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The William Inge
Collection
The William
Inge Collection began in 1965 with the gathering of press
clippings, memorabilia and books about Independence’s native son
and Independence Community College alum William Inge. In 1969,
Inge gave the college the original manuscripts of Picnic,
Come Back, Little Sheba, Natural Affection, and
Splendor in the Grass for the collection which found a
permanent home in ICC’s library. In 1976, Inge’s sister, Helene
Inge Connell, donated the playwright’s private collection of
1,629 books according to his expressed wishes. In 1980, Mrs.
Connell added Inge’s record collection.
 With the
support of Independence Community College and a grant from the
Arco Foundation, the collection was officially opened on October
25, 1981, with an opening ceremony, tours of the collection, and
a special reception in honor of Helene Inge Connell.
The dedication
of the William Inge Collection in 1981 was the beginning of a
period of tremendous growth for the Collection. Dr. Arthur
McClure, Chairman of the history department at Central Missouri
State University, Warrensburg, Missouri, donated a large
collection of motion picture related materials, books, pictures
and records. International Creative Management (ICM), Inge’s
literary agent, donated some one hundred manuscripts and books.
And, Helene Inge Connell donated two manuscripts in addition to
books, records, programs, clippings and correspondence.
Significant donations came from other family members and
friends. These gifts have made the William Inge Collection at
Independence Community College the most extensive collection on
William Inge in existence.
At the heart of
the Collection are some four hundred manuscripts. Represented
are full length plays, screenplays, one-act plays, novels and
short stories. Various versions of all the Broadway plays are
included in the Collection, as well as some of the earlier
produced plays and one-act plays that were to become successful
Broadway plays. For example, Farther Off From Heaven and
Front Porch, which were written in the 1940’s, were
revised by Inge in the 1950’s and became The Dark at the Top
of the Stairs and Picnic respectively. A one-act
play, People in the Wind, was expanded and became the
popular Broadway play, Bus Stop.
In addition to
various versions of the Broadway plays, the Collection has
versions of many of the other one-act plays that have either
been produced or published. Included in the Collection are
versions of the various screenplays such as Splendor in the
Grass, versions of the novels Good Luck, Miss Wyckoff
and My Son is a Splendid Driver, and some unpublished
short stories.
 To complement
the Collection of original manuscripts are the published works,
including many translations. In addition, there are over one
hundred critical and biographical sources and over fifty theatre
programs, including the playbill copy for all of the Broadway
productions and programs from significant non-Broadway
presentations.
A unique
feature of Inge’s plays is that several have become successful
motion pictures. The Dickinson Foundation of Mission, Kansas,
has provided the Collection with copies of 16-mm movies of
Bus Stop, The Dark at the Top of the Stairs and The
Stripper (which is based on the play A Loss of Roses)
and Splendor in the Grass. In 1982, Home Box Office,
Inc., gave the Collection videocassettes of its theatre
production of Bus Stop.
Along with the
motion pictures and television plays are many motion picture
lobby cards, posters, still pictures and pressbooks. All of the
motion picture versions of Inge’s plays are represented in this
collection of materials, including Come Back, Little Sheba,
Picnic, Bus Stop, The Dark at the Top of the Stairs, The
Stripper, Splendor in the Grass, Bus Riley’s Back in Town
and All Fall Down, a screenplay adaptation by Inge of
James Leo Herlihy’s novel by the same title. Still pictures of
various actors and actresses like Shirley Booth, William Holden,
Rosalind Russell, Burt Lancaster, Natalie Wood, Warren Beatty
and many others are in the Collection.
Like Sonny in
The Dark at the Top of the Stairs, Inge collected
pictures of movie stars as a child; seven of these are part of
the photograph collection. Also included are sixty photographs
covering the life of William Inge, from candid shots to studio
portraits.
 Unique items in
the Collection include school friendship books signed by Inge,
his first teacher’s contract, advertisements and broadsides for
various performances of his works and the Inge family genealogy.
At this time,
the Collection contains about one hundred twenty pieces of
correspondence. Thirty-six letters are written by Inge. A number
of these letters were donated to the Collection by JoAnn
Kirchmaier, a niece with whom Inge kept in contact most of his
life. Some letters are to colleagues like Ned Rorem, the writer
and composer, while other are to friends and family
acquaintances. The content and length of these letter vary
widely. Also included are eighteen items written to Inge and
nineteen items related in some way to Inge’s works. The
remainder of the correspondence concerns the establishment of
the William Inge Collection and the naming of The William Inge
Theatre at the Independence Community College.
Another unique
aspect of the Collection is thirty four taped interviews of
friends, relatives, and colleagues. Three of the interviews are
with William Inge and the others include Elia Kazan and Joshua
Logan, who directed Inge plays and films based on Inge works,
actors such as Pat Hingle, theatre colleagues like Jo Mielziner,
who designed the stage setting for Picnic,, and William
Gibson, playwright and friend of Inge. Other interviews are with
friends, neighbors, and schoolmates from Independence, Kansas,
friends at the University of Kansas, Stephens College, and from
Inge’s St. Louis days.
The William
Inge Collection has 1629 books from William Inge’s personal
library. He had a large number of American and English
literature books. Inge also had a large collection of phonograph
records; about six hundred of these are in the William Inge
Collection. The records are mainly classical music recordings
with a fair representation of jazz from the 1920’s, 30’s, and
40’s. In addition to appreciating good literature and music,
Inge had a life-long interest in art and was considered an
astute collector. His interest in art is reflected not only in
the large number of art books and exhibition catalogs in his
personal library, but also in some nineteen drawings and three
watercolors done by Inge and housed in the William Inge
Collection.
The collection
is open to visitors during regular library hours: 7:30 a.m. to
9:00 p.m. Monday through Thursday; and 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on
Fridays. Special arrangements to see the collection may be made.
For more
information contact:
Janice Weir,
Director of Learning Resources
Independence Community College
College Ave. & Brookside Drive
(316) 331-4100, ext. 4280
1-800-842-6063, ext. 4280 |
