Chana Cox papers

Collection

Identifier: OLPb198COX

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

This collection contains the biographical materials, personal and professional correspondence, novel manuscripts, plays, lectures, and unpublished works of Dr. Chana Cox. The biographical materials include a family history written by Cox, a family tree, relevant newspaper clippings, and family photos. Professional materials include press releases and draft edits for Cox's published novels, notes and edits on essays and lectures including Cox's work on Plato, Hobbes, and Locke, academic papers, and her correspondence with various literary agents, publishing houses, and university presses. Visual and multi-media materials include photographs taken during Cox's time in Idaho and Israel, and a video tape featuring Dr. Rodney Cox speaking about "A River Went out of Eden." Correspondence includes letters and emails exchanged between Cox and her family members, primary literary agent, Jean V. Naggar, and various professional colleagues. Manuscripts and unpublished works include typed drafts of the novels "A River Went Out of Eden," "Intermezzo," "Inungilak," "Finistere," "Blackhurst," and "Montrevault." Plays in the collection include "Pharaoh, King of Egypt," "Feivel, Mit'n Fiddle," "The Oath," "Bacchae," and "My Eumenides."

Dates

Creation: 1950 - 2020

Conditions Governing Access

Collection is open for research.

Biographical

Dr. Chana Berniker Cox was born Chana Berniker in Detroit, Michigan and grew up in Windsor, Ontario. Cox received her BA in mathematics from Reed College and her Ph.D. in philosophy from Columbia University. By training she was a self-professed "scholar of Leibniz and of 17th century philosophy of science." After graduating, Cox moved to the Salmon River Idaho wilderness with her husband, Rodney Cox and her husband's uncle Sylvan Hart, a.k.a. Buckskin Bill Last of the Mountain Men. The Coxs lived in Idaho for seven years, and their experiences inspired Chana Cox's 1992 memoir, "A River Went out of Eden." After leaving the Salmon River, Cox organized explorations in the Eastern Canadian Arctic before returning to academia. Cox taught courses in intellectual history, political science, economics, and classics at Lewis and Clark College, becoming Senior Lecturer Emerita in the humanities. One of her plays, "Pharaoh, King of Egypt," was produced in Portland as an interfaith effort by Augustana Lutheran Church and Lewis and Clark College. Cox published several books over the course of her lifetime, including the aforementioned "A River Went out of Eden," as well "Inungilak," "Reflections on the Logic of the Good," and "Liberty: God's Gift to Humanity." Cox also penned the regency romance novels "Pegasus," "Intermezzo," and "Althea Brentleigh" under the pseudonym Eleanor Anne Cox. Cox died on March 2, 2019.

Extent

9 boxes

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Abstract

This collection contains the notes, correspodence, photographs, lectures, essays, plays, and manuscripts of the published and unpublished novels of Dr. Chana Cox.