Beatrice Wood papers, 1894-1998, bulk 1930-1990

This subseries contains both personal and professional correspondence from the early years of Wood's career as an actress and artist until the end of her life. Included in this series are letters to and from friends, family, clients, other artists, gallery owners, museums, and editors. An an avid writer, Wood maintained lifelong relationships through her letters. Correspondents include John Estenza, Anna Bing Arnold, Ruth Maitland, Ruth Dayan, Reginald Pole, Anais Nin, Dorothy Liebes, Rue McClanahan, Elizabeth Reynolds Hapgood, Rupert Pole, Esther Rosencrantz, Michael Weightman-Smith, and Geesche Ninke. Wood also formed many personal and professional relationships with individuals she met during her three trips to India in 1961, 1966, and 1971. Among these correspondents are Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay, N. Suri Ram, P. K. Vyas, Srimali Rukmini Devi, and N. Kumar Das.

Several art museums are represented in this subseries, including DeYoung Memorial Museum, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Pasadena Art Museum, Phoenix Art Museum, San Francisco Museum of Art, and Santa Barbara Museum of Art.

See Appendix for a list of correspondents from Series 2.1.

This subseries contains Wood's letters to the Arensbergs while they were all living in California. Of particular significance are the letters that Wood wrote to Lou Arensberg during Arensberg's last illness in 1953.

This subseries documents Wood's decades-long friendship with Jack Case and his wife Rhea. Although many of the outgoing letters are copies, they all include drawings done by Wood.

Duchamp (also known as Totor) and Wood met in 1918. At some point they were lovers and they remained friends until his death in 1968. This subseries contains correspondence from the years when Wood lived in California and Duchamp was in New York and Europe. The letters from 1940-1942 contain references to the war and occupation of France by the Germans. The letters from Duchamp are written in French.

This subseries documents Wood's professional and personal relationship with Naumann. The met in 1976 when Naumann was working on his dissertation about the Arensbergs and it continued until Wood's death in 1997. Much of the correspondence focuses on Naumann's involvement in several publications by Wood, including her autobiography I Shock Myself.

The subseries includes only transcripts of love letters Wood and Ranjan, whom she met in India in 1962. The two wrote to each other several times a month from January 1962 until he visited Wood in September 1963.

The majority of this subseries contains correspondence between Wood and the Roches from 1940 to 1952 and includes a few letters describing the effect of the war on Roche and his family. One particular letter discusses the German occupation of his house in Sevres and the safety of his Brancusis. From 1946 to 1951, Wood sent boxes of supplies, including clothing and food staples, to Roche in France. The letters describe these transactions and often contain brief lists of what the Roche family requested from Wood. Series 3: Personal Business Records contain the receipts from the shipment of these supplies. Many of the early letters from both Wood and Roche are in French.

This subseries includes both drafts of Wood's monographs and correspondence related to their publication. Drafts include: I Shock Myself: The Autobiography of Beatrice Wood, Angel Who Wore Black Tights, Pinching Spaniards, 33rd Wife of the Maharajah, and Kissed Again: Part of the Bargain.

Wood enjoyed writing in the evening and often rewrote drafts with only subtle changes between versions. Although she rarely dated her drafts, numbers have been added when it was possible to determine version sequence. Edited versions have also been identified.

Also included in this subseries is correspondence with publishers, editors, and friends. Much of the material centers on the logistics of publication, but there are also letters to friends describing the status of her writing or relaying stories that she intended to include in a particular publication. The letters reveal the personal satisfaction that Wood took from her writing.