Finding Aid for the Carey McWilliams Correspondence LSC.1356
Finding aid prepared by Andrea Eitsert with assistance from Laurel McPhee; machine-readable finding aid created by Caroline
Cubé.
UCLA Library Special Collections
Online finding aid last updated April 2024.
Room A1713, Charles E. Young Research Library
Box 951575
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Contributing Institution:
UCLA Library Special Collections
Title: Carey McWilliams correspondence
Creator:
McWilliams, Carey
Identifier/Call Number: LSC.1356
Physical Description:
1.0 linear feet
(2 boxes)
Date (inclusive): 1924-1975
Date (bulk): 1924-1950
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). This collection contains correspondence, primarily letters written to McWilliams.
Physical Location: Stored off-site. All requests to access special collections material must be made in advance using the request button located
on this page.
Language of Material: Materials are in English.
Open for research. All requests to access special collections materials must be made in advance using the request button located
on this page.
Restrictions on Use and Reproduction
Property rights to the physical objects belong to UCLA Library Special Collections. All other 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
Gift of Wilson Carey McWilliams, June 2004.
UCLA Catalog Record ID:
9953906233606533
[Identification of item], Carey McWilliams Correspondence (Collection 1356). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E.
Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.
Collection 1356 was donated to the Library in 2004 by McWilliams's son, Wilson Carey McWilliams. At the time of accessioning,
the papers were organized in an approximate alphabetical order. In 2006, Andrea Eitsert rehoused the materials and created
a folder-level inventory of the items to facilitate enhanced access to materials and to generate a finding aid. Processed
by Andrea Eitsert with assistance from Laurel McPhee.
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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 the 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 contains Carey McWilliams's correspondence, primarily letters that were written to him. Many of the letters
are from writers mentioning reviews or articles he composed about their work. Some of them discuss future writings or McWilliams's
work on topics such as Ambrose Bierce, Louis Adamic, George Sterling, and western regionalism. The collection also contains
fan mail, letters addressing McWilliams's research or political causes, some of McWilliams's responses, and assorted supporting
materials.
Arranged in the following series:
- Correspondence.
The following oral history is available through the UCLA Library Center for Oral History Research:
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Authors, American -- 20th century -- Archives.
Periodical editors -- United States -- Archives.
McWilliams, Carey -- Archives
Correspondence 1924-1975 (bulk 1924-1950)
This series consists of correspondence. Files are arranged alphabetically by the surname of the correspondent, in respect
to the original order. In each folder, letters are arranged chronologically with undated ones filed at the beginning. Unidentified
correspondents are located at the end of the series, as is a folder of miscellaneous printed materials.
box 1, folder 1
box 1, folder 2
box 1, folder 3
box 1, folder 4
box 1, folder 5
box 1, folder 6
box 1, folder 7
box 1, folder 8
box 1, folder 13
box 1, folder 14
box 1, folder 22
box 1, folder 30
box 1, folder 36
box 1, folder 37
box 1, folder 38
box 1, folder 39
box 1, folder 44
box 1, folder 55
box 2, folder 1
box 2, folder 3
box 2, folder 4
box 2, folder 12
box 2, folder 13
box 2, folder 22
box 2, folder 23
box 2, folder 55
Miscellaneous materials 1935, 1942
Report on importation of Negro labor to California prepared by McWilliams as Chief of the Division of Immigration and Housing.
Also contains a clipping on Henry Lafler, an essay "Benjamin DeCasseres: a fourth dimensional mind" by S.P. Rudens, a typewritten
poem "The night court" by Ruth Comfort Mitchell, and ten black and white (approximately) 3.5 x 4 photographs of Lloyd at Roscoe.
box 2, folder 25
box 2, folder 26
box 2, folder 27
box 2, folder 28
box 2, folder 30
box 2, folder 32
box 2, folder 33
box 2, folder 36
box 2, folder 40
box 2, folder 44
box 2, folder 45
box 2, folder 46
box 2, folder 48
box 2, folder 52