Dave Eggers Archive Acquired by the Harry Ransom Center

The Harry Ransom Center at The University of Texas at Austin has acquired the archive of author, journalist, publisher, activist, and artist Dave Eggers.

“Dave Eggers’s archive is a record of creative engagement with the world,” said Stephen Enniss, Director of the Harry Ransom Center. “With this acquisition we celebrate his gifts as a writer and his commitment, so well documented in his papers, to a more abundant, engaged, and humane world."

Eggers has written or edited more than 20 books for adults and over a dozen for young readers. His recent book, the all-ages novel The Eyes and the Impossible, won the 2024 Newbery Medal for the Most Distinguished Contribution to Children’s Literature in the United States.

His novel The Circle (2013), a take on a tech-driven dystopia, has sold more than 1m copies worldwide, and been translated into 34 languages, while The Every (2021), Eggers’s follow-up, predicted the AI-driven world we live in now. Eggers has been a vocal critic of AI in the humanities, and has fought to ensure that young people continue to learn to write in their own voice.

When The Circle was banned by a school district in South Dakota, Eggers travelled to Rapid City to hold town halls and interview teachers, students, and community members. From his research he published an investigative article for the Washington Post called Anatomy of a Book Banning which led to an acclaimed documentary, To Be Destroyed (2024).

In 2002, Eggers co-founded 826 Valencia, a nonprofit writing and tutoring center for young people in San Francisco that has spawned 60 similar centers around the world, all based on the idea that young people’s voices need to be heard, and their writing needs to be celebrated. These centers have now produced thousands of student publications, and in 2025 Eggers created the International Library of Young Authors in San Francisco dedicated wholly to the work of student authors.

In 1998, Eggers established McSweeney’s, an innovative, independent publishing company celebrated for creating imaginative publications. He has also written, co-written, or contributed to the screenplays of many films, including Where the Wild Things Are (2009).

Throughout his life, Eggers has kept a careful record of his work, preserving drafts of all his books and writings, many covered with his own notes and edits. There are additionally many letters from fellow authors and devoted readers, including young readers inspired by his books and his visits to schools and youth writing centers. Eggers has saved copies of many of his responses.

The archive includes research materials such as interview recordings, photographs, articles, artwork, writings from his school days with encouraging notes from teachers, and extensive files relating to his many publishing projects and non-profit organizations.