Together, the papers are a detailed record of the professional life of a working writer, documenting how Puzo made a calculated shift late in his career from serious literary novelist to founder of a pop-culture phenomenon. ‘It’s Strictly Business’ (Michael Corleone, The Godfather) My guess is that there might still be some people who at least knew the family,” Dumpert says. “I’m dying to know who his host family was. Although she hasn’t pinpointed exactly where he stayed, Hanover seems a plausible guess. “I thought, I bet he was a Fresh Air Fund kid.”ĭumpert was able to confirm that Puzo-the son of Italian immigrants who grew up in the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood of New York City in the 1920s-did, in fact, spend summers in New Hampshire through the Fresh Air Fund. “One of the characters gets sent to live in New Hampshire via the Fresh Air Fund”-a nonprofit that helps New York City children spend summer vacations in the country. Indeed, Godfather protagonist and Mafia boss Michael Corleone is portrayed in the book and films as a Dartmouth graduate, and Hanover and Dartmouth appear in many of Puzo’s writings-a puzzling detail, considering Puzo himself was not an alumnus.Įxhibit curator Hazel-Dawn Dumpert found a clue in The Fortunate Pilgrim, Puzo’s fictionalized memoir. “We love the fact that Puzo’s papers document the creation of Dartmouth’s most famous fictional alumnus, Michael Corleone, and that they will live for centuries to come with the papers of so many prominent, and real, alumni!” says Bruce Rauner, who is the governor of Illinois. “We are thrilled to place the Puzo collection at Dartmouth, where it will be available to the worldwide scholarly community and integrated into the curriculum to create immediate and lasting benefits for students,” says Diana Rauner. Tickets for the film are $8/$5 with a Dartmouth ID.ĭiana and Bruce Rauner ’78 (Photo courtesy Diana and Bruce Rauner)įor their part, the Rauners see Dartmouth as the perfect home for the collection. Paganucci Professor of Italian Literature and Language and director of the Leslie Center for the Humanities. Saturday, May 12, in Loew Auditorium at the Black Family Visual Arts Center, introduced by Graziella Parati, the Paul D. And in celebration of the gift, the Hopkins Center for the Arts will be screening The Godfather at 4 p.m. Selections from the papers will be on display from April 5 to June 30 in the Berry Main Street lobby of Baker-Berry Library. The papers, which will be housed at Rauner Special Collections Library (named by a gift from the Rauners that created a permanent home for Dartmouth’s special collections), include draft manuscripts, correspondence, and other records from Puzo’s long career as a novelist and screenwriter-even the 1965 Olympia typewriter on which he likely wrote The Godfather. When Diana and Bruce Rauner ’78 offered their collection of The Godfather author Mario Puzo’s papers to Dartmouth Library, the answer was an emphatic yes. ET.It was, ahem, an offer they couldn’t refuse.
#Godfather author archive#
A live auction of the Puzo archive will be held at RR's Boston gallery at 7 p.m. Online bidding for RR Auction's Literary Rarities sale will begin February 11th and conclude February 18th at 6 p.m. The archive also includes nine partial copes of the first Godfather script in various stages of completion, a 744-page typed working draft manuscript for the Godfather novel (then titled "Mafia"), six large storyboards outlining the novel's development, a 15-page novel outline noting that character Johnny Fontane was based on Frank Sinatra, Puzo's copy of Coppola's Godfather "Bible" and Puzo's 1965 Olympia typewriter, which was likely used to write the novel. After this (and I assume Francis will be re-writing this now) I feel it's ready."
The archive includes a January 21st, 1971 letter from Puzo to Coppola, producer Al Ruddy and Paramount's Peter Bart, which finds the author noting important corrections, including, "Michael’s fall from grace (Good guy to Murderer) should be more meaningful. Puzo and Coppola wrote the first Godfather screenplay separately – the former in New York, the latter in San Francisco – and made frequent revisions to each other's work. The RR Auction archive includes Puzo's copy of a March 7th, 1970 letter sent to the iconic actor sharing disappointment that he would likely not get the part. When Coppola was hired by Paramount for the film adaptation, the director supported Puzo's request that Marlon Brando play Don Corleone, whom the author had pictured in the title role since writing the novel.
Forty-five boxes of archival material from 'The Godfather' author Mario Puzo are headed to auction in February
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