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Special Collections Research Center
William & Mary Special Collections Research CenterWilliam & Mary Special Collections Research Center staff
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Collection is open to all researchers. Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, such as the Virginia Public Records Act (Code of Virginia. § 42.1-76-91); and the Virginia Freedom of Information Act (Code of Virginia § 2.2-3705.5). Confidential material may include, but is not limited to, educational, medical, and personnel records. If sensitive material is found in this collection, please contact a staff member immediately. The disclosure of personally identifiable information pertaining to a living individual may have legal consequences for which the College of William and Mary assumes no responsibility.
Tom Baker papers, Special Collection Research Center, William & Mary Libraries.
Donated by Tom Baker in 2012, with other accruals later in 2012 and 2017.
Tom Baker is a William & Mary graduate with multiple published works. He primarily worked as a corporate advertiser before transitioning to full-time writing in 2010, since then having published three novels and a book of short stories. Novels he has authored include The Sound of One Horse Dancing, Full Frontal, Paperwhite Narcissus, and Green . All of his novels explore perspectives of gay men in the backdrop of major historical events of the 20th century. Each deals with themes of sexual discovery during periods of time in which LGBTQ+ individuals were not openly accepted by society at large.
Baker's novels Full Frontal and Paperwhite Narcissus have won the Beverly Hills Book Award in the LGBT Fiction category in 2013 and 2015 respectively. For the majority of his professional life, he lived in Santa Monica Canyon, CA; he now lives in Gloucester, MA.
The Tom Baker papers consist primarily of drafts, working copies, manuscripts, and published copies of the author and William & Mary alumnus Tom Baker's published literary works. The written works represented are The Sound of One Horse Dancing (2011), Full Frontal (2012), Paperwhite Narcissus (2014), Green (2017), and various short stories. Also included are some pieces of correspondence to and from Baker regarding the status of his work, as well as working files of research material for the settings of the novels Green and Paperwhite Narcissus The materials provide insight into the professional literary career and creative process of Baker as he wrote novels that incorporated the use of historical settings as well as the perspective of a gay man in the United States in the mid and late 20th century.
The collection is arranged by accession in the order in which it was received, with corresponding subseries within each accession. Original order and folder titles were retained where possible; folder titles were inferred where necessary.
An early review copy of Green (2017) was removed and cataloged in the Rare Books Collections in Swem Library's Special Collections Research Center.
Accession 2012.095 is composed of working drafts, annotated copies, and proofs used during Baker's writing process for the novel The Sound of One Horse Dancing and for various short stories. Some drafts are annotated by individuals who read the drafts on Baker's behalf; the only named editor is Brenda Koplin, a freelance copy editor. The material of this accession provides insight into the writing process which Baker employed to create the final product of The Sound of One Horse Dancing as well as the ways in which the novel evolved across iterations. Additionally, the accession provides Baker's perspective during the final edit process with the publisher, iUniverse, and the steps to bring a work into published print.
Accession 2012.421 is composed of working drafts Full Frontal and additional drafts of The Sound of One Horse Dancing . The drafts of Full Frontal are primarily revisions with no examples of annotation, while he drafts of The Sound of One Horse Dancing include annotations broken down by chapter by an unnamed reviewer. The drafts provide insight into the evolution of Full Frontal as well as additional insight into the production of The Sound of One Horse Dancing .
Accession 2017.174 comprises the bulk of the collection, consisting of drafts and working material for all four of Tom Baker's novels, Full Frontal , Green , Paperwhite Narcissus , and The Sound of One Horse Dancing . The drafts include multiple revisions of the novel Green, primarily the first draft and revisions 3, 6, and 7. While other revisions were not included in this accession, the existing progression provides insight into the changes the novel advanced through during the writing process. Multiple annotated drafts for the novel Paperwhite Narcissus are also included, with apparent annotations from different unnamed editors.
Further working files in the accession includes research material used by Baker during his writing process. The bulk of the research materials consists of printed webpages on historical events such as the Vietnam War, calendars of major events in the mid 1970s, and contemporary maps. Additional working files include Baker's correspondence with publishers, publishing agreements, editorial evaluation reports, and programs from Camp Robinhood, a youth summer camp which Baker was involved with.
Tom Baker Podcast Interview. Interview conducted by the Written on the Edge Podcast with Tom Baker. Downloaded from Written on the Edge Podcast after notification by Tom Baker.