Papers of Freda Kirchwey, 1871-1972

The Freda Kirchwey papers contain Kirchwey's personal correspondence, diaries, daybooks, travel notes, photographs, and writings. Also included is Kirchwey's extensive professional correspondence, including with journalists, editors, and funders of the Nation, as well as other progressive activists of the mid-twentieth-century. Kirchwey family correspondence, and several diaries of Kirchwey's husband Evans Clark, are also included.

The collection was first arranged and processed with a National Endowment for the Humanities grant in 1979. Material was arranged and folders were numbered sequentially (#1-383f+). Another group of material (accessions #80-M210, 81-M149, and 81-M201) was added to the collection in 1981, and was further sequentially numbered (#384-434). This addenda was described in the finding aid after the original material, as if in a separate series. In 2016, two later accessions (1999-M86 and 2000-M15) were added to the collection. Each of these groups of material is housed together. Also in 2016, the entire collection was reboxed and renumbered. The original group of papers is now numbered #1.1-26.7, the 1981 addenda is #27.1-29.19, the 1999 addenda is #30.1-32.5, and the 2000 addenda is #33.1-33.21. The three groups of addenda are now listed intellectually within the finding aid with the series in which they belong. A copy of the original inventory with original numbering is in the first box of the collection. Series VI, Photographs, was not renumbered, as some of those photographs had already been digitized.

At the time of original processing, parts of the collection were closed to research. In 2009, some restricted material was added back into the collection. Folders that contain this material are noted as such in the inventory. The collection is arranged in six series, each arranged chronologically.

Series I, PERSONAL, 1871-1972 (#1.1-9.2, 27.1-27.14, 30.1-32.2, 33.1-33.21), contains biographical information, writings, Kirchwey family correspondence, correspondence with friends, travel reports, diaries and day books. Kirchwey's writings included here are mostly juvenilia; some essays from Barnard, a lot of playful verse. Kirchwey's diaries are incomplete, but the daybooks provide a useful record of her daily activities, with appointments and addresses noted. Travel reports (#3.15-5.2) are diary-like entries of trips, listing itineraries, people met, events, weather; most are typed, some written by Evans Clark, some by Kirchwey. Reports and notes on trips taken primarily on Nation business are in #25.2-25.11, but some of the vacation travel recorded here includes business meetings, especially trips to Latin America.

The series contains considerable information about the Clark children, and particularly about the death of Jeffrey from tuberculosis in 1930. There is extensive correspondence between Kirchwey and Evans Clark, the most illuminating of which is a series of letters written during Jeffrey Clark's final illness in 1930. Letters to Michael Clark from his parents date from 1936 to 1954, while he was away at boarding school and college, and then working as a journalist in Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East. In one letter from 1939 (#30.5), Evans Clark writes to Michael about his lack of sexual experience prior to meeting Kirchwey, and writes more generally about premarital sex, sexual feelings and awakenings of young men. Several of the letters from Freda Kirchwey discuss her intent for Michael to open a Paris branch of the Nation, and attempts to get him credentialed as a war correspondent. Some of the letters from the 1940s have been censored with passages cut out. Numerous letters (#31.8-31.9) from friends and professional associates of Freda Kirchwey and Evans Clark refer to the "loss of the ZamZam" in 1941 and the uncertainty of Michael's whereabouts. Several folders of letters from Kirchwey that are primarily about Michael Clark's dispatches written for the Nation from Paris and Cairo can be found in Series II (#32.3-32.5).

Evans Clark's diaries (#6.1, 31.10-32.2) are very detailed. The first volume (#31.10) describes museums, talks, lectures, concerts attended while attending classes at Harvard and Columbia. An entry written from Cambridge on January 11, 1911, records: "Heard Sylvia Pankhurst speak on Woman's Suffrage at Brattle Hall—most interesting—she's only 20!" Entries from 1914 discuss the beginnings of his courtship with Freda Kirchwey. Later diaries discuss work and family matters, with careful attention to Freda's health, pregnancies, and Michael's baby- and childhood. Evans Clark records Michael's first steps, an outbreak of measles, and details Jeffrey's poor health before his death (#6.1). A 1923 entry records "much reading of Freud at odd moments."

Freda Kirchwey's correspondence with friends often includes her handwritten replies; it is likely these were typed and sent by an assistant. Many of Kirchwey's personal friends were also her professional associates; there is overlap between personal correspondence in this series and that found in Series II and IV. Kirchwey family material is primarily correspondence; a few clippings describe deaths of Kirchwey family members, and several pages of Dora Kirchwey's autograph album are included (#27.12). Letters between Freda Kirchwey's parents George Washington Kirchwey and Dora Kirchwey span their long marriage, and are generally on the account of their separation due to Dora Kirchwey's ill health and need to seek climate-based respite from New York City. There is also correspondence among Kirchwey family members on the topic of Freda Kirchwey and Evans Clark's quick courtship; George Washington Kirchwey's financial and professional correspondence; and letters to Evans Clark from his father. The series is arranged with biographical and personal writings first, followed by correspondence, travel reports, diaries, and daybooks.

Series II, The Nation, 1918-1972 (#9.3-17.2, 28.1-29.2, 32.3-32.5, F+D.1-F+D.2, OD.1-OD.2), consists of papers Freda Kirchwey collected as editor and publisher of the magazine. Few papers date from before 1933, when Kirchwey became a member of the controlling editorial board. The administrative papers describe her involvement with the legal, financial, and staff problems of the Nation, including various libel suits. Much of the editorial and correspondence subseries illustrates the issues on which the Nation focused, such as the rise of fascism in Europe, the New Deal, the political consequences of World War II, and post-war anti-communism. The correspondence with prominent journalists (including John Gunther, I.F. Stone, and Louis Fischer) reveals not only the difficulties in securing information from government and private sources in the United States and overseas, but also provides material that never reached print. The reader correspondence is equally informative; it describes the split among liberals over such controversial issues as Roosevelt's attempt to pack the Supreme Court, and the gradual abandonment of isolationism in favor of collective security in the late 1930s. The series is arranged in three subseries.

In January 1933, editorial control and management of the Nation passed to a board of four editors that included Freda Kirchwey. In 1935 Villard sold the Nation to banker Maurice Wertheim, who in turn sold it to Freda Kirchwey two years later. Freda Kirchwey became editor and publisher but, plagued by deficits resulting from the increase in prices brought on by World War II, decided to transfer ownership to the Nation Associates, a non-profit membership corporation founded in 1943. Freda Kirchwey remained president of the Nation Associates, and with director Lillie Schultz worked to raise funds both to cover the Nation's deficit and to pay for forums, dinners, conferences, and reports that supported important liberal causes. Following the Nation's ninetieth birthday in 1955, Freda Kirchwey approved the sale of the magazine to George Kirstein and turned over editorial control to Carey McWilliams.

Subseries A, Administration, 1918-1957 (#9.3-11.7, 28.1-28.6, F+D.1, OD.1), includes financial correspondence and reports, legal papers, and some general material on staff salaries for Newspaper Guild negotiations. These papers detail Kirchwey's personal involvement with the legal, financial, and staff problems of the Nation, including various libel suits. Many folders include correspondence with or memos from Hugo Van Arx, the Nation's financial associate, and Carey McWilliams, who worked closely with Kirchwey in the early 1950s, and succeeded her as editor.

Subseries B, Editorial, 1918-1972 (#11.8-13.10, 28.7-28.9, F+D.2), includes correspondence, reports, and planning notes. Folders in this subseries show planning for special issues of the Nation during the 1940s; several memos and reports focus on propaganda in United States election campaigns. Several reports from the early 1950s comment on the Nation's editorial program and its relation to the magazine's finances. Much of the correspondence in this subseries discusses the rise of fascism in Europe, the New Deal, the political consequences of World War II, and post-war anti-communism.

Subseries C, Correspondence, 1931-1956 (#13.11-17.2, 28.10-29.2, 32.3-32.5, OD.2), includes Freda Kirchwey and other Nation staff's correspondence with Nation journalists, editors, and readers. The correspondence with prominent journalists (including John Gunther, I.F. "Izzy" Stone, and Louis Fischer) reveals not only the difficulties in securing information from government and private sources in the United States and overseas, but also provides material that never reached print. The reader correspondence is equally informative; it describes the split among liberals over such controversial issues as Franklin D. Roosevelt's attempt to pack the Supreme Court, and the gradual abandonment of isolationism in favor of collective security in the late 1930s. Reader correspondence shows a geographically diverse readership, but letters are primarily from male readers. Some readers were outraged by the Nation's tepid response to Henry A. Wallace's third-party campaign for president in 1948; others whole-heartedly agreed. Much of the editorial and correspondence subseries illustrates the issues on which The Nation focused, such as the rise of fascism in Europe, the New Deal, the political consequences of World War II, and post-war anti-communism.

Kirchwey's son Michael Clark worked peripatetically for the Nation for a number of years. Several folders (#32.3-32.5) contain Kirchwey and Michael Clark's correspondence on Nation matters, primarily about dispatches he wrote from Paris and Cairo during the 1940s. Kirchwey also discussed Nation business in other, more personal, letters to Michael Clark included in Series I (#30.2-31.6). Kirchwey's extensive correspondence with journalist and Nation foreign editor Julio Álvarez del Vayo is in Series IV.

Series III, The Nation Associates, 1942-1955 (#17.3-18.7, 29.3), documents the group's promotion of major liberal issues supported by Freda Kirchwey and the Nation. There are some administrative papers, but the bulk of the series contains correspondence, United Nations and general reports, and printed material that describes the Nation Associates' activities on behalf of the establishment of the State of Israel and the overthrow of Spanish dictator Francisco Franco. The correspondence between Kirchwey and director Lillie Schultz discusses not only the Nation Associates' programs, but also provides insight into the difficulties of generating support, including financial support, for a liberal magazine during the postwar era.

Series IV, Julio Álvarez del Vayo, 1940-1970 (#18.8-21.12, 29.4), contains Álvarez del Vayo's correspondence with Freda Kirchwey and the Nation editorial staff, and some personal papers. Álvarez del Vayo, a politician and journalist, was the last foreign minister of the Republican government of Spain, and began contributing to the Nation in 1940 shortly after he fled Spain (see #18.8, 18.11, 18.12.) As Foreign Editor of the Nation he worked closely with Kirchwey; the extensive correspondence reveals their long professional and personal friendship. Álvarez del Vayo lived in the United States, Mexico, and Switzerland after leaving Spain; his letters reveal his international addresses and frequent travels, including to China. This series also contains some of Álvarez del Vayo's private papers, including other professional correspondence, writings, and two folders that document his difficulties with the United States Immigration Service due to his reputation as a prominent Spanish socialist.

Series V, PROFESSIONAL PAPERS, 1913-1972 (#21.13-26.7, 29.5-29.19, FD.1, F+D.3-F+D.4, M-28), contains correspondence, speeches, and reports primarily relating to Freda Kirchwey's work with organizations other than the Nation. There is considerable material from Kirchwey's trips abroad, where she met with major government and socialist leaders, and also articles by and about Freda Kirchwey, several awards, and notes for a book about the Nation that was never published. Files on organizations are mostly correspondence. General correspondence (#21.13-21.14, 29.5-29.6) includes organizations that worked for peace and social justice in the United States and internationally, such as the Committee for Asylum for Trotsky and the Committee to Award Rosika Schwimmer a Peace Prize. Travel files (#25.2-25.11) include Kirchwey's notes and correspondence for professional trips, during which she conducted business for the Nation, the Nation Associates, and on behalf of organizations and her own political interests.

Series V, PROFESSIONAL PAPERS, 1913-1972 (#21.13-26.7, 29.5-29.19, FD.1, F+D.3-F+D.4, M-28), contains correspondence, speeches, and reports primarily relating to Freda Kirchwey's work with organizations other than the Nation. There is considerable material from Kirchwey's trips abroad, where she met with major government and socialist leaders, and also articles by and about Freda Kirchwey, several awards, and notes for a book about the Nation that was never published. Files on organizations are mostly correspondence. General correspondence (#21.13-21.14, 29.5-29.6) includes organizations that worked for peace and social justice in the United States and internationally, such as the Committee for Asylum for Trotsky and the Committee to Award Rosika Schwimmer a Peace Prize. Travel files (#25.2-25.11) include Kirchwey's notes and correspondence for professional trips, during which she conducted business for the Nation, the Nation Associates, and on behalf of organizations and her own political interests.

Series VI, Photographs, ca.1895-1968 (#366-383f+, 434), includes portraits of Freda Kirchwey, Kirchwey and Clark family photographs, and pictures of the Nation staff and a number of dinners and conferences. When the rest of the collection was renumbered in 2016, these photograph folders retained their original numbering system.

There is related material at the Schlesinger Library: Kirchwey's correspondence with her sister, as well as a baby book for Evans Clark and Brewster Clark, and other Kirchwey family correspondence, can be found in the Dorothy Kirchwey Brown Additional Papers (MC 736).

Houghton Library, Harvard University, holds the papers of Nation editor Oswald Garrison Villard (1886-ca.1949), and records of the Nation, 1865-1893 (MS Am 1083.1) and 1879-1974 (MS Am 2302). Other early records of the Nation, 1873-1906 (MssCol 2095), are at the New York Public Library. The papers of Carey McWilliams (Collection 1319), who worked closely with Kirchwey and succeeded her as Nation editor, are held by the Charles E. Young Research Library at University of California Los Angeles.