Writer and artist Diana Chang in her New York City apartment, undated photograph.
The papers of Diana Chang, Chinese American novelist, poet, educator, and artist, are open for research. Her first novel, The Frontiers of Love, originally published by Random House in 1956, was the first novel to have been written by an American born, Chinese American, in the United States. All are welcome to schedule an appointment to access the collection.
“I have said elsewhere that I feel I’m an American writer whose background is mostly Chinese…my novels and short stories seem to be preoccupied with being and identity, and arise out of my abiding passion for exploring character and emotion to create the psychological realities of particular situations. In some of my poems a self speaks to the self. Or I write of poetry itself or of painting, as I’m also a painter. Often I explore the natural world and its soul, as it were. In style, I hope to be imagistic, moving instinctively among metaphor, simile, and personification, in order to make my ideas concrete and tangible.” – Diana Chang
The collection includes 4.6 linear ft. of manuscripts and published poems, incoming and outgoing professional and personal correspondence, subject files, clippings, and photographs dating from the 1950s to the 2000s. Diana Chang resided for many years in Water Mill, NY with her husband David Herrmann. She died on February 19, 2009.
Kristen Nyitray
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