Finding Aid for the Collection of Material about Carey McWilliams, 1925-1948
Yasmin Damshenas in the Center for Primary Research and Training (CFPRT), with assistance from Megan Hahn Fraser, August 2011;
machine-readable finding aid created by Caroline Cubé.
UCLA Library Special Collections
Room A1713, Charles E. Young Research Library
Box 951575
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1575
Email: spec-coll@library.ucla.edu
URL: http://www.library.ucla.edu/libraries/special/scweb/
© 2004
The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.
Descriptive Summary
Title: Collection of Material about Carey McWilliams
Date (inclusive): 1925-1948
Collection number: 2023
Extent:
2 boxes (1.0 linear ft.)
Abstract: Carey McWilliams (1905-1980) was a lawyer, author, and editor of
The Nation. Some of his books include:
Ambrose Bierce: A Biography (1929),
Factories in the Field: The Story of Migratory Farm Labor in California (1939),
Brothers Under the Skin: African Americans and Other Minorities (1943),
Southern California Country: An Island on the Land (1946), and
The Education of Carey McWilliams (1979). The collection consists primarily of newspaper clippings by and about McWilliams. Also includes some pamphlets and
magazines.
Language: Finding aid is written in
English.
Repository:
University of California, Los Angeles. Library Special Collections.
Los Angeles, California 90095-1575
Physical location: Stored off-site at SRLF. Advance notice is required for access to the collection. Please contact UCLA Library Special Collections
for paging information.
Administrative Information
Restrictions on Access
Open for research. STORED OFF-SITE AT SRLF. Advance notice is required for access to the collection. Please contact UCLA Library
Special Collections for paging information.
Restrictions on Use and Reproduction
Property rights to the physical object belong to the UC Regents. 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.
Provenance/Source of Acquisition
Unknown, ca. 1973.
Processing Note
Processed by Yasmin Damshenas in the Center for Primary Research and Training (CFPRT), with assistance from Megan Hahn Fraser,
August 2011.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], Collection of Material about Carey McWilliams (Collection 2023). UCLA Library Special Collections,
Charles E. Young Research Library, UCLA.
UCLA Catalog Record ID
Biography/History
Carey McWilliams was born December 13, 1905 in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. He received his JD from the University of Southern
California and became an attorney at Black, Hammack & McWilliams, Los Angeles, 1927-38. He would go on to serve as chief of
the Division of Immigration and Housing, State of California, 1938-42. He worked as an editor at
The Nation from 1945 to 1975. Some of his books include:
Ambrose Bierce: A Biography (1929),
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),
The Education of Carey McWilliams (1979). He died on June 27, 1980 in New York City.
Scope and Content
The collection consists primarily of newspaper clippings by and about the California lawyer and author Carey McWilliams. It
also includes some pamphlets and magazines. The clippings focus heavily on reviews of his work such as
Mask of Privilege,
Ill Fares the Land,
North from Mexico, and
Southern California Country: An Island on the Land. They also touch on the Thomas Jefferson award he received, as well as his dealings with the Committee on Un-American Activities
in the 1940s. The collection also contains a number of McWilliams's published articles, reviews and commentaries.
Indexing Terms
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.
Subjects
McWilliams, Carey, 1905-1980.
Authors, American --Sources.
Genres and Forms of Material
clippings.
Related Material
Box 1, Folder 1
Press clippings,
ca. 1948-1949
Note
Refer to
Mask of Privilege, also included pamphlet for American Jewish Congress
Box 1, Folder 2
Press clippings,
ca. 1948-1949
Scope and Content Note
Articles by and about Carey McWilliams and his work, including
North from Mexico,
Ill Fares the Land, 1972 reprint.
Articles by McWilliams include:
- "Of Swords and Shields."
Survey Graphic, April 1948.
- "First of El Dorado's Booms."
New York Herald Tribune, April 3, 1949.
- "American Free Press Death by 'Postal Rate.'"
Los Angeles Times, July 13, 1972, part II, page 7.
Box 1, Folder 3
Press clippings,
ca. 1948-1949
Scope and Content Note
Articles by and about Carey McWilliams and his work, including references to
North from Mexico and
Mask of Privilege.
Articles by McWilliams include:
- "The Guy Who Gets Things Done."
The Nation, July 9, 1949
- "Everything But Water."
New York Herald Tribune, August 28, 1949 (book review)
- Copy of insurance policy
- Includes article by John Fante "Writer Rips Facts from the Jungle."
Box 1, Folder 4
Press clippings,
ca. 1945-1973 (bulk 1948-9)
Scope and Content Note
Clippings, pamphlet, magazine (issue of
Jewish Life, August 1948), letter received from Bokförlaget Natur Och Kultur dated November 16, 1945.
Materials by and about McWilliams, include mention of works such as Southern California Country: An Island on the Land, Mask
of Privilege, North From Mexico.
Articles by McWilliams include:
- "The Senator Was Indiscreet." The Nation, March 13, 1948.
- "Equality or Fraternities?" Commentary, May, 1948.
- "Mexican Bundle of Myths." The Saturday Review, December 25, 1948.
- Program for America's Town Meeting broadcast, July 19, 1948.
Box 1, Folder 5
Press clippings,
ca. 1948-1949
Scope and Content Note
Articles by and about McWilliams and his work, include mention of
Mask of Privilege,
North from Mexico.
Articles by McWilliams include:
- "The Rains Came."
The Nation, March 27, 1948.
- "Old Story, New Guide."
- "This Boulevard Grew Up in a Hurry."
New York Herald Tribune Weekly Book Review, September 25, 1949.
Box 1, Folder 6
Press clippings, pamphlet, program, and draft,
ca. 1948-1949
Scope and Content Note
Clippings mention
Mask of Privilege,
North from Mexico.
Articles by McWilliams include:
- "A Play on History."
Westways, May 1979.
- "What About Our Japanese Americans?" Public Affairs Committee pamphlet, undated.
- "Luisa Moreno Bemis," draft, August 1949.
Box 1, Folder 7
Press clippings, pamphlets, press release, correspondence and keepsake,
ca. 1939-1948.
Scope and Content Note
Works by Carey McWilliams include:
- "It CAN Happen Here," pamphlet, undated.
- "The Ongoing Discovery of California."
Los Angeles Times, July 20, 1975.
- "Racism on the West Coast."
The New Republic, May 29, 1944. (first of two articles on the topic)
- "Racism on the West Coast."
The New Republic, June 12, 1944. (second of two articles on the topic)
- "Minority Groups in the United States."
ORT Economic Review, August 1944.
- "Japanese Evacuation: Policy and Perspectives." Reprinted from
Common Ground, Summer 1942.
- Press release dated March 4, 1941 on behalf of Division of Immigration and Housing.
"West Coast Letter."
The Chicago Jewish Forum, Fall 1948.
- "Minority Voters in American Politics."
Jewish Frontier, September 1948.
Works mentioned in press clippings include:
-
Factories in the Field,
Brothers Under the Skin, and
Prejudice: Japanese-Americans,
Symbol of Racial Intolerance
- Correspondence concerns
Southern California Country
- Autograph book given as gift to McWilliams from the staff of the
Santa Anita Pacemaker (September 11, 1942)
Box 2, Folder 1
McWilliams' early journal publications bound in book form,
ca. 1925-1926
Scope and Content Note
- "Bierce as Poet." The Dumbook, Volume 1, Number 4, July 1925.
- "Old Fogy Attends a Concert." The Dumbook, Volume 1, Number 5, August 1925.
- "A Note on Anthony M. Ludovich." The Dumbook, Volume 1, Number 6-7, September-October 1925.
- "The Coral Comb." San Francisco Review, Volume 1, Number 8, November 1925.
- "The New Frank Norris." San Francisco Review, Volume 1, Numbers 9 and 10, January 1926.
- Review. San Francisco Review, Volume 2, Number 1, May 1926.
- Review. San Francisco Review, Volume 2, Number 4, December 1926.
- Review. San Francisco Review, Volume 2, Number 1, May 1926.
- "Ambrose Bierce and Amateur Studies in Irony." The Wooden Horse, March 1924.
- "Notes on H.L. Mencken." The Wooden Horse, Winter, 1925.
Box 2, Folder 2
Pamphlets by Carey McWilliams
Scope and Content Note
- "It CAN happen here," undated
- Race Discrimination and the Law," undated
- "Justice for Salcido" by Guy Endore, introduction by Carey McWilliams, undated
Box 2, Folder 3
Legal brief,
ca. October 1949
Box 2, Folder 4
McWilliams, Carey. "The Nisei Speak." Common Ground,
Summer 1944.
Box 2, Folder 5
Promotion and marketing
Scope and Content Note
-
Factories in the Field review, pamphlet, November 1939.
- Southern California: An Island on the Land, order form, ca. 1974.
Box 2, Folder 6
ACLU Celebrates Freedom of the Press,
December 8, 1979.
Box 2, Folder 7
McWilliams, Carey. "The Los Angeles Archipelago." Science and Society, Volume X, Number 1,
Winter 1946.
Box 2, Folder 8
Carey McWilliams in
The American Mercury
Scope and Content Note
- "Swell Letters in California." in
The American Mercury, Volume XXI, Number 81, September 1930.
- "The Mystery of Ambrose Bierce."
The American Mercury, Volume XXII, Number 87, March 1931.
Box 2, Folder 9
Magazine articles by Carey McWilliams
Scope and Content Note
- "Mecca of the Miraculous."
Holiday, January 1947.
- "Eirinn Go West."
Westways, March 1978.
Box 2, Folder 10
Press clippings about Carey McWilliams.
ca. 1946-1978
Note
Mention of
Mask of Privilege and
North from Mexico.
