Playwright Neil Simon's papers go to Library of Congress

Dozens of notebooks, scripts, speeches, drafts of letters, artwork and even signed baseballs owned by the late playwright Neil Simon have been donated to the Library of Congress. The collection offers historians and researchers access to the creative process of American theater’s most successful and prolific playwright.

The collection includes about 7,700 items documenting the evolution of Simon's plays and screenplays, including “Barefoot in the Park,” “The Sunshine Boys,” “Brighton Beach Memoirs” and “Lost in Yonkers.”

The donation will be officially announced at a special event with actors Matthew Broderick and Sarah Jessica Parker — both currently starring in a Broadway revival of “Plaza Suite” — and Elaine Joyce, Simon’s widow, Monday at 7 p.m. on the Library's YouTube channel. 

The cache includes a yellowing first act of “Barefoot in the Park,” plenty of notes for actors or directors, and over a dozen notepads filled with watercolors, drawings and cartoons by Simon. There are also several scripts for shows never completed or produced, such as one titled “The Merry Widows,” written for Bette Midler and Whoopi Goldberg.

Simon was nominated for 14 Tony Awards throughout his career and won three, in addition to a special prize for contribution to the theater. He also won the Pulitzer Prize, the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor and a Kennedy Center honor, as well as having a theater named after him on Broadway. He died in 2018 in Manhattan.