Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Use Restrictions

See the University of Virginia Library’s use policy.

Preferred Citation

Matthew J. Bruccoli Papers, 1972-1975, Accession # 10740-b, Special Collections Dept., University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville, Va.

Acquisition Information

These papers were given to the Library by Matthew Bruccoli, Bruccoli Clark Layman, Inc., Columbia, South Carolina, on November 20, 1991.

Scope and Content Information

This collection contains about forty items, 1972-1975, all pertaining to the attempted publication of Order My Firing Squad for the Afternoon: The Memoirs, 1915-1929, of W.W. Windstaff edited by Stephen Longstreet. The papers consist primarily of the correspondence between Longstreet and Matthew Bruccoli who scouted the book for Southern Illinois University Press while interviewing Longstreet for his own book, The O'Hara Concern and correspondence of Bruccoli concerning the true identity of W.W. Windstaff. Bruccoli concluded that the book was a hoax perpetrated by Longstreet and withdrew it from publication.

Other items include Longstreet's Introduction to Order My Firing Squad for the Afternoon; lists of United States citizens serving with the Royal Flying Corp during World War I credited with five to eight kills; an electrostatic copy of the paste-up for the book; and a newsclipping "Among the Publishers with Stephen Longstreet" (1974 Apr 29).

Correspondents responding to Bruccoli's attempts to identify W.W. Windstaff include Malcolm Cowley (1974 Aug 9); Morrill Cody (1974 Aug 19); Arch Whitehouse (1974 Sep 4); W.A.B. Douglas (1974 Sep 5); J.F. McDonald (1974 Sep 16); George Tweney (1974 Sep 25); Philip M. Flammer (1974 Oct 1); John M. Davies (1974 Nov 20); and David Emmerson (1974 Dec 3).

Bruccoli's correspondence with Longstreet describes how Longstreet supposedly met Windstaff and his knowledge of Americans in Paris in the 1920's (1972 Jul 20); the location and condition of the Windstaff manuscript (1972 Jul 31); terms of the agreement to publish and his low opinion of August 1914 by Aleksander Solzhenitsyn (1972 Oct 4 & 1974 Jan 8); Bruccoli's enthusiasm for the memoir and his request for aid in establishing its authenticity (1974 May 13); Longstreets's explanation of why there was no original manuscript or printed copy in his possession (1974 May 15); and Longstreet's response to questions about the authenticity of Windstaff's memoirs (1974 Sep 1 & 1975 Mar 1).