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Title: Jessamyn West Collection
Dates: 1920-1990
Collection Number: West Collection
Creator/Collector:
McPherson, Jessamyn West
Milhous family
Extent: 570 linear feet
Repository:
Whittier College - Wardman Library
Whittier, California 90602
Abstract: Mary Jessamyn West (1902-1984) was an American writer with Quaker roots. She was the cousin to the 37th President of the United
States, Richard Milhouse Nixon. West lived in Whittier and Yorba Linda, attended Whittier College as a student, and after
graduation taught as an English professor. The collection holds her personal book collection including works of authors mentioned
in her stories and speeches. The collection also holds various photos, press releases, correspondence, novel drafts, and galley
prints of her published works. The bulk of West’s manuscript series contains original handwritten drafts that demonstrate
her writing style and editing process.
Language of Material: English
Open for research, with the exception of personal diaries and journals, which are restricted until 2050.
Authorization to publish, quote, or reproduce must be obtained from Wardman Library, Whittier College.
[Identification of item]. Jessamyn West Collection. Collection Number: West Collection. Whittier College - Wardman Library
The collection was donated in its entirety by Jessamyn West and posthumously by her family.
Biography/Administrative History
Mary Jessamyn West was born in 1909 into a Quaker family in North Vernon, Indiana, and when she was six years old, the family
moved to Southern California. West’s mother was cousins to Richard Nixon’s mother, and West often babysat Richard when he
was a child. Her passion for reading started when she was 12 years old when the first library opened in Whittier, CA. West
graduated with an Associate Bachelor’s degree from Whittier College in 1923 (having helped found the Palmer Literary Society
while at school) and married Max McPherson on August 16, 1923. She then went onto the University of California at Berkeley
to study her Ph.D. in English, including periods of study at Oxford University. It was during this time that West was diagnosed
with tuberculosis. Over the years to come, she would spend hours on bed rest writing the stories she recalled from her mother’s
time in Indiana.
West's writing was published in several major magazines and Readers Digest in the 1940s. By the 1950s, her novel The Friendly
Persuasion was adapted as a screenplay by director William Wyler. After reaching literary success, West was invited to deliver
speeches all across the nation, including commencement ceremonies at Whitter. She taught English at Whittier College for a
time, and in 1956 the West-McPhersons adopted a child. In 1965 West pledged to donate her collection of books and writings
to Wardman Library. Later in life the couple moved to Napa Valley, Calif., where West died in 1984 due to complications from
a stroke. This finding aid was created by Thalia Lynn King, with later assistance by Paige Harris in 2023.
Scope and Content of Collection
The West Collection is composed of West’s personal library as well as her own works, including manuscripts, notes, journals,
photographs, newspaper clippings and literary reviews, and hand-written revisions of both her own work and that of others.
Quaker women
Quaker authors
Quakers in literature
Quakers
Authors, American
Women's studies
Friendly Persuasion - Motion Picture
Speech making - writing
Writing
West, Jessamyn
Nixon, Richard M. (Richard Milhous), 1913-1994
Milhous family
Whittier College (Whittier, Calif.)
Indiana
Napa County (Calif.)
Whittier (Calif.)