Alfred Chester letters to Curtis Harnack

Writer Alfred Chester was born on September 7, 1928 in Brooklyn, N.Y., to a family of Jewish-Russian immigrants. The Alfred Chester collection consists of 31 letters written by Chester to his friend Curtis Harnack, during the years 1951 to 1959, the period spanning his stay in Paris. The letters provide great insight into the life of Alfred Chester and into the pieces he was composing while in Paris, especially Here Be Dragons (1955) and Jamie Is My Heart's Desire (1956). The letters chronicle Chester's many frustrations with writing and getting published; they also contain preliminary ideas and descriptions of his work.