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Correspondence amd Papers, 1881-1967

Manuscript Collection 3

• Information about John Park Cravens
• Information about the Collection
• Contents of the Collection

INFORMATION ABOUT JOHN PARK CRAVENS

John Park Cravens (1899-1971) was born near Mount Magazine, (Logan County), Arkansas.  At the age of eighteen, he began editing and printing his own weekly newspaper, The Magazine Gazette, and published the first of his many tall tales that dealt with Arkansas and the Ozarks.  Cravens was also a freelance writer. His stories were published in national magazines and broadcast on the radio.  The United Confederate Veterans appointed Cravens honorary Colonel to the staff of their Commander-in-Chief, and he served as justice of the peace in several Arkansas townships.

INFORMATION ABOUT THE COLLECTION

Correspondence, postcards, printed material, a broadside, and a scrapbook complete this collection.  Numbers printed on the upper-right hand corner of Craven's items are from an earlier inventory and are of no significance to the researcher.

John Park Cravens of Russellville, Arkansas, donated his papers to Special Collections on December 12-13, 1967, and January 2, 1968.

Processed by Susan Lynn Parks, Special Collections Division, University of Arkansas Libraries, Fayetteville, Arkansas in April, 1988.

Significant correspondents include:

  Fred W. Allsopp       Catharine Lindsay Knorr
  Bernie Babcock         Rosa Zagnoni Marinoni
  Doak S. Campbell     C. Hamilton Moses
  J.H. Carmichael         Mary Celestia Parler
  Fadjo Cravens           Vance Randolph
  S.C. Dellinger            Otto Ernest Rayburn
  L.S. Dunaway            Karr Shannon
  Jim G. Ferguson        W.M. Shepherd
 Brooks Hays              Ted R. Worley

Box 1
 
 1. Correspondence, 1881-1939.
 2. Correspondence, 1940-1949.
 3. Correspondence, 1950-1955.
 4. Correspondence, 1956-1960.
 5. Correspondence, 1961-1967.
 6. Correspondence, n.d.
 7. J.E. Martin's statements of accounts, 1915-1917;   booklet, Lead Me Home Little Angel by John Park Cravens, 1962; printed materials, n.d.
 8. Post cards, 1908-1961.
 9. Clippings, 1928-1962.
 

The following item has been removed to the Broadside Collection as Broadside No. B4-74.

 She Is Not Dead But Liveth, 1966.  Lengthy prayer by Cravens dedicated to lovers separated by death.  12 1/4 x 8 1/2.

A duplicate of the broadside is found in folder 7 under "printed materials."

John Park Cravens scrapbook with clippings and correspondence has been removed to Manuscript Oversize Box 1.