Adam O’Connor Papers

Provenance

The Adam O’Connor Papers were donated by Barbara Dobbs MacKenzie on behalf of Adam O’Connor’s estate on February 18, 1999.

Scope and Content

The Adam O’Connor’s papers include numerous drafts of fiction manuscripts, short stories, and poetry, along with personal notes, journals, and some records from various jobs. The collection ranges from Adam O’Connor’s time as an undergraduate at the University of Chicago in the late 1970s to the time of his death in New York in 1996.

The collection also contains undergraduate seminar papers, assignments completed in courses in philosophy, letters and other correspondence from O’Connor’s time as director of the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Journalism Workshop at the Fortune Society, dating from 1976-1986, and reviews, some of which were published in the New York Native.

The collection contains one portrait photo of O’Connor, circa 1980s.

Journals and letters include personal reflections on travel, daily life in Brooklyn and Manhattan, caring for lovers and friends dying of AIDS, and architectural sketches. His fiction and poetry often dealt with relationships and gay male sexuality, along with family relationships.

History or Bio

Adam O’Connor attended the University of Chicago in the late 1970s, then moved to New York City. He worked at RILM (Répertoire International de Littérature Musicale) at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York (CUNY) from the 1980s, becoming its Editor-in-Chief in 1991. He died in 1996 in New York City.

Folder List