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Finding Aid for the Carey McWilliams Papers, 1894-1982 (bulk 1921-1980)
1319
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Title: Carey McWilliams Papers,
Date (inclusive): 1894-1982 (bulk 1921-1980)
Collection number: 1319
Creator: McWilliams, Carey, 1905-
Extent:
80 boxes (40 linear ft.)
11 oversize boxes
repository:
University of California, Los Angeles. Library. Department of Special Collections.
Los Angeles, California 90095-1575
Abstract: Carey McWilliams (1905-1980) was a writer, lawyer, journalist, lecturer, activist, as well as Chief of the California Division
of Immigration and Housing (1938-1942) and editor of
The Nation (1955-1975). The collection contains personal diaries, scrapbooks, manuscripts, publicity materials, and assorted correspondence
and research files related to McWilliams's life and career.
Physical location: Stored off-site at SRLF. Advance notice is required for access to the collection. Please contact the UCLA Library, Department
of Special Collections Reference Desk for paging information.
Language:
English.
Restrictions on Use and Reproduction
Property rights to the physical object belong to the UCLA Library,
Department of Special Collections. Literary rights, including copyright,
are retained by the creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of
the researcher to determine who holds the copyright and pursue the
copyright owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC
Regents do not hold the copyright.
COLLECTION STORED OFF-SITE AT SRLF: Advance notice required for access.
Provenance/Source of Acquisition
Gift of Mrs. Iris McWilliams, 1982 and 1995.
[Identification of item], Carey McWilliams Papers (Collection 1319). Department of Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research
Library, University of California, Los Angeles.
Collection 1319 was donated to the Library in 1982 and in 1995 by McWilliams' widow, Iris McWilliams. At the time of accessioning,
the papers were given preliminary processing by Manuscripts Division staff based on lists compiled by the donor. In 2006,
Andrea Eitsert rehoused, described, and arranged the collection into series levels to facilitate enhanced access to materials,
and created a new finding aid.
The papers of Carey McWilliams do not survive as a whole in any one place. Both during his lifetime and after his death, parts
of the papers were disposed of at various times by gift or sale. The Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley,
has custody of many of the manuscripts for his books and the UCLA Department of Special Collections has several collections
in addition to Collection 1319 which were originally part of the McWilliams papers, the largest of which is Collection 1243
comprising research materials on farm labor in California and the problems of the Mexican American. This material was donated
to the Library in 1952 as part of the John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Foundation Collections. In addition, the major
part of the following three groups of papers purchased by the Library in the 1950s, derived from McWilliams originally:
- #278: Mary (Hunter) Austin collection. Correspondence, manuscripts, articles and clippings by and about Mary (Hunter) Austin. (ca. 150 pieces).
- #277: Ambrose Bierce collection. Correspondence, pictures, clippings, notes, and other material by and about Bierce, assembled by McWilliams for his biography, Ambrose Bierce (New York, A.C. Boni, 1929). (ca. 500 items).
- #276: George Serling collection. Correspondence, manuscripts, articles, clippings and ephemera by and about George Serling. (ca. 125 items).
Carey McWilliams was born December 13, 1905 in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. He completed his Juris Doctorate from the University
of Southern California in 1927. From 1927-1938, McWilliams was an attorney at the law firm Black, Hammack in Los Angeles.
In 1938, he was appointed as chief of Division of Immigration and Housing of the State of California, a position he kept until
1942. During the period from 1945-1955, he began his long association with
The Nation, becoming successively contributing editor, associate editor, and then editorial director. From 1955-1975, he was
The Nation's editor. In addition to his editorial duties, McWilliams was a prolific lecturer and writer, speaking on many subjects and
contributing articles and essays to numerous publications. After his retirement from
The Nation, he continued to write a regular column for that publication. His monographs include
Ambrose Bierce, a biography (1929);
Louis Adamic and shadow America (1935);
Factories in the field: the story of migratory farm labor in California (1939);
Ill fares the land: migrants and migratory labor in the United States (1942);
Brothers under the skin (1943);
Prejudice: Japanese-Americans, symbol of racial intolerance (1944);
Southern California country: an island on the land (1946);
A mask for privilege: anti-Semitism in America (1948);
North from Mexico: the Spanish-speaking people of the United States (1949);
California: the great exception (1949);
Witch hunt: the revival of heresy (1950); and his autobiography
The education of Carey McWilliams (1979). In the late 1970s, McWilliams was briefly a Regents Lecturer at the University of California Riverside and then taught
one quarter at the University of California Los Angeles in the History Department. He died of cancer at the age of 74 on June
27, 1980 in New York, New York.
The collection consists of Carey McWilliams's bound volumes, manuscripts, publicity and criticism, printed materials, and
assorted correspondence and research files related to his life, writings, publishing and lecture activities, and political
causes. Files include personal diaries, scrapbooks, notebooks, handwritten and typed notes, press releases, leaflets, pamphlets,
articles, clippings, professional and personal correspondence, and outlines and manuscript drafts. These files reflect McWilliams's
varied professional interests, including racial minorities, migrant farm workers, civil liberties, the Cold War, McCarthyism,
the press, American politics, literature, religious cults, and the West (notably California and Colorado). The manuscript
series documents McWilliams's original work in different genres: addresses, articles, reviews, fiction, and monographs. The
collection also contains materials related to McWilliams's tenure as the Chief of the California State Division of Immigration
and Housing (DIH), and a copy of the file compiled on him by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Arranged in the following series:
- Bound volumes, 1921-1980 (24.5 boxes)
- Correspondence and research files, 1896-1982 (38 boxes)
- Division of Immigration and Housing, 1939-1964 (1 box)
- Federal Bureau of Investigation, 1940-1980 (1 box)
- Lecture files, 1939-1980 (2 boxes)
- Manuscripts, 1896-1981 (18 boxes)
- The Nation, 1894-1980 (3 boxes)
- Printed materials, 1925-1980 (1 box)
- Publicity and criticism, 1929-1980 (1.5 boxes).
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.
McWilliams, Carey, 1905- --Archives.
Authors, American--20th century--Archival resources.
Mexican American migrant agricultural laborers--California.
Migrant agricultural laborers--California.
United States--Race relations.
Diaries.
- Carey McWilliams papers, 1930-1940 (Collection 1243) . Available at the Department of Special Collections, UCLA.
- Carey McWilliams correspondence, 1924-1975 (Collection 1356). Available at the Department of Special Collections, UCLA.
- Collection of material about Carey McWilliams, 1925-1948 (Collection 2023) . Available at the Department of Special Collections, UCLA.
- Collection of materials by and about George Sterling, ca. 1901-1935 (Collection 276) . Available at the Department of Special Collections, UCLA.
- Carey McWilliams collection of material about Ambrose Bierce, 1842-ca. 1914 (Collection 277) . Available at the Department of Special Collections, UCLA.
- Carey McWilliams collection of material about Mary Hunter Austin, 1868-1934 (Collection 278) . Available at the Department of Special Collections, UCLA.
- Carey McWilliams papers, 1921-1980 (Collection BANC MSS C-H 46) . Available at Bancroft Library, UC Berkeley.
- Carey McWilliams miscellaneous papers, 1941-1945 . Available at Hoover Institution Archives, Stanford, CA.
- Honorable in all things oral history transcript: the memoirs of Carey McWilliams [oral history transcript] / Carey McWilliams, interviewee. UCLA Oral History Department interview, 1978. Available at the Department of Special Collections, UCLA.