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Beatrice Sparks correspondence, articles, and other materials on her books, 1971-2000

 Series — Multiple Containers
Identifier: MSS 2224 Series 2

Scope and Contents

Materials primarily include correspondence with publishers and readers regarding many of the books, including Almost Lost, Annie's Baby, Go Ask Alice, Jay's Journal, Key to Happiness, It Happened to Nancy, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Voices, and "Sparks Grateful-Gram", with brief synopses of some of the stories. Some of her responses are also included. The personal letters are mostly hand written with their mailing nevelope attached. Other material includes articles and promotional posters for these books. Dates range 1971-2000.

Dates

  • Other: 1971-2000

Creator

Language of Materials

Materials primarily in English with two promotional posters in Spanish.

Conditions Governing Access

Open to public research. Carton 8 and boxes 10-12 are restricted until 2060. Permission to use these materials must be obtained from the Supervisor of Reference Services.

Conditions Governing Use

It is the responsibility of the researcher to obtain any necessary copyright clearances. Permission to use material from this collection must be obtained from Reference Services at specialcollections@byu.edu.

Biographical History

From the Collection:

Beatrice Sparks (1917- ) is an author with a Ph.D. in human behavior. She is a specialist in child and adolescent psychology, and a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon).

Sparks was born to Vivian Johns and Leonard Clarence Mathews on January 15, 1917 in Goldberg, Idaho. She grew up in Logan, Utah the third of five children. She moved to Los Angeles to attend UCLA, where she met and married LaVorn G. Sparks. Their family includes four children, and several grandchildren. After attending University of California at Los Angeles and Brigham Young University she started working as an Adolescent Phycologist. She also taught continuing education courses at Brigham Young University, and wrote newspaper columns for the Malibu Monitor, the Santa Monica Outlook, and the California Intermountain News.

Her work as an author continued with publishing several books, but she was most notable for her work editing and producing novels from teenage diaries regarding the themes of adolescent drug use, depression, psychotherapy, pregnancy, witchcraft, suicide, AIDS, attitudes, interpersonal communications and intergenerational conflict. Sparks has won the American Library Association Young Adult Notable Award, the Christopher Medal, School Library Journal Best Books, and Quick Pick for Recommended Reading by the American Library Association. She has also served as a judge for the National Book Awards. In addition to her literary work, Beatrice and LaVorn served a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1986 to 1987. They worked on development and launch of the Family to Family Book of Mormon Project.

Extent

4 boxes

1 oversize folder

1 box

Other Finding Aids

A more detailed finding aid is available in print in the repository.

Other Finding Aids

File-level inventory available online. http://files.lib.byu.edu/ead/XML/MSS2224.xml

Separated Materials

Fan mail and other sensitive correspondence are restricted and have been seperated from their original folders. The material from this series was moved to box 11, folders 13-18 and box 12, folders 1-8.

General

Many letters are undated. Dates given in folder titles reflect span dates of letters that are dated.

Repository Details

Part of the L. Tom Perry Special Collections Repository

Contact:
1130 HBLL
Brigham Young University
Provo Utah 84602 United States