William McGuire Papers

Title: William McGuire Papers

Dates: 1932-2007 inclusive, 1958-1995 bulk

Collection Number: CaSfVAD MMC3.1

Creator/Collector: William McGuire

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

Repository: C.G. Jung Institute of San Francisco

Abstract: 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 Materials include correspondence, photographs, published and unpublished research material, oral history interviews, and biographical reference material.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.

Language of Material: English

Access is available by appointment and advance notice is required. Contact the C.G. Jung Institute to set-up an appointment.

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.

William McGuire Papers . C.G. Jung Institute of San Francisco

Mr. McGuire and his wife, Paula McGuire, donated these materials to the Institute Library over the course of many years. The donations were piecemeal and sometimes contained little contextual information. Some materials, such as the photograph series, were donated as distinct series. Because of these circumstances, no general statement can be made about how these materials were acquired, or when. Instead, acquisition information is included at the series level (when available). Unless otherwise noted, material was informally gifted to the Institute Library by William McGuire.

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.

This collection contains materials related to the life and work of William McGuire, a prolific editor, scholar, and writer of Jungian history. The collection documents Mr. McGuire’s career as a historian and editor as well as his personal research interests and pursuits. Materials include correspondence, photographs, interview transcripts, Institute meeting minutes, research notes, article drafts, and pamphlets. Mr. McGuire was considered an expert on Jungian history and scholarship and was often consulted for historical information and fact-checking. His correspondence with Joan Alpert and Marianne Morgan (Institute Librarians) as well as others including Frederick Steele, Herbert Smith Bailey, and Benito F. Reyes, highlights this role. The fifteen oral histories in the collection were donated by Mr. McGuire, but were not conducted by him. They deal primarily with remembrances of Jung. While inclusive dates range from 1932-2007, the majority of materials date from the late 1950s to the early 1990s. In addition to the main collection, the Archive also maintains a William McGuire Reference Collection (Box 3). The Reference Collection contains general materials related to William McGuire’s life and work, compiled by the Archive. Materials are added regularly.