Identity elements
Reference code
Name and location of repository
Level of description
Box
Title
Manuscripts
Date(s)
- 1986 - 2004 (Creation)
Extent
1 box
Name of creator
Biographical history
Horror and dark fantasy author Melanie Tem was born Melanie Kubachko on April 11, 1949, and grew up in Saegertown, Pennsylvania. She graduated from Allegheny College in Meadville, PA, and later obtained a Master's in Social Work from the University of Denver. She met fellow author Steve Rasnic at a writer's workshop, and the two married in 1980, taking the joint surname "Tem".
Over the course of the next few decades, Tem established a high-quality and well-received body of work, including 15 novels, 4 chapbooks, 3 collections of short fiction, a number of poems, and close to 100 short stories. She also was an enthusiastic oral storyteller as well as a writet.Her first published story (co-written with her husband) was "Prosthesis", published in Asimov's Science Fiction in 1986. Her debut horror novel Prodigal was published in 1991 and received the 1991 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a First Novel. She would go on to win a number of other genre awards, including the 2000 Stoker, International Horror Guild, and World Fantasy Awards for the novella "The Man on the Ceiling" (co-written with Steve Rasnic Tem), the 1992 British Fantasy Icarus Award for a Newcomer, and the 2002 Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in Alternative Forms, shared with her husband for their multimedia collection Imagination Box. She was nominated for several other International Horror Guild Awards as well as the 2009 Shirley Jackson Award. Her 1996 novel Desmodus was long-listed for the James Tiptree, Jr. Award.
Melanie Tem also worked as a social worker, working with adoptive children, the disabled, and the elderly. The sensitivity and understanding required for that job played into much of her fiction. Tem contracted breast cancer in 1997; a recurrence of that cancer metastasized and resulted in her passing away on February 9, 2015, at the age of 65. Her last novel was The Yellow Moon (2015), and her final collection of stories, Singularity was published posthumously in 2017.
Content and structure elements
Scope and content
2-9/1: "The Leap of Faith: Claiming and Bonding in Adoption" (1986), typescript (photocopy), correspondence (1986), and typescript of book chapter 'The Fallacy of No-Fault Adoption'
2-9/2: "Aspen Graffiti" (1988), typescript, various reviews, and correspondence (March-September 1987)
2-9/3: "The Better Half" (1989), typescript with handwritten edits, and correspondence (1986, 1991)
2-9/4: "Lightning Rod" (1990), photocopy of published story
2-9/5: "Rain Shadow" (1990), partial photocopy of typescript
2-9/6: "Rain Shadow" (1990), typescript (photocopy)
2-9/7: "Rain Shadow" (1990), typescript, introduction to story from Women of the West, and fan letter (1990)
2-9/8: "Renting the Basement" (1990), typescript
2-9/9: "Reunion" (1990), typescript with handwritten edits
2-9/10: "Reunion" (1990), photocopy of published story
2-9/11: "Christmas with Jeremy" (1991), typescript with handwritten edits, and related correspondence (1988-1995)
2-9/12: "Daddy's Side" (1991), typescript, and correspondence (1989, 1992, undated)
2-9/13: "Fry Day" (1991), typescript, correspondence (1992), and spare typescript pages (photocopy)
2-9/14: "The Ice Downstream" (1991), typescript with handwritten edits
2-9/15: Prodigal (1991), typescript synopsis, and typescript revisions
2-9/16: "Secrets" (1991), earlier typescript with handwritten edits, later typescript, and related correspondence (1989-1991)
2-9/17: "Sitting With the Driver" (1991), typescript, and related correspondence (1989-1991)
2-9/18: What Lived Under Lloyd's Porch (children's book, 1991), typescript
2-9/19: Blood Moon (1992), galley proofs
2-9/20: "Repentance" (1992), typescript with handwritten edits, and related correspondence (1989, 1991)
2-9/21: "Trail of Crumbs" (1992), early typescript with handwritten edits, later typescript, and correspondence
2-9/22: "The Changelings" (1993), typescript, correspondence with Ellen Datlow (1991, 1993), and review of anthology (January 1993)
2-9/23: "Jenny" (1993) typescript
2-9/24: "Jenny" (1993) typescript
2-9/25: "Phantom" (1993), typescript
2-9/26: "Phantom" (1993), typescript, and related correspondence (1991-1992)
2-9/27: "Fingers" (1994), typescript, 1988?
2-9/28: "Orphan" (1994?), typescript - 2 copies, and background materials
2-9/29: "Pele" (1994), typescript (under old title "The Curse of Madam Pele")
2-9/30: "The Rock" (1994), typescript submitted to Cemetery Dance
2-9/31: "The Rock" (1994), revised typescript, 1992
2-9/32: "The Rock" (1994), typescript (7300 words) - 2 copies, and related correspondence (1994-1995)
2-9/33: Revenant (1994), typescript synopsis
2-9/34: "The Empty Tomb" (1995), typescript, and acceptance letter from The Urbanite, 1994
2-9/35: "House Full of Hearts" (w/Joseph R. Tem, 1995), typescript
2-9/36: "Half-Grandma" (1995) typescript, and galley proofs with copyedits
2-9/37: "Half-Grandma" (1995), typescript
2-9/38: "Intimates" (1995), typescript
2-9/39: "Presence" (1995), early typescript, and photocopy of published story
2-9/40: "Presence" (1995), typescript
2-9/41: "Presence" (1995), typescript sent to Pam Kesey, and correspondence from Kesey (1995)
2-9/42: "Presence" (1995), typescript (1700 words)
2-9/43: "Presence" (1995), early typescript
2-9/44: "Presence" (1995), typescript sent to The Silver Web
2-9/45: Desmodus (1995), typescript synopsis, outline, and notes, with handwritten edits, 1994
2-9/46: "The Name" (1995?), typescript
2-9/47: "Pandorette's Mother" (1996), original typescript, 1995
2-9/48: "Pandorette's Mother" (1996), typescript sent to Harcourt, Brace, 1995
2-9/49: "Pandorette's Mother" (1996), typescript, and correspondence w/Bruce Coville, 1994
2-9/50: "Pandorette's Mother" (1996), revised typescript sent to GLC, 1995
2-9/51: Witch-Light (w/Nancy Holder, 1996), typescript outline, 1993
2-9/52: "Delia's Daughter" (later renamed "Loving Delia", 1997), typescript with handwritten edits
2-9/53: "The Game" (1998), typescript - 2 copies
2-9/54: "Hegoday" (1998), earlier typescript, and rewritten typescript, 1996
2-9/55: "Memento Mori" (1998), typescript
2-9/56: "Sweet" (1998), typescript (19 pages), typescript (24 pages), and related correspondence (1997)
2-9/57: "Sweet" (1998), typescript
2-9/58: "The Lonely Gorilla" (1999), photocopy of published story
2-9/59: "Neighborhood Witch" (1999?), typescript
2-9/60: "The Psychic Magic Show" (1999), typescript, and related correspondence (1999)
2-9/61: "The Willful Child, the Black Dog, and the Beanstalk" (1999), typescript
2-9/62: "The Willful Child, the Black Dog, and the Beanstalk" (1999), typescript
2-9/63: "Alicia" (2000), typescript - 2 copies
2-9/64: The Ice Downstream (2001), typescript [missing "Trail of Crumbs"], and related correspondence (1990)
2-9/65: "Pioneer" (2001), typescript (6800 words) sent to Beyond, and response letter (1995)
2-9/66: "Pioneer" (2001), typescript outline, and editorial comments
2-9/67: "Pioneer" (2001), typescript (6800 words), and background materials, 1987
2-9/68: "Blue Shadows on the Tongue" (2002), typescript
2-9/69: "Blue Shadows on the Tongue" (2002), typescript
2-9/70: "Gardens" (2003), typescript
2-9/71: "Gardens" (2003), typescript, and related correspondence (1996)
2-9/72: "Wandering Child" (2003), typescript (4300 words) - 2 copies
2-9/73: "Wandering Child" (2003), typescript (4300 words), and correspondence, 1996
2-9/74: "The Country of the Blind" (2005), typescript
2-9/75: "Groupie" (2005), typescript
2-9/76: "Visits" (2004), typescript
System of arrangement
Arranged by date of publication.