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The Claire Necker Papers contain notes, drafts, compilations of images, clippings, artifacts, and publications relating to Necker's research interests on cats. The writings and illustrations in the collection includes notes and drafts as well as illustrations Necker compiled during research for publications. There are numerous notebooks listing publications. Additionally, there is artwork and artifacts relating to cats or other animals. The correspondence series is fairly short with mostly letters to Necker. A portion of the correspondence is with Guy Bogart, who traded lengthy typed letters with Necker and two other correspondents. Much of the material is undated, but likely dates from the 1960s-1980s with some clippings dating from the late 19th or early 20th century, or earlier. Claire Kral Necker was born Claire Kral Nemec on 16 October 1917. In 1939 she married Walter L. Necker, who was then completing a BS in zoology at the University of Chicago. She and Walter shared interests in science and bibliography. Walter worked with a variety of organizations as, at various times, scientist, librarian, curator and rare books cataloger. Claire earned Master's degrees in Zoology and Chemistry (when and where is not documented, though it was sometime before 1968), and after World War II she and Walter started Aardvark Books, a mail-order antiquarian book business. Claire and Walter divorced in 1968, and she found work at a local library. Claire had for some time pursued a career as a free-lance writer, but in 1969 she published her first book, Cats and Dogs (A. S. Barnes). Necker's other works include The Natural History of Cats (Delta, 1970), Supernatural Cats; An Anthology (Doubleday, 1972), Four Centuries of Cat Books (Scarecrow Press, 1972), and The Cat's Got Our Tongue (Scarecrow Press, 1973). She died 19 March 2010 in Pawling, New York. Less