BRUCE COVILLE PAPERS

de Grummond Children's Literature Collection
The University of Southern Mississippi

	Creator:	Bruce F. Coville
	Title:	Bruce Coville Papers
	Dates:	1970-2002
	Quantity:	44.60 cubic feet (168 boxes)
	Identification:	DG1099

Biographical Note

Bruce Coville was born in Syracuse, New York, on May 16, 1950, to Arthur and Jean (Chase) Coville. He grew up outside of Phoenix, New York, near his grandparents' dairy farm. The farm and nearby swampland and woods encouraged his imagination as a child. Introduced to books by his father, Coville adored reading both classic children's books and junk fiction. He discovered an interest in writing in the sixth grade and began seriously working at becoming a writer when he was seventeen.

Coville married Katherine Dietz, an illustrator, on October 11, 1969. When his future mother-in-law gave him a copy of Winnie the Pooh, he suddenly knew that he wanted to write for children. While trying to get published, Coville worked as a camp counselor, toy maker, grave digger, cookware salesman, and assembly line worker. After short stays at Duke University and the State University of New York at Binghamton, he earned a B.A. degree in elementary education from SUNY-Oswego in 1973. Coville taught second and fourth graders at Wetzel Road Elementary School in Liverpool, New York, between 1974 and 1981. Bruce and Katherine Coville published their first children's book, The Foolish Giant, in 1978. They since have collaborated on 14 other works.

Bruce Coville's body of work consists primarily of juvenile fiction drawing on themes of fantasy, science fiction, mystery, the occult, and adventure. He has written more than fifty novels on such themes, as well as picture books and adaptations of Shakespearean plays. Coville also has edited 18 short story anthologies of his own and others' works. Although he has written several stand-alone titles, the bulk of his output belongs to the 11 book series he has created for both younger and older readers. In addition to his books, Coville has written three musical plays for children, a teleplay, more than a dozen short stories, occasional short prose pieces, and book reviews. He lives with his wife and pets in Syracuse, New York.

Sources:
Something About the Author (Detroit: Gale Group, 2001), 118:34-39.
The Official Bruce Coville Site, www.brucecoville.com, accessed 15 October 2002.

Scope and Content Note

The Bruce Coville Papers contain manuscripts, typescripts, printed material, correspondence, composition notes, copies of illustrative material, and audio recordings created and accumulated by Bruce Coville between 1970 and 2002. Coville's papers were created from his composition of 82 books, three musical plays, one teleplay, 11 short stories, three short prose pieces, 12 book reviews, and one unpublished work, as well as his accumulation of material concerning series books written by other authors. The material is organized into nine series: books, material concerning book series, musical plays, teleplay, short fiction, short prose, reviews, unpublished work, and series books written by others.

The Books Series contains manuscripts, typescripts, printed material, composition notes, copies of illustrative material, and correspondence for 82 titles created between 1970 and 2002. Many of these titles include material for other titles derived from the original work, such as revised versions, editions printed in Britain, and audio recordings. The papers in the series are arranged alphabetically by title and the material for each book is arranged chronologically in order of creation when known.

When writing his early books, Coville sometimes dated each new draft, but sometimes he did not. For later works, he usually numbered each new complete draft of a book, but when he rewrote only a few pages of a draft, he relabeled those pages with a ".1" or ".2" (e.g., rewritten pages from draft 2 are labeled as draft 2.1). Nevertheless, following departmental custom, the processor has numbered each typescript by order of creation (first, second, third, etc.) and placed any special identification that Bruce Coville assigned to a typescript in parentheses.

The quantity of material for specific titles in the Books Series varies tremendously, from a single dust jacket to several generations of typescripts, galleys, and proofs. The container listing offers detailed descriptions of the holdings for each title and information on the material's process of creation may be gleaned easily from the container listing for each book. However, some additional explanation is needed to understand the arrangement of the material for several titles. The Coville Papers contain no material for the original 1985 edition of Amulet of Doom, but only from Coville's revised version for Pocket Books in 1996.

"In Our Hands," Coville's contribution to his self-edited Bruce Coville's Alien Visitors, originally was written in 1987 for use as a text by the Literacy Volunteers of America. Nevertheless, all of the typescripts for the story have been organized with Bruce Coville's Alien Visitors.

The Bruce Coville's Book of … series of twelve short story anthologies features several stories by Coville that were published previously in anthologies edited by others. Typescripts for such stories are organized in the Short Fiction Series under their original citations, but cross references have been provided within the container listing to link them with their reprinted versions. Two tales-"Wizard's Boy" and "Friendly Persuasion"-were begun in the mid 1970s but not published until revised for the new anthologies. The Monsters of Morley Manor (2001) originally appeared as a five-part serial in the sequels to five of the original anthologies. It was rewritten considerably for later publication as a book.

Bruce Coville authored three of the four titles in the A.I. Gang series for New American Library in 1986: Operation Sherlock (#1), Robot Trouble (#3), and Forever Begins Tomorrow (#4). Jim Lawrence wrote The Cutlass Clue, the second title in the series. Pocket Books issued revised versions of Coville's three contributions in 1995. The Coville Papers contain material for both issues of all three books.

Coville wrote three books under the pseudonym Robyn Tallis for the ten-volume Planet Builders series in 1988 and 1989. The six authors who collaborated on the series used the name Robyn Tallis as a group pseudonym. Coville opened the series with Mountain of Stolen Dreams (1988) and added Night of Two New Moons (1989) as the sixth volume in the set. He also contributed Fire in the Sky (1989) as the final installment in the series, although his papers contain no material for that title.

Oddly Enough and Odder Than Ever, Coville's pair of self-authored short story collections of the 1990s, feature several stories that were published previously either in one of the Bruce Coville's Book of … anthologies or in compilations edited by others. Typescripts for such stories are organized either in the Short Fiction Series or elsewhere in the Books Series under their original citations. Cross references have been provided within the container listing to link the original stories with their reprinted versions.

The Prince of Butterflies originally was published as a slightly differing short story in the May 1995 issue of Disney's Big Time magazine. Coville began to revise his story into a picture book almost as soon as it had been published. The Coville Papers contain production material for both the short story and the book, all of which is organized under The Prince of Butterflies in the Books Series.

The Books Series also contains some material that Katherine Coville produced while illustrating and editing some of her husband's books. It includes material for 14 of the 15 books that she illustrated-The Foolish Giant being the one exception-although very, very little of her illustrative material is original. Most is photocopies of illustration sketches, finished illustrations, and paste ups. Additionally, Katherine Coville frequently commented on Bruce Coville's typescripts, both for books she illustrated and for ones she did not. The Books Series features several examples of such editorial work. Finally, the series includes typescripts and page proofs for "Story Hour," a short story that she contributed to her husband's anthology, A Glory of Unicorns (1998).

The Material Concerning Book Series Series contains correspondence, typescripts, composition notes, illustrative material, and printed promotional material for seven series of books for which Bruce Coville wrote all or some of the titles. The series includes material pertaining to an entire book series in general, but not to any single title in particular. The material spans the years 1984 to 2001 and is arranged alphabetically by series title.

The series contains relatively small amounts of material for the A.I. Gang books; the Bruce Coville's Book of … anthologies; the Camp Haunted Hills trilogy; and the four titles published at various times as parts of the Twilight, Dark Forces, Chamber of Horrors, and Spirit World series. Correspondence with editors, composition notes, series proposals, and copies of sample illustrations comprise the bulk of the material for these titles. The series also contains a small number of typescripts, page proofs, and dust jacket material for My Teacher Is an Alien: Collector's Edition (1999), a single-volume reissue of the four titles in the My Teacher Is an Alien Series.

The two most prominent series represented here are the twelve-volume I Was a Sixth Grade Alien / My Alien Classmate series and the ten-part Planet Builders series. For the former, the series features composition notes, voluminous correspondence concerning publication of the titles both in the United States and in Britain, material for the "Disaster on Geembol Seven" serial attached to books 1-6, and copious amounts of promotional material. For the latter, the papers contain the series bible, composition and research notes, and a large quantity of correspondence exchanged amongst the six collaborating authors.

The Musical Plays Series contains typescripts, composition notes, audiocassettes, and correspondence for three musical plays written by Bruce Coville in the early 1980s: The Dragonslayers: A Musical Fairy Tale (1980), It's Midnight, Do You Know Where Your Toys Are? (1983), and Out of the Blue: A Musical Fantasy (1982). Angela Peterson, the music teacher at Wetzel Road Elementary School in Liverpool, New York, composed the music for all three plays and Barbara Russell co-wrote the script for It's Midnight, Do You Know Where Your Toys Are? All three plays were written for children and all were eventually produced by Syracuse Musical Theatre. The material in the series spans the years 1979 to 1986. It is arranged alphabetically by title and the material for each play is arranged chronologically in order of creation when known.

The series includes composition notes and typescripts for both the script and the score of each play, but it holds the greatest amount of material for Coville's most successful play, The Dragonslayers. Originally written for fourth graders at Wetzel Road Elementary School and later adapted for a middle-grade novel of the same title, the play was performed on several occasions in New York State. The series contains production notes for three of these performances, as well as an audiocassette of the score as performed by some unidentified grammar school children. Like The Dragonslayers, Coville also adapted Out of the Blue into a middle-grade novel, The World's Worst Fairy Godmother. Cross references have been provided within the container listing to link the two original plays with their adapted versions.

The Teleplay Series consists of typescripts, composition notes, and letters sent for "The Duck Who Would Be King," the second episode of a five-part mini-series for the Walt Disney television program Duck Tales. Coville wrote the script with Jymn Magon and Len Uhley in March and April of 1988. The mini-series opened the program's 1989-1990 season.

The Short Fiction Series contains manuscripts, typescripts, composition notes, correspondence, and page proofs for eleven short stories published in anthologies edited by others. The material in the series spans the years 1975 to 2000. It is arranged alphabetically by story title and the material for each story is arranged chronologically in order of creation when known. Most of these stories were published again in Oddly Enough, Odder Than Ever, or in one of the Bruce Coville's Book of … anthologies. Cross references have been provided within the container listing to link the original stories with their reprinted versions.

The container listing offers detailed descriptions of the holdings for each story and information on the material's process of creation may be gleaned easily from the container listing for each title. However, some additional explanation is needed to understand the arrangement of the material for one particular story. "With His Head Tucked Underneath His Arm" passed through two distinct versions during the prolonged process of its creation, here referred to as versions A & B. Version A, which was begun in the late 1970s, featured a different ending from the final work. Version B, which sported the revised ending, was published in A Wizard's Dozen: Stories of the Fantastic in 1993.

The Short Prose Series consists of correspondence, typescripts, and a magazine for three short prose pieces written between 1992 and 2000. The pieces are "About Tomorrow," an article on science fiction in the classroom for Instructor magazine; "Two Brains, One Book; or How We Found Our Way to the End of the World," a reflection by Bruce Coville and Jane Yolen in Book Links on their collaboration in writing Armageddon Summer; and an introduction to a reissue of Jules Verne's20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. The material in the series is arranged alphabetically by title and the material for each prose piece is arranged chronologically in order of creation when known.

The Reviews Series contains correspondence, typescripts, galleys, and invoices for 12 reviews of children's books written by Bruce Coville for Harper's Bookletter between January 1976 and February 1977. The series also includes typescripts for a review of Merrily We Roll Along, a 1981 Broadway musical by Stephen Sondheim, although it is not known for whom Coville wrote the review. Following Coville's original filing order, the material is arranged chronologically with each folder dedicated to the material for a specific review.

The Unpublished Work Series consists of correspondence, composition notes, typescripts, a screenplay, and copies of illustration sketches for The Brave Little Toaster Storybook (1986). Bruce Coville had arranged with Doubleday to write a storybook adaptation of the Walt Disney motion picture, The Brave Little Toaster, which in turn had been adapted from the novella by Thomas M. Disch. Nevertheless, delays in the release of the film doomed the project to never being published. The material in the series is arranged chronologically in order of creation when known.

The Series Books Written by Others Series contains correspondence, composition notes, and typescripts for nine books and one book series written by other authors with Bruce Coville's cooperation between 1983 and 1988. Coville contributed to these books either in a developmental or editorial capacity. The Cutlass Clue by Jim Lawrence was the second volume of the A.I. Gang series, a four-part series to which Coville provided three titles and much general developmental input. Bantam Books hired Coville to do a rewrite of the typescript for The Ashton Horror, a title in its Dark Forces series. He also developed the fundamental characteristics of the Fear Factory series for Cloverdale Press, although he did not write any of the books in the trilogy. He provided the series bible, a sample first chapter, and four story synopses for the series.

The Series Books Written by Others Series also contains typescripts for the seven titles in the Planet Builders series not written by Bruce Coville. Material for two of his three contributions is organized in the Books Series. The series bible, composition notes, and substantial correspondence on the Planet Builders series and its six-member writing team are organized in the Material Concerning Book Series Series.

Restrictions

Restrictions on Use

Noncirculating; available for research.

Copyright Restrictions

The collection is protected by the Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, U.S. Code). Reproductions can be made only if they are to be used for "private study, scholarship, or research." 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, other than that noted above.

Separated Material

Oversize material is stored in boxes 167 & 168.

Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

(Identify the item), Bruce Coville Papers, de Grummond Children's Literature Collection, University of Southern Mississippi Libraries, (box/folder numbers).

Provenance

These papers were donated to the de Grummond Children's Literature Collection of the University of Southern Mississippi Libraries by Bruce Coville between 1991 and 2002.

Processing Information

Processed by Hans Rasmussen, January 2003. Encoded into EAD Version 1.0 by Danielle L. Bishop. This finding aid is the product of a grant funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Container Listing