In recognizing contributions made to its Margaret Herrick Library during the past year, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences acknowledged the Orson Welles collection donated by bookseller James Pepper.
The Academy made specific note of Pepper’s gift of a Citizen Kane script and wrap party invitation, as well as Touch of Evil scripts annotated by Welles.
“The preservation of our global film history is a core focus of the Academy, and we are honored to add so many exciting items to our ever-growing Academy Collection. The collection serves as an important tool for research, scholarship, exhibitions, and programs,” said Academy CEO Bill Kramer in a statement.
As reported by Wellesnet in March 2025, the donation represents 50 years of collecting and curating by Pepper.
Pepper is an internationally noted rare books dealer and former governor of the Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America. He is also a creator, editor, and publisher of many film-related books. In 1987, Pepper edited, introduced, and published the Welles screenplay book The Big Brass Ring, and followed that eight years later with The Cradle Will Rock.
Pepper told Wellesnet he chose the Academy library as a repository for his collection because he wanted the materials to be available to fellow Wellesians and cinephiles.
The Academy library is located at the Fairbanks Center for Motion Picture Study on 333 South La Cienega Boulevard in Beverly Hills and open four days a week.
The collection can be accessed online by visiting academycollection.org/web/arena/search#/entity/academy/collections%3A3385/james-pepper-collection-on-orson-welles. Requests for scans of items can be made online at academycollection.org.
Among the many fascinating items in his collection is a powerful 11-page letter sent to investor and l’Astrophore Films president Mehdi Boushehri in 1977. In the letter, Welles laments the lengthy delay in completing The Other Side of the Wind; strains on his friendships with Bogdanovich and Graver over them being left unpaid; the loss of $2 million in potential income; the open hostility exhibited toward Welles by various individuals involved with Mehdi’s companies; disappointment in the outcome of the American Film Institute tribute; the “miserable stalemate” the project had become; and finding his reputation “as a director blackened beyond reparation” and the subsequent “catastrophic… cost to my credibility in the film world.”
Other notable items donated by Pepper to the Academy library include:
• A 1956 pitch by Kirk Douglas for a film adaptation of The Shadow radio program with Welles responding, “I would enjoy directing it if we can manage a good enough script and get together on the time;”
• A letter sent to lawyer Arnold Weissberger concerning Welles’ work in 1964 on a script for an unrealized stage version of Gone With the Wind;
• The Book of the American West with a “Dynamite Gus” caricature drawn inside the book by Welles and a handwritten message to Bogdanovich;
• Correspondence from daughter Rebecca Welles and numerous friends and associates including Geraldine Fitzgerald, Vivien Leigh, Bernard Herrmann, Roger Hill, Maurice Bernstein, Hilton Edwards, Maurice Bessy, and Akim Tamiroff. Amid the correspondence is a May 2, 1956 letter from Columbia Pictures boss Harry Cohn: “To reiterate what I told you at lunch today. I can think of nothing better to revive my interest in the future than being associated with you. I have a few additional projects I would like to discuss with you;”
• Contracts, correspondence and financial statements related to the January 1956 New York stage production of King Lear;
• Leather bound copy of the Long Hot Summer script with the film title and “Orson Welles” embossed in gold on front cover;
• Welles-written scripts, including Citizen Kane, It’s All True, Mr. Arkadin, The Other Side of the Wind, The Big Brass Ring, The Dreamers and Dumas;
• Second draft and release scripts, as well as a cutting continuity, for director Carol Reed’s The Third Man;
• Text of a speech given by Welles at the Free World Congress on October 28, 1943;
• And numerous correspondence and telegrams related to the production of several Welles-directed films, such as The Magnificent Ambersons, Othello, Mr. Arkadin, Touch of Evil and The Other Side of the Wind.
The James Pepper Collection on Orson Welles joins the nearly century-old Academy collection of 52 million items.
The Margaret Herrick Library houses periodicals, costume sketches, sheet music and advertising materials, as well as tens of thousands of books.
In addition to the recent donation, the Academy library also houses the previously donated James Pepper Collection of Rare Cinema Material.
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