Authors Guild Receives Grant for Archive Preservation Project

The Authors Guild Foundation has been awarded a $300,000 grant from the Leon Levy Foundation to establish the Shelby White & Leon Levy Authors Guild Archives Initiative, a comprehensive project to preserve, process, and improve access to the AG archives.

The initiative will establish the Shelby White & Leon Levy Authors Guild Archives Fellow, a two-year resident position, to oversee the project, working with the Winthrop Group, a leading history and archival services consulting firm, to survey, catalog, and inventory 112 years of AG records, which will be made accessible to researchers, writers, and the public. In addition, the grant funds will be used to digitize and make available online the first ninety-plus years of the AG’s publication of record, the Bulletin, currently available only in print.

"The Bulletin, together with the Guild’s stored records, chronicles decades of organizational efforts, advocacy efforts, member news, and commentary that offer an indispensable social, economic, and cultural history of the U.S. literary world, how law and external forces have impacted the writing profession, and how the Guild has responded on behalf of authors everywhere," said the AG in a press release announcing the project.

The AG archives include correspondence from authors including Pearl Buck, Madeleine L'Engle, Robert Caro, Upton Sinclair, Anne Sexton, Bertolt Brecht, W.H. Auden, Elizabeth Bishop, Toni Morrison, William Faulkner, and E.B. White, alongside member files, contracts, legal documentation, and advocacy records.

"These archives hold the DNA of American literary advocacy,” said AG executive director Deborah K. Wilson in a statement. “They chronicle not only the Guild’s history but the broader evolution of literary life in America—from the fight against McCarthyism to today’s challenges with AI and digital rights. We are deeply grateful to the Leon Levy Foundation for believing in the importance of preserving this legacy."

The project will commence in mid-2025 and reach completion by the end of 2026, when it will be publicly available on our website.