This collection contains materials related to the life and work of William McGuire, a prolific editor, scholar and writer of Jungian history. Materials include correspondence, photographs, published and unpublished research material, oral history interviews, and biographical reference material. The bulk of the materials date from the late 1950s to the early 1990s.

William McGuire was born in St. Augustine, Florida on November 8, 1917. He earned his bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Florida, Gainesville in 1939. Soon after finishing his degree, he accepted a job offer from The New Yorker to work as a journalist. McGuire’s interest in social justice causes led him to the newly-formed United Nations where he worked as an “all-purpose writer/editor” in the office of the Secretariat until 1948. In 1948, William accepted an offer from Kurt and Helen Wolff to work as an editor at Pantheon Books. This position marked the beginning of McGuire’s life-long engagement with the work of C.G. Jung. At the time, Pantheon shared building space with a new publishing company called Bollingen which had been established by Paul and Mary Mellon. The Mellons soon recruited Mr. McGuire to edit the manuscript for Joseph Campbell’s “Hero with a Thousand Faces.” In 1951, McGuire was named Executive Editor of the “Collected Works of C.G. Jung.” In addition to editing the Collected Works, McGuire edited the notes of Jung’s 1925 seminar “Analytical Psychology” as well as his 1928-1930 seminar “Dream Analysis.” When the Bollingen publishing group became part of Princeton University Press, McGuire joined the Press staff as Executive Editor of the Bollingen list. Shortly after this merger, McGuire published the “Freud/Jung Letters” in 1974. The volume was immediately heralded as a crucial contribution to the field of intellectual history. Psychology Today devoted an entire issue to the volume, and in their review, the Times of London wrote “It is as if Voltaire and Rousseau, or Lenin and Trotsky…had written to each other every day.” In his later years, McGuire became involved with the C.G. Jung Institute of San Francisco first as a Member-at-Large and later as a lifetime Honorary Member of its Board of Governors. William retired from his position at Princeton University Press in 1982. That same year, he published a history of the Bollingen enterprise entitled “Bollingen: An Adventure in Collecting the Past.” In 2001 the International Association for Analytical Psychology presented William with honorary membership in recognition of his work promoting Jung’s work in English. Mr. McGuire passed away, peacefully, in his home in New Jersey on September 19th 2009.

2.5 linear feet (3 document boxes, 1 portfolio box)

Copyright has not been assigned to the C.G. Jung Institute Archives. All requests for permission to publish or quote from materials must be submitted in writing to the copyright holder Paula McGuire, Mr. McGuire’s wife and the inheritor of his papers. A copy of the request must also be submitted to the Archives Committee. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the C.G. Jung Institute of San Francisco as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder or inheritor, which must also be obtained.

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