Personal papers, documents, and related items, 1924-1981

Series 5 contains hand-written and typed journals, daybooks, essays, prayers, novenas, praying lists, letters from Mary Lou Williams, and personal documents such as passports, work permits, and licenses.
During her visit to Europe, 1952 - 1953, Williams began a full-hearted attempt to document her personal life and the history of jazz. Parts of this chronicle were published as articles in the British journal Melody Maker in 1952; the typewritten drafts, at times annotated by editor Max Jones, are extant in this series. However, Williams's writings are much more extensive than had been understood in her lifetime. She delivered a continual narrative, one notebook after the other, and added revisions and a hand-written index. Another typewritten narrative, listed by its first line "In the spring of the year," also chronicles her career and early life. These materials are collected in subseries 5.1. From around 1954 to 1957, these narratives are virtually replaced by hand-written and typed prayers, novenas and lists of people to pray for, contained in subseries 5.2, as Williams earnestly turned her attention to her personal salvation and conversion to the Catholic Church. From the late 1960s, Williams returns to statements via essays about the state of jazz and continues her saga on its history. These comprise subseries 5.3.
Subseries 5.4 includes outgoing correspondence Williams photocopied. Other outgoing correspondence from Williams is found in series 3.
Subseries 5.5 contains personal papers from throughout Williams’s life, ranging from the earliest item in the collection, Williams’s high school workbook, to one of the most recent, Peter O’Brien’s agreement to serve as executive director to the Mary Lou Williams Foundation, weeks before her death. Other items include her 1942 marriage license, travel documents from her 1952 trip to England, membership cards, appraisals, notes concerning musicians Buck Clayton, George Duvivier, and Tadd Dameron. Perhaps the most revealing documentation in series 5 is Williams' day-by-day notebooks. Begun haphazardly, or perhaps collected less carefully, in the late 1940s, Williams begins a routine of noting every expense incurred on a daily basis. Expenses for the years 1954-1969 are partially documented and from 1969-1980 are nearly completely documented in small spiral notebooks. At times, Williams maintained separate logs or expense journals for recording or performances; these are in Series 6: Performances and Personal Appearances. Receipts corresponding to many of these purchases can be found in subseries 4.9: Personal bills.