Feenie Ziner Papers

Collection — Reel: 1998-0220/RR1

Identifier: 1998-0220

Staff Only

Scope and Content Note

The papers consist primarily of correspondence, fan mail, manuscripts, magazines, calenders, planners, notes, books, and various other materials related to Feenie Ziner's personal and professional life. The papers are divided into eight boxes, each containing a mixture of materials. The boxes include correspondence between Ziner and her family and friends, fan mail she received for books she had written, manuscripts of books she both published and abandoned, as well as teaching syllabi and notes. Other materials include teacher evaluations she received from students while at the University of Connecticut, political writings and materials, and newspaper articles about herself. The papers are comprised of materials from the 1930s to the 1980s, but are not arranged in chronological order or by any particular subject.

Dates

Creation: 1933-1988

Access

The collection is open and available for research.

Restrictions on Use and Copyright Information

Permission to publish from these Papers must be obtained in writing from both the University of Connecticut Libraries and the owner(s) of the copyright.

Biography

Florence "Feenie" Katz was born in Brooklyn, New York to first-generation Americans. Educated in the New York public school system Feenie continued her education in New York, attending Brooklyn College for her Bachelor's degree. She meet her future husband, Zeke Ziner, near her family's summer home in Peekskill, New York in the late 1930s, and shortly before the start of the second World War the two were married. As Zeke entered military service in late 1941 Feenie returned to school, attending Columbia University's School of Social Work where she was awarded a Master's degree in 1944.

Following the war Zeke and Feenie moved to Chicago where Zeke attended the Institute of Design, becoming successful as a commercial and fine arts artist, and Feenie began work as a psychiatric social worker. Finding that she could not continue psychiatric work Feenie soon tried her hand at writing, starting first with children's books. Her first few books were successful, eventually selling more than half a million copies of her first book alone. Prompted by the birth of triplets in 1958 the family moved to Dobbs Ferry, New York where Zeke started a promising new job, and Feenie continued to write children's books. Shortly after the move however, Feenie wrote her first novel for adults and quickly began to produce numerous others. With a new job in 1966 Zeke and the Ziner family would spend the next four years in Montreal, a move that allowed Feenie the opportunity to teach for the first time, in addition to continuing her writing career.

Moving back to Dobbs Ferry, Connecticut in 1970, Feenie used her teaching success in Montreal to begin writing book reviews for The New York Times, while also beginning a teaching position at the State University of New York in Purchase, New York. Teaching the contemporary novel at SUNY, Feenie was quickly offered a position in the English Department at the University of Connecticut. Intending it to be a temporary position, Feenie spent the next twenty years at UConn retiring in 1994. While at the university she taught courses in children's literature and mythology, while continuing to write for scholarly journals and The New York Times, in addition to her own novels. Feenie died on Dec. 13, 2012.

Extent

10.5 Linear Feet

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Abstract

The personal and professional papers of Feenie Ziner, author and professor of English at the University of Connecticut. Materials include fan mail, personal and public correspondence, teaching notes, published and unpublished manuscripts, and personal planners, calenders, and notes.