Arthur Naiman papers
Arthur Naiman artwork
Collection area: Literature
Collection dates: 1941-2017
This collections consists of the papers of author Arthur Niaman. Present in the collection are correspondence, documents, book drafts, photographs, negatives, audio cassettes and objects. Series I is comprised of personal correspondence collected by Niaman. Series II contains personal records such as biographical materials and resumes. Series III consists of Naiman's professional career and contains drafts, unpublished work, research and proofs. Series IV contians business files and publishing activities from Naiman's time running the Odonian Press. Records foucesed on the Real Story Series can be found in this series. Series V contains teaching files from Naiman's career as a grade school teacher and various workshops he held. Series VI contains empherma that details various activities that Niaman engaged in. Series VII contains the photogrpahs and negatives. Series VII houses larger objects found with the collection. Born-digital material, found mainly on floppy disks, have also been surveyed and processed to make available for description and public access.
Arthur Naiman was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1941. Naiman attended Senn High School in Chicago before attending and graduating from Brandeis University in 1962. After a stint in Paris studying philosophy, Naiman moved to New York and began writing for advertisement agencies and teaching at public schools. In 1976 Naiman moved to the Bay Area, continuing to work in advertisement. Towards the end of his life, Naiman moved to Tucson although always staying in touch with the Bay Area.
Naiman was probably best known as an author and has produced multiple works. His first book, Every Goy’s Guide to Jewish Expression was originally published in 1981. Naiman’s most well known work is the Macintosh Bible, an acclaimed computer manual for the Apple computer. Naiman produced user manuals for other systems and software that would be laced with his coined mixture of information and humor. Naiman started his own publishing company, Goldstein & Blair, which would continue publishing his manuals. Naiman also started a second publishing company, Odonian Press. The Odonian Press published the Real Story Series, a collection of short political books on various topics.
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