Guide to the Bruce Bliven Papers, 1906-1985

Department of Special Collections

Green Library

Stanford University Libraries

Stanford, CA 94305-6004

Phone: (650) 725-1022

Email: specialcollections@stanford.edu

URL: http://library.stanford.edu/spc

Guide to the Bruce Bliven Papers, 1906-1985

Collection number: m0294

Department of Special Collections and University Archives

Stanford University Libraries

Stanford, California

Contact Information

Department of Special Collections
Green Library
Stanford University Libraries
Stanford, CA 94305-6004
Phone: (650) 725-1022
Email: specialcollections@stanford.edu
URL: http://library.stanford.edu/spc

Processed by:: Special Collections staff
Date Completed:: ca. 1983

Descriptive Summary

Title: Bruce Bliven Papers,

Date (inclusive): 1906-1985

Collection number: Special Collections m0294

Creator: Bliven, Bruce, 1889-1977.

Extent: 8 linear ft.

Repository: Stanford University. Libraries. Dept. of Special Collections and University Archives.

Language: English.

Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

None.

Publication Rights

Property rights reside with the repository. Literary rights reside with the creators of the documents or their heirs. To obtain permission to publish or reproduce, please contact the Public Services Librarian of the Dept. of Special Collections.

Provenance

Gift of Mrs. Rose Bliven and Bruce Bliven, Jr., 1977; and others, 1977-1983.

Preferred Citation:

[Identification of item] Bruce Bliven Papers, m0294, Dept. of Special Collections, Stanford University Libraries, Stanford, Calif.

Biographical Note

Born July 27, 1889 in Emmetsburg, Iowa, Bruce Ormsby Bliven was the son of Charles and Lilla Ormsby Bliven. Having won prizes for his writing ability as early as age fourteen, Bruce went on to work his way through Stanford University as a cub reporter for the S.F. Bulletin. He received a B.A. in English in 1911.

Freelance magazine writing and advertising copywriting occupied the years immediately following graduation until he accepted a position as head of the University of Southern California School of Journalism from 1914 to 1916. After two years on the staff of Printer's Ink and four as an editorial writer and managing editor for the New York Globe, Bliven joined the New Republic in 1923.

Bliven, a determined critic of the Harding, Coolidge and Hoover Administrations, helped expose the Teapot Dome ore scandals of the twenties. Upon Herbert Croly's demise, Bliven succeeded as editor of New Republic. His principal colleagues on the magazine included George Soule, economist; Robert Morss Lovett, professor and reformer; Malcolm Cowley, literary critic; and Stark Young, drama critic.

Bliven moved the magazine's editorial policy noticeably to the left in the thirties, but by 1933 it supported Franklin Roosevelt's policies, both foreign and domestic. Bliven's insights into the 1930's and 1940's are reflected in his work, The World Changers. During these years (1927-1947), Bliven also served as New York correspondent for The Manchester Guardian.

In 1953, after suffering a heart attack, Bliven returned to Stanford University where he served as a lecturer in communications and journalism.

Continuing his freelance literary career, Bliven completed several works, including Five Million Words Later, his autobiography, and A Mirror for Greatness a biography of six famous Americans.

Bliven died May 6, 1977, and was survived by his wife of 64 years, Rose Frances Emery and a son, Bruce Bliven, Jr.

Scope and Content

This collection represents those files which were kept at Mr. Bliven's last place of residence, Kingscote Gardens (on the Stanford campus). The majority of the files date from the 1950s to the present, and are divided into alphabetically-arranged correspondence files and a number of subject-oriented files which include drafts of various literary manuscripts. The most notable exception to the collection is, of course, the files relating to Bliven's New Republic years, which remain with the publisher.

Note

See list of correspondents at end of guide

Additional Note

Box 15 green scrapbook of clippings

Additional Information

List of Correspondents

Alsop, Stewart
Anderson, Dewey (deceased)
Annunziata, Frank (Dr.)
Armstrong, Hamilton Fish
Asimov, Isaac
Bailey, Thomas
Baillie, Hugh
Bakeless, John
Baker, Carlos
Barnes, Harry Elmer
Basso, Hamilton
Batten, Barton, Durstine & Osborn, Inc.
Bean, Donald
Bear, James A. (Jr.)
Behrman, S. N.
Bennion, Sherilyn C.
Berlin, Ira R. (Mrs.)
Bernays, Edward
Billman, Carl
Bissell, Richard
Black, Susan M.
Blake, Peter
Blakeslee, Howard W. (Mrs.)
Blamchard, Paul
Blessing, George
Boorstin, Daniel J.
Bowen, Catherine Drinker
Bowles, Chester
Boydston, Jo Ann
Boyers, Jim
Braden, Thomas W.
Bradlee, Benjamin C.
Braley, Berton
Brasso, Hamilton (Mrs.)
Brinton, Jim
Bronowski, Jacob (Dr.
Brooks, Dell
Brooks, Van Wyck (Mrs.)
Brown, Francis
Brown, Harrison
Bruce, John
Burke, Kenneth
Burns, Angelina (Miss)
Burns, Jim
Busch, Noel F.
Bush, Chilton
Bush, Robert
Calledge, Turner
Calmer, Ned
Canfield, Cass
Caples, John
Capra, Frank
Carter, Don, Managing Editor
Cater, Douglas
Cerf, Bennett
Chamberlain, Dorothy
Chandler, Otis, Publisher
Chapman, William
Chase, Stuart
Chenery, William L.
Ciardi, John
Cogswell, Elinor V.
Collingwood, Charles
Cooke, Alistair
Coppel, Alfred
Cousins, Norman
Cowley, Malcolm
Cranston, Alan (Senator)
Crawford, Nelson Antrim
Crouse, Russell (Mrs.)
Cushway, Phil
Daley, Kay
Daniels, Jonathan
Danziger C. R.
Davidson, Ralph
Davis, Nuel (Dr.)
Day, James President
de Roos, Robert
De Witt, Wallave
deFord, Miriam Alan
Deirup, Anne (Mrs.)
Dervel, Helmut L. (DR.)
Dickson, Candy
Dietz, Howard
Diggins, John P.
Dizikes, John
Dodds, John W.
Dodge, John V.
Douglas, Paul (Senator)
Dr. and Mrs. R.W. Gerard
Drury, Allen
Duffus, Robert L. (Mrs.)
Edel, Leon
Eichelberger, Clark M., Executive Director
Elmhirst, Leonard
Ernst, Morris L.
Fadiman, Clifton
Falconer, Edith
Fanning, Odom
Fehrenbacher, Don (Prof.)
Feinman, Ronald
Felsteiner, Prof.
Ferguson, Charles W.
Fessler, Floyd
Finch, Nathan
Fingerson, Ronald L.
Finley, Murray H.
Fischer, John
Fontaine, Clarice (Miss)
Forcey, Charles B.
Ford, Corey
Frankfurter, Felix (Justice)
Frey, Richard C.
Friedrich, Otto
Fuller, Helen
Fuoss, Robert (Editor)
Galbraith, John Kenneth,
Gallaghar, J.A.
Gard, Wayne
Garnnett, Lewis
Gentry, Richard H.
Gerard, Ralph
Gilliam, Harold
Gilmore, Kenneth O.
Gingrich, Arnold
Glover, Frederic O.
Goldman, Eric
Gordon, Ruth
Gould, Karolyn R.
Gould, Mr. & Mrs.
Graham, Katherine
Gray, Henry David (proof.)
Green, Adolph
Greenbaum, Wolff & Ernst
Greene, Felix
Greene, Laurence D. (Mrs.)
Guening, Ernest
Guerard, Albert
Gumbach, Doris
Gunther, John
Hale, William Harlan
Hall, Alvin M.
Hall, William James
Hansen, Vern
Hanswirth, Frieda
Harriman, W. Averell
Harrison, Gilbert A.
Hartman, Joyce
Heckscher, August (Director)
Herrnstein, R. J.
Highet, Gilbert (Mrs.)
Hill, Robert(Dr.
Hills, Frederic W.
Hogan, William
Hollahan, Jack
Holmes, Charles
Hopkins, Jean
Hoppe, Arthur
Horn, Stephen
Houghteling, Joseph
Houghton, Mifflin Co. Publishers
Howe, Quincy
Huntley, Chet (deceased)
Irvine, William (Mrs.)
Janeway, Eliot
Jensen, Olive (Mr.)
Johnson, William W. (Professor)
Josephson, Matthew
Kalpan, Oscar (Dr.)
Kapp, Joellyn
Kaunitz, Julius (M.D.)
Kelley, Ryland
Kelly, John
Kennan, George
Kenny, James (Dr.)
Kilpatrick, James Jackson
Kone, Eugene H.
Krech, David (Professor)
Krononenberger
Kuehel, Thomas (Sen.)
Lafore, Lawrence
Lane, Rose Wilder
Lawrence, David (Editor)
Lazar, Lucille (Miss)
Lee, Russell Van Arsdale (Dr.)
Leighton, George
Leonard, John (Editor)
Levine, Isaac Don
Levy, Janet
Liebes, B. H. (Mr.)
Lillienthal, David E.
Littell, Anita D.
Littell, Robert (Mrs)
Little, Bill
Loeb, James I.
Luce, Henry R.
Lundberg, Louis
Lyman, Richard W.
Lynes, Russell
MacKenzie, Norman (Prof.)
MacLeish, Archibald
Maness, David
Mangione, Jerre
Marshall, Helen (Miss)
Matthews, Tom
Mayer, Arthur
Mayes, Herbert R.
Mazour, Anatole (Dr.)
Mc Carty, Dwight G. (deceased)
Mc Carty, Gaylord
McCabe, Britton C.
McGrory, Mary
McLaughlin, John J.
Mee, Charles L. Jr. (Editor)
Michaels, R. A. (Mrs.)
Miller, James G. (President)
Minucci, Corrado
Moise, Nina (Miss)
Morris, Willie
Mullaney, J.B. (Mr.)
Muller, Julian P.
Mumford, Lewis
Nelson, Frederick
Nelson, Frederick
Nelson, Lyle M.
Neuberger, Maurice (Hon.)
Neuberger, Richard L.
Nevins, Ellan
Newman, Edwin
Neylan, John Francis
Niebuhr, Reinhold (Mrs.)
Norman, Charles
Ochsner, Alton, M.D.
Oden, Melita H. (Mrs.)
O'Keefe, Dan
Older, Mrs. (Fremont)
Olding, Dorothy (Miss)
Olson, Reuel L.
Opler, Morris E.
Oravetz, Nancy (Mrs.)
Ormerod, Berkeley (Sir)
Packard, Hyland
Paluka, Frank
Paulsen, Viola (Mrs.)
Payne, Alarnin
Peretz, Martin
Peterson, Theodore
Peterson, William J.
Pilate, Oliver
Pilkington, John
Raditsa, Bogdan (Prof.)
Rank, Jane (Miss)
Reynolds, Paul
Richman, Robert
Rischin, Moses
Roberts, Steven
Rockmore, Irving
Rodman, Selden
Rollins, David
Roosevelt, Nicholas
Rose, Milton
Ross, Nancy Wilson
Rossant, M. J. Director
Roth, William
Rush, Chilton R.
Salisbury, Harrison E.
Sanders, Theodore M. (Mrs.)
Schlesinger, Arthur, Jr.
Schorer, Mark
Schwarz, Daniel
Scowcroft, Richard
Sears, Jesse (Dr.)
Sears, Robert R. (Dean)
Sevareid, Eric
Shapiro, Edward
Shapiro, Harvey
Shipley, Maynard (Mrs.)
Shirer, William
Shulman, Marshall (Dr.)
Siefert, Mary Harris
Simpson, Mary Jane (Miss)
smith, Howard K.
Smith, Kenneth Owler (Prof.)
Smith, Stephanie (Daughter of Judy Smith
Stanley, Don
Stearnes, Myton
Steiner, Ralph
Sterling, J.E. Wallace
Stern, Carl
Stern, Philip
Stettner, Edward A.
Sullivan, Frank
Svilajnac, Yugoslavia
Swing, Raymond
Taft, Charlie
Talese, Gay (Mr.)
Talley, Truman
Taylor, Rosmary
Thalken, Thomas
Thomas, Lowell
Thompson, Anna Fintana (Mrs.)
Trout, Robert
Truitt, Lucy Boogs (Mrs.)
Tuchman, Barbara W.
Turnbaugh, Roy
Tyrmand, Leopold
Upson, Mike
Villard, Oswald G. Jr.
Volkerts, Arthur
Vuckovic, Jovica
Vuncinich, Wayne (Dr.)
Walker, Gerald
Wallace, De Wit
Wallace, Lila Asheson
Walsh, Richard J. Jr.
Ward, John W. (President)
Warner, Eugene (Mrs.)
Webber, G. W. (Mrs. Edith)
Wells, Evelyn
Wendt, Gerald
Westberg, Phyllis
Weybright, Victor
Whaley, Barton
White, Katherine
White, Lynn, Jr,
White, Paul Dudley (Dr.)
White, Theodore
White, William Allen
Whitman, Alden
Whitmore, Gene
Wicker, Tom
Wilson, Carol
Winchester, Alice
Witonski, Peter
Wolfe, Bertram D.
Wormer, Grace
Wouk, Alan
Wouk, Herman
Wouk, Ursula

Note

Sept. 6, 1961 Box 15 (red scrapbook of clippings)

Index

Will the World Starve... 1

Conquering the Worst of All Diseases... I

Medical Aid to Peace... 2

Conspiracy Against Death... 5

Why The Fall for Communism... 8

When the Crash Comes... 13

Blackout for White Plague... 16

Can I Choose the Sex of my Child?... 18

Nutrition and Pregnancy... 20

Nutrition and Intelligence... 24

How to save lives in traffic... 28

Flying Saucers: Myth or Menace... 31

Baseball a la Moscow... 35

Your Personality Predicts your Disease... 36

Index

Note

Book no 1

Box 15 green scrapbook of clipings

Do Not Disturb... 3

The Case of the Radioactive Snail... 7

A Few Words from B.B.... 11

Politics and T.V.... 16

Colston Leigh Circular... 23

How Do the Communists Take Over One of France's Greatest Scientists... 25

Space Ship Craze Provides Escape... 26

Your Brain Is Like a Wet Cell Battery... 28

It Just Ain't Practical... 33

150,000 Science Jobs Waiting for Graduates... 34

Why Let Red Lies Go Unchallenged?... 40

Keeping the Value of Money Steady. Is a Big Administration Assignment... 41

Hullabaloo on K-Day... 42

The Facts About I.Q. Tests... 44

Expressways are Wonderful... 46

Games Disclose Secrets of Success... 48

About Those I.Q. Tests... 51

The Willoughbys' Christmas Carol... 53

Wondrous Storage Battery-The Brain... 54

Please, Where's Mr. Bliven's Pants... 55

Retired People Should Be Encouraged to Earn... 56

Will You Have Twins?... 57

Senator Phelan's Legacy... 58

Is There Life on Other Planets... 60

Libels on America Printed Abroad Should be Authoritatively Refuted... 60

California Here They Come... 62

Will We Live on Air?... 65

Why People Behave Like People... 68

The First Forty Years (History of the N.R.)... 70

Brain Waves Explain Family Fights... 77

The California Culture... 78

What We Know About Colds... 84

Food After Forty... 87

A Few Words from the Shelf... 88

ERMA... 92

Old School Type Grammarian... 96

Letthe Old Folks Earn... 97

Your Brain's Unrealized Powers... 97

Why Are Intellectuals Distrusted... 3

Soviet Abuse of Pasternak... 4

First Ocean, First City, First Drink... 5

Censorshipand the U.S.S.R.... 8

Editors are Fallible, too... 9

Little Oxford on West Coast... 10

Knowland Knight and Nixon... 12

San Francisco: New Serpents... 14

You Can Cultivate the Mind's Eye... 20

The Adventure of Being Human. (William James)... 22

City Boy vs Country Boy... 26

The Fairest of the Fairs... 28

California: Pioneer's Paradise... 32

Some People Don't Believe the Papers. (Con Games etc.)... 32

Emerson's Vital Message... 34

Emerson's Vital Message... 36

Revolution of the Joneses... 38

East Coast or West... 40

My, How Well You Look... 42

Why Not Let the Elderly Earn... 43

The Boodling Boss and the Musical Mayor... 44

Nixon goes for Broke 55

Mr. Thoreau of Walden Pond 56

After Obscenity, What? 59

The Most Creative Years of Our Lives, 60-61

How Did Southern California Get That Way, 62-63

Two Newspapers In Search of A City 64-65

California's Culture Boom, 66 67 68 69

Oh, Come Now-Can Culture Be That Esoteric, 70-71

Note

Book no 2

Box 1, Folder 1

A (general)

Box 1, Folder 2

Adams, John

Box 1, Folder 3

Alcott, Bronson

Box 1, Folder 4

Astonomy

Box 1, Folder 5

B (general)

Box 1, Folder 6

Baruch, Bernard M.

Physical Description: (2)

Box 1, Folder 7

Box 1, Folder 8

Bay Region Planning

Box 1, Folder 9

Best of Times...

Box 1, Folder 10

Bliven, Rosie

Box 1, Folder 11

Brain

Box 1, Folder 12

C (general)

Box 1, Folder 13

California For Challenge

Box 1, Folder 14

California, General

Box 1, Folder 15

Christmas Letters

Box 2, Folder 1

Churchill

Box 2, Folder 2

Claremont College

Box 2, Folder 3

Clippings

Physical Description: (4)

Box 3, Folder 1-8

Colloquium on Mass Communication

Physical Description: (8)

Box 3, Folder 9

Cousins, Should They Marry?

Box 3, Folder 10

Corly

Box 3, Folder 11

D (general)

Box 3, Folder 12

Day, John

Box 3, Folder 13

E (general)

Box 4, Folder 1

Elmhûrst

Box 4, Folder 2

Emerson

Box 4, Folder 3

Emmetsburg

Box 4, Folder 4

F (general)

Box 4, Folder 5-6

Fan Mail

Physical Description: (2)

Box 4, Folder 7-8

Fan Mial

Physical Description: (2)

Box 4, Folder 9-10

Five Million Words Later

Physical Description: (2)

Box 5, Folder 1-5

Five Million Words Later

Physical Description: (5)

Box 5, Folder 6

Forcey, Charles

Box 5, Folder 7-9

Franklin, Benjamin

Physical Description: (3)

Box 6, Folder 1

Franklin, Benjamin

Physical Description: (1)

Box 6, Folder 2

G (general)

Box 6, Folder 3

Genetics

Box 6, Folder 4-5

Ghandi

Physical Description: (2)

Box 6, Folder 6

H-I (general)

Box 6, Folder 7

Harding, Warren

Box 6, Folder 8

Hoover, Herbert

Box 6, Folder 9-11

Human Fly

Physical Description: (3)

Box 7, Folder 1

Ice Age

Box 7, Folder 2

Intellectuals

Box 7, Folder 3

Intelligence

Box 7, Folder 4

Iowa, State Historical Society

Box 7, Folder 5

J-K (general)

Box 7, Folder 6-7

James, William

Physical Description: (2)

Box 7, Folder 8

Jefferson

Box 7, Folder 9

L (general)

Box 7, Folder 10

Leisure

Box 7, Folder 11

Libraries, My Love Affair With

Box 8, Folder 1

Little House

Box 8, Folder 2

M (general)

Box 8, Folder 3

Magilligan

Box 8, Folder 4-8

Mirror for Greatness

Physical Description: (5)

Box 9, Folder 1-4

Mirror for Greatness

Box 9, Folder 5

Mudge Stern

Box 9, Folder 6

N (general)

Box 9, Folder 7

Nevins, Allan

Box 9, Folder 8

New Republic

Box 9, Folder 9

New York Society Library

Box 9, Folder 10

O-P (general)

Box 10, Folder 1-2

Older, Fremont

Physical Description: (2)

Box 10, Folder 3

Palimpsest

Box 10, Folder 4

Phi Beta Kappa

Box 10, Folder 5

Planning

Box 10, Folder 6

Poems

Box 10, Folder 7

Permission to Reprint

Box 10, Folder 8

Postwar World

Box 10, Folder 9

Postwar Years, Carbon Mss.

Box 10, Folder 10

Postwar Years

Box 10, Folder 11

Preview for Tom

Box 10, Folder 12

Pronunciation

Box 10, Folder 13

Psychopaths

Box 11, Folder 1

Q-R (general)

Box 11, Folder 2

Radar

Box 11, Folder 3

Random House

Box 11, Folder 4

Reader's Digest

Box 11, Folder 5

Referees

Box 11, Folder 6-7

S (general)

Physical Description: (2)

Box 11, Folder 8

S.F. - N.Y. Times

Box 11, Folder 9

Saturday Evening Post

Box 11, Folder 10

Sense of National Purpose

Box 11, Folder 11

Speech for County Supervisors

Box 11, Folder 12

Stalin

Box 11, Folder 13

Stanford Miscellaneous - 1961Stanford

Box 11, Folder 14

Stanford University Alumni Conference, 1977

Box 12, Folder 1

Stanford University Center for Behavioral Sciences

Box 12, Folder 2

Sterling, Jan. 16, 1968

Box 12, Folder 3

Straight

Box 12, Folder 4

T (general)

Box 12, Folder 5

T.V. & Radio for Colloquium

Box 12, Folder 6-10

Terman, Lewis

Physical Description: (5)

Box 12, Folder 11

Thoreau

Box 12, Folder 12

Three Momentous Decades

Physical Description: (1)

Box 13, Folder 1-3

Three Momentous Decades

Physical Description: (3)

Box 13, Folder 4

Toynbee

Box 13, Folder 5

Sojourner Truth

Box 13, Folder 6

Twentieth Century Fund

Box 13, Folder 7

U-V (general)

Box 13, Folder 8

Universe, Unity of

Box 13, Folder 9

W-X (general)

Box 13, Folder 10-11

Will Power

Box 14, Folder 1

Wilson, Edmund

Box 14, Folder 2

World Changers

Box 14, Folder 3

Y-Z (general)

Box 14, Folder 4

Publications & Photos - Miscellany

Box 14, Folder 5

Unidentified

Box 14, Folder 6

Mort Lewis addition, 11/17/77

Box 14, Folder 7

Lewis Spitz addition, 9/28/77

Box 14, Folder 8

Gwen Sommers addition, 2/17/78

Box 14, Folder 9

Frederic Glover addition

Box 15, Folder 1

Two albums (one black and one brown) of letters from Bruce Bliven Sr. to members of his family. Includes typed notations by Bruce Bliven Jr.

Box 15, Folder 2

Two scrapbooks of clippings indexed by Bliven himself