![[logo]](http://ead.lib.virginia.edu/vivaead/logos/uva-sc.jpg)
Special Collections Department, University of Virginia Library
Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library© 2001 By the Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia. All rights reserved.
Funding: Web version of the finding aid funded in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Processed by: Special Collections Department
There are no restrictions
There are no restrictions
Alex Haley Manuscripts: "Dark Secret's Last Race", Accession #11204, Special Collections Dept., University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Va.
The collection was purchased by the Library from the Heritage Book Shop Inc., Los Angeles, California, on September 20, 1995, and bears no restrictions.
Alex Haley (Alexander Murray Palmer Haley), African-American author and journalist (August 11, 1921--February 10, 1992), author of Roots: The Saga of an American Family (1976). This accession consists of nineteen items, 1961 & 1963 and n.d., chiefly typescript manuscripts and research notes for "Dark Secret's Last Race: A Drama In Real Life." It profiles champion thoroughbred racehorse Dark Secret and his final victory at the 1934 Jockey Club Gold Cup race despite a broken leg. Also present is research material concerning his trainer James Edward "Sunny Jim" Fitzsimmons (b. 1874).
Arranged alphabetically by subject
An account of Dark Secret's career and a photograph of the race is available in William H. P. Robertson, The History of Thoroughbred Racing In America (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1964), 304-305, Rare Books, Scott SF335.U5R6 1964.
paragraph drafts: "It was a leaden, grisly day,
Saturday...,"
w/corrections
sentence fragments: "Dark Secret was...,"
w/notations
incomplete page drafts, w/corrections and annotations (some stapled to first page)
thirty-seven numbered paragraphs/sentences, w/corrections and annotations
forty-three numbered miscellaneous paragraphs/sentences, w/corrections and annotations, correction of paragraph 37 on reverse of page 1
w/title page, author's address, and a correction on page 8
w/title page, author's address, and a correction on page 8
w/title page, author's address, and a correction on page 8
w/title page, author's address, a correction on page 8 and pencilled lines
w/title page, author's address, annotations and corrections
Synopses of Dark Secret's career, last race and injuries, w/corrections and annotations (some stapled to pages)
re "Sunny Jim" Fitzsimmons, w/two enclosures
"Sunny Jim, Near 89, Is Big Winner Again at Hialeah