Laura Spencer Portor Pope Papers
Collection
Identifier: MS485
Laura Spencer Portor Pope was a journalist and science fiction writer prolific in the early 20th century. She co-authored two science fiction novels, The Valley of Creeping Men (1930) and Chattering Gods (1931), with her friend Dorothy Giles under the name Rayburn Crawley. Pope recorded much of her personal reflections in notebooks or in correspondence with her friend Dr. William G. MacCullum. These materials and other personal mementos are included in this collection.
These materials have unrestricted access.
Permission to publish materials from this collection must be obtained from the Head of Archives and Special Collections.
1.2 Linear Feet (4 letter-sized document cases and 1 legal-size document case. )
This collection contains over 2000 pages of Pope’s correspondence, personal writings, and keepsakes dating from 1877 to 1939. Most letters are written on stationary from the Woman’s Home Companion and are addressed to physician Dr. William G. MacCullum, one of Pope’s lifelong friends. Also included are two personal journals, one vacation journal, one notebook containing 27 original poems, a small annual daybook, and a photo from Pope's youth. Two of Pope's books written under the pseudonym Rayburn Crawley, The Valley of Creeping Men (1930) and Chattering Gods (1931) are catalogued in the Georgia Tech Library's catalog.
Laura Spencer Portor Pope (1872-1957) was a short story writer, journalist, and science fiction novelist active in the early 20th century. Pope used the pen name “Laura Spencer Portor” for nearly all of her publications except two science fiction novels co-authored with Dorothy Giles under the pseudonym Rayburn Crawley. Shes is most known for her published writing in several magazines including Woman’s Home Companion, Harper’s Bazaar, The Outlook, and The Dial.
Pope was born in Kentucky and in 1909 married Francis Pope (1867-1944), a lawyer who was born in India. In many of her letters she wrote in great detail about Francis and his mental health issues, including depression and paranoia, to her close friend Canadian/American physician Dr. William G. MacCullum (1874-1944). She also frequently wrote about her work as a writer along with the struggles in her personal life. Francis Pope's battles with mental health continued throughout their entire lives and she financially supported herself and her husband, who was in and out of New York sanitariums for many years.
Pope also discussed her own health issues and requested personal advice from MacCullum. She was hospitalized in 1929 for an unknown illness and it is around this time that MacCullum returned all of her letters so she could reread them. In a thirty-eight page reflective essay based on this correspondence, Pope praises MacCullum for being one of three people that shaped the person she became. In many of her letters between 1930 and 1931, Pope often discusses the science fiction novels she wrote with Giles and sent MacCullum copies of books and magazines featuring her stories. The letters to MacCullum ceased in 1939, around the time Pope was planning to leave for a trip to Europe that was canceled due to international tenstions at the start of World War II.
These materials are arranged chronologically.
The letters are bound and appear to have been placed in date order, but a few of the letters have been disbound. Two of the books of correspondence are bound in green cloth and stamped "Mt. Sinai Hospital" on the spine.
Purchased from Johnson Rare Books & Manuscripts in October 2022.
The Valley of Creeping Men and Chattering Gods, Pope's books written under the pseudonym Rayburn Crawley, are catalogued separately and can be requested through the Georgia Tech Library's catalog.
Processed by Chloe Morris in October 2023.
Part of the Archives and Special Collections, Library, Georgia Institute of Technology Repository