Collecting Areas

The Southwestern Writers Collection preserves and exhibits the literary papers and artifacts of the Southwest’s leading authors, screenwriters, and songwriters. Collecting strengths are Literature & Drama, Film & Television, and the Texas Music Collection.

For additional research topic ideas, click here.

For information about the Southwestern & Mexican Photography Collection, click here.

The Southwestern Writers Collection houses the archives of nearly 100 significant authors whose writings reflect the power of this region, a place of distinctive geography and compelling human history, a land rich in stories and open to limitless possibility. Manuscripts, research notes and journals, drafts, correspondence, interview tapes, snapshots, scripts, art works, personal artifacts, rare books, and much, much more make up the wealth of resources available to students and researchers. These archive are complemented by an extensive supporting collection of Southwest-related books, magazines, and videos which further illuminate the profound sense of place that affects us all.

For a complete list of writers' archives, click here.

Film and television archives are essential to the Southwestern Writers Collection, and to a full understanding of the creative depths of this region. The filmmaking process is documented in several collections including:  

• Robert Benton Papers: Academy Award-winning writer/director of Bonnie and Clyde, Kramer vs. Kramer, Nobody's Fool, Places in the Heart, and others.
   
• WIlliam Broyles Jr. Papers: Screenwriter of such films as Apollo 13, Cast Away, Jar Head, Polar Express, and creator of the popular television series, China Beach. 
   
• King of the Hill Archive (Dauterive): Emmy Award-winning FOX animated television series co-created by Mike Judge. Collection gifted to the Wittliff through the efforts of writer/producer, Jim Dauterive.
   
• Lonesome Dove Production Archive: Highly honored CBS miniseries adapted from Larry McMurtry's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by screenwriter, Bill Wittliff. 
   
• Cormac McCarthy Papers: Pulitzer Prize-winning author whose novels All the Pretty Horses, No Country for Old Men, and The Road have adapted to film. The archive also includes McCarthy's PBS teleplay, The Gardner's Son, and his own unproduced screenplays for Cities of the Plain, No Country for Old Men, and "Whales and Men."
   
• Sam Shepard Papers: Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, actor, and screenwriter of such films as Don't come Knocking, Fool for Love, In America, Paris, Texas, and True West. 
   
• Bill Wittliff Papers: Screenwriter of such films as Country, Legends of the Fall, The Perfect Storm, Raggedy Man, Red-Headed Stranger, and the CBS miniseries, Lonesome Dove.

The music archives embrace a rich variety of Texas music, from country and Western Swing to blues, polka, rock and roll, conjunto, and Tejano. The Wittliff Collections works closely with Texas State University's Center for Texas Music History to preserve and celebrate the state's musical heritage.  Major collections at the Wittliff  include:

• Antone's Home of the Blues Collection (Tomblin)
• Austin City Limits Collection (Arhos)
• Ernie Durawa Collection
• Willie Nelson Collection
• Willie Nelson Recording Collection
• Panther Hall Photograph Collection
• Joe Nick Patoski Papers
• Freddy Powers Collection
• Tamara Saviano Collection
• Selena Research Collection (Patoski)
• Texas Western Swing Hall of Fame
• Stevie Ray Vaughan Research Collection (Patoski/Crawford)