Indiana Historical Society - Manuscripts & Archives
User Information
Biographical Sketch
Scope and Content Note
Folder List
Cataloguing Information
Processed by
Charles Latham
November 1990
VOLUME OF COLLECTION: 1 manuscript box
COLLECTION DATES: 1915-1970
PROVENANCE: Gift of the Indianapolis-Marion County Public Library, Indianapolis, IN 46204, 10 August 1989
RESTRICTIONS: None
REPRODUCTION RIGHTS: Permission to reproduce or publish material in this collection must be obtained in writing from the Indiana Historical Society
ALTERNATE FORMATS: None
OTHER FINDING AIDS: None
RELATED HOLDINGS: BV825, John Iden Kautz, WWI Scrapbook; M338, Indianapolis Lterary Club, Box 13
ACCESSION NUMBER: 89.0542X
NOTES:
John Iden Kautz (1896-1971) was born in Indianapolis, the son of Frederick Rollin Kautz who organized the Kautz Stationery Co. (now Stationers Inc.) in 1909. John I. Kautz earned an AB degree from Butler University in 1917 and a BS degree from the University of Chicago in 1919. After his graduation in 1917, he immediately sought service in France. He served with the French ambulance corps and then as a private in the French army before transferring to the U. S. Motor Transport Corps. A scrapbook of his experiences is in the IHS Library as BV 825. His account of his early war experiences was published by Houghton Mifflin in 1918 under the title "Letters from the trenches-- letters from France June-November 1917."
Kautz married Doris Palmer Guirl in 1919. He continued his father's stationery company. He was a member of several clubs, including the Portfolio and Indianapolis Literary Clubs, and he was active in theatrical groups such as the Players and the Little and Civic Theaters. He helped organize and operate Starlight Musicals.
Sources:
Indiana Biographical Series, Vol. 18 p. 38, Vol. 19 pp. 70-71, Vol. 75 p. 58
Indiana Authors and Their Books, 1917-1966, p. 336
This collection, filling one manuscript box, contains some correspondence and a number of club papers, all but one apparently by John I. Kautz. Some papers are dated, and one or two indicate what club was being addressed; others are unidentified.
The collection was given by Mr. Kautz in 1970 to Indianapolis-Marion County Public Library, which transferred it to Indiana Historical Society in 1989. The collection begins with a folder of correspondence, 1915-1947, some of it comments on Kautz's book about his war experiences. There is also a letter from Geraldine Ferrar about Kirsten Flagstad's unpopularity after World War II because of her alleged Nazi sympathies.
A number of papers in the collection could be identified as having been read before the Indianapolis Literary Club by John I. Kautz or by his father F. Rollin Kautz; these papers were transferred to the Literary Club collection, M 338, Box 13. They include:
By F. R. Kautz-- Turgenev 4-4-1921; Flaubert 10-4-1929 and 1-6-1930; Disraeli 11-7-1932
By J. I. Kautz-- A second look 2-28-1948; A literary friendship 1-8-1968
Folder
1 Correspondence 1915-1947
2 Little theaters and such 1928
3 Talk at Service Club 1928
4 Some youthful irritations 1934-1935
5 The once great Nijinsky 1935
6 Both made it back to base
7 Coward's "Present Indicative"
8 The still living theater
9 Anthony Trollope
10 I was an innocent bystander all those years--by Doris Kautz
MAIN ENTRY: Kautz, John Iden, 1896-1971.
SUBJECT ENTRIES: Starlight Musicals (Indianapolis, Ind.)
Indianapolis Literary Club
Portfolio Club (Indianapolis, Ind.)
Amateur theater--Indiana--Indianapolis
Clubs--Indiana--Indianapolis
Theater--Indiana--Indianapolis
Indianapolis (Ind.)--Societies and clubs
ADDED ENTRIES: Kautz, Doris Guirl
END