Libraries. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons or places should search the catalog using these headings.
The following section contains a detailed list of the materials in the collection.
Includes an envelope of what appear to be caption cards for an exhibit (undated)