Shepherd Mead Papers

Collection

Identifier: MS-MS-ms079

Staff Only

The Shepherd Mead Papers consist of typescripts, variant drafts, and several thousand pages of notes toward many of his books, including The Four Window Girl (1958), Dudley, There is No Tomorrow (1963), The Carefully Considered Rape of the World (1966), How to Live Like a Lord Without Really Trying (1965), and Free the Male Man! (1972).

Dates

Creation: 1923-1995

Creator

Mead, Shepherd (Person)

Conditions Governing Access

Open

Conditions Governing Use

Users of the collection must read and agree to abide by the rules and procedures set forth in the Materials Use Policies.

Providing access to materials does not constitute permission to publish or otherwise authorize use. All publication not covered by fair use or other exceptions is restricted to those who have permission of the copyright holder, which may or may not be Washington University.

If you wish to publish or license Special Collections materials, please contact Special Collections to inquire about copyright status at (314) 935-5495 or spec@wumail.wustl.edu. (Publish means quotation in whole or in part in seminar or term papers, theses or dissertations, journal articles, monographs, books, digital forms, photographs, images, dramatic presentations, transcriptions, or any other form prepared for a limited or general public.)

Extent

57.00 boxes

Additional Description

Biographical Information

Shepherd Mead, a native of St. Louis, Missouri, graduated from Washington University in 1936. Although he began writing in college, Mead's first commercially successful book was How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (1952). In 1961, Frank Loesser and Abe Burrows based an award-winning musical comedy on Mead's novel, which became an international best-seller. Mead spent 20 years in a New York advertising firm, rising from mail room clerk to vice-president. In 1958, he moved to England where his success in advertising allowed him to retire in 1962. Mead became director of the Swiss publishing firm Nouvelles Editions in 1969.

Mead followed his spoof of Wall Street with a series of "How To Succeed" books, among them How to Get Rich in TV (1956), How to Succeed with Women (1957), How to Live Like a Lord (1965) and How to Stay Medium-Young (1971). How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying set the formula for these and other books; however, not all of Mead's work is in this vein. For example, The Big Ball of Wax (1959) and The Carefully Considered Rape of the World (1968) are science-fiction.