Materials related to Sanguinetti’s early career come in two spurts.
Her work of the late 1940s, prompted by her studies under Dr. Hudson Strode at the University of Alabama, included the novel Thorland’s Son. It was often entered in collegiate writing contests, meeting with promising responses but ultimately rejected. One reader suggested she move on from her student work and start afresh.
The mid 1950s saw a burst of writing and attempts to sell her short stories to magazines, for which she received stock rejections letters as well as more personalized — and more encouraging — notes from editors.
Some of those rejections were for pieces she ultimately sold in one form or another, including “To You, Frere ‘Twig'” and “The New Girl,” which were precursors to her first two novels. Each was pitched to both Mademoiselle and Ladies’ Home Journal, despite previous rejections from those publications.
Sections
Early Novel (1940s)
Various Short Stories (1950s)
“The New Girl” & “To You, Frere ‘Twig'” (1959-1960)
Clicking any of the images below will allow you to read the correspondence at full size.
Early Novel (1940s)
Typed receipt of manuscript, submission for Intercollegiate Contest, Dodd, Mead and Company, New York, N.Y., to Elise Ayers, Anniston, Ala., March 26, 1946
Typed letter, Curtis Dahl, Director of Fellowships, Dodd, Mead and Company, New York, N.Y., to Elise Ayers, Anniston, Ala., June 6, 1946
Typed letter, Elizabeth Lawrence, Harper and Brothers, New York, N.Y., to Elise Ayers, Anniston, Ala., August 14, 1947
Typed receipt of manuscript, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, N.Y., to Elise Ayers, Anniston, Ala., April 15, 1948
Typed letter, Blanche W. Knopf, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, N.Y., to Elise Ayers, Anniston, Ala., May 17, 1948
Typed letter, Richard J. Walsh, President, John Day, New York, N.Y., to Elise Ayers, Anniston, Ala., August 1, 1949
Various Short Stories (1950s)
Typed form rejection, Editors, Cosmopolitan, New York, N.Y., 1950s
Typed form rejection, Editors, Good Housekeeping, New York, N.Y., 1950s
Typed form rejection, Editors, Harper’s Bazaar, New York, N.Y., 1950s
Typed form rejection, Editors, Esquire, New York, N.Y., 1950s
Typed form rejection, Editors, Ladies’ Home Journal, New York, N.Y., 1950s
Typed form rejection with handwritten comment, B. F., Woman’s Day, New York, N.Y., 1950s
Typed form rejection with handwritten comment, Editors, Seventeen, New York, N.Y., 1950s
Typed form rejection with handwritten comment, K. R. M., Saturday Evening Post, Philadelphia, Pa., 1950s
Typed rejection, Editors, Harper’s Magazine, New York, N.Y., to Elise Sanguinetti, Clayton, Mo., June 18, 1956
Typed rejection, John Fisher, Harper’s Magazine, New York, N.Y., to Elise Sanguinetti, Pittsburgh, Pa., May 8, 1958
Typed rejection, for “Neatly Gloved,” Editors, Ladies’ Home Journal, New York, N.Y., to Elise Sanguinetti, Clayton, Mo., April 30, 1956
Typed rejection, for “‘Forever’ Is Two Months,” Editors, Ladies’ Home Journal, New York, N.Y., to Elise Sanguinetti, Clayton, Mo., May 11, 1956
Typed rejection, for “The Timid and the Rich,” Editors, Ladies’ Home Journal, New York, N.Y., to Elise Sanguinetti, Clayton, Mo., September 4, 1956
Typed rejection, Nancy Hogeman, Fiction Department, McCall’s, to Elise Sanguinetti, Clayton, Mo., May 31, 1956
Typed rejection, Nancy Hogeman, Fiction Department, McCall’s, to Elise Sanguinetti, Clayton, Mo., July 12, 1956
Typed form rejection with handwritten comment, M. D. R., New Yorker, New York, N.Y., 1950s
Typed rejection, William Murray, New Yorker, New York, N.Y., to Elise Sanguinetti, Pittsburgh, Pa., April 21, 1958
“The New Girl” & “To You, Frere ‘Twig'” (1959-1960)
Typed rejection, for “The New Girl,” Suzanne Wile, Assistant to the Fiction Editor, Mademoiselle, New York, N.Y., to Elise Sanguinetti, 1950s
Typed rejection, for “To You, Frere ‘Twig,'” Margarita G. Smith, Fiction Editor, Mademoiselle, New York, N.Y., to Elise Sanguinetti, Pittsburgh, Pa., December 16, 1958
Typed rejection, for “To You, Frere ‘Twig’,” Editors, Ladies’ Home Journal, New York, N.Y., to Elise Sanguinetti, Clayton, Mo., March 20, 1959
Typed letter, Candida Donadio, Herb Jaffe Associates, New York, N.Y., to Elise Sanguinetti, Pittsburgh, Pa., April 13, 1960
Unsigned draft of typed letter, Elise Sanguinetti, Pittsburgh, Pa., to Madeline Tracy Brigden, Fiction Editor, Mademoiselle, New York, N.Y., April 29, 1960
Typed letter, Candida Donadio, Herb Jaffe Associates, New York, N.Y., to Elise Sanguinetti, Pittsburgh, Pa., May 4, 1960
Typed letter, Phyllis Rifield, Assistant to the Managing Editor, Mademoiselle, New York, N.Y., to Elise Sanguinetti, Pittsburgh, Pa., June 12, 1960
Typed letter, Robert Gutwillig, Associate Editor, McGraw-Hill, New York, N.Y., to Elise Sanguinetti, Herb Jaffe Associates, New York, N.Y., June 16, 1960
Typed letter, Robert Gutwillig, Associate Editor, McGraw-Hill, New York, N.Y., to Elise Sanguinetti, Pittsburgh, Pa., June 21, 1960
Typed letter, Candida Donadio, Herb Jaffe Associates, New York, N.Y., to Elise Sanguinetti, Pittsburgh, Pa., June 28, 1960
