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[Identification of item], Wallace Kaufman Papers, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University.
The Wallace Kaufman Papers were received by the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library as gift in 1993-94 and as a purchase in 2008.
Processed by Josh Larkin Rowley, October 2011
Encoded by Josh Larkin Rowley, October 2011
Accessions 1994-008, 1994-089, and 2008-0047 were merged into one collection, described in this finding aid:
Descriptive sources and standards used to create this inventory:
This finding aid is NCEAD compliant.
Wallace Vickers Kaufman was born April 10th, 1939 in Queens, New York . Kaufman came to Duke University to study English in 1957, taking his A.B. in 1961. He also studied at Merton College at Oxford University as a Marshall Scholar from 1961-1963.
Along with fellow classmates and writers Fred Chappel and Anne Tyler, Kaufman's writing was fosterd under the direction of William Blackburn. Also while at Duke Kaufman developed a close student-mentor relationship with author Reynolds Price. Kaufman and Price continued to correspond well into Kaufman's own professional career. After graduating, Kaufman taught high school sciences courses, middle school English, and writing courses at Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. While a resident of Chatham County, Kaufman developed an interest in land development projects that included caveats for environmental protection. An extension of this interest led to involvment with, among otehr regional and national environmental organizations, the Conservation Council of North Carolina (CCNC), an organization that Kaufman eventually chaired. Kaufman also served on several local and state boards of realtors, the North Carolina Land Stewardship Council, and Conservation Fund, North Carolina. At this time, Kaufman also travelled extensively in Latin America. During his travels Kaufman promoted indigenous writers, particularly Guatemalan writer Victor Dinoicio Montejo.
In the mid-1990s Kaufman began consulting work for the World Bank and the International City/County Management Association in nations of the former Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc, including Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland and Kazakhstan, the final Soviet Republic to declare independence. This work encompassed a broad scope of work including advising local residents on land and housing reform, teaching property valuation, investigating the effectiveness of aid projects, economic surveys, and some work training local journalists. In 2001 Kaufman relocated to western Oregon where he began a career in arbitration and mediation.
The collection contains correspondence, writings and addresses, journals, reports, clippings and assorted print matter. Materials present primarily reflect Kaufman's environmental activism while residing in rural Chatham County, North Carolina and his consulting work with the World Bank and the International City/County Management Association in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc. Correspondence mostly documents Kaufman's role with the Conservation Council of North Carolina and the organization's collaboration with other local, regional, and national environmental organizations.
The journals and reports document Kaufman's work in former Soviet nations. They describe Kaufman's day to day activities in Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Kazakhstan, and Poland that include descriptions of local customs and geographic regions, the difficulties and challenges inherent in transition from collectivism to privatization, and surveys of local businesses and manufactories. Also present in the collection is material documenting Kaufman's relationship with author Reynolds Price. This material includes mostly correspondence as well as several manuscripts and typescripts. The correspondence touches upon personal matters as well as professional including the activities of mutual friends and acquaintances, travels, and current works in progress.
These are searchable subject entries for this collection. Performing a search on these subjects in the Duke University Libraries online catalog will bring up other related research materials.