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Creator: | Hagedorn, Hermann, 1882-1964 |
Title: | Hermann Hagedorn Papers |
Inclusive Dates: | 1904-1962 |
Quantity: | 2.0 linear ft. |
Abstract: | Papers of the American poet, novelist, biographer. Correspondence (1905-1962), with George Pierce Baker, Lucien Price, Alice Ehlers, Albert Schweitzer, Van Wyck Brooks, Reinhold Niebuhr, Jack London, and others; research files on subjects of his biographies: Edwin Arlington Robinson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Schweitzer; manuscripts of writings (1904-1958); and memorabilia (1907-1962), including clippings and photographs. |
Language: | Majority in English, some in German |
Repository: | Special Collections Research Center, Syracuse University Libraries 222 Waverly Avenue Syracuse, NY 13244-2010 https://library.syracuse.edu/special-collections-research-center |
Hermann Hagedorn, biographer of Theodore Roosevelt, poet, and novelist, was born in New York on 18 July 1882, the son of Hermann and Anna (Schwedler) Hagedorn. He prepared at the Hill School and took his bachelor's degree in 1907 at Harvard College. He married Dorothy Oakley in 1908. After traveling in Europe and studying at the University of Berlin and Columbia, he returned to Harvard in the spring of 1909 as an instructor in English and an assistant in comparative literature to Barrett Wendell. He taught there for two years. Novels, plays, and volumes of verse followed. He wrote lyrics for the Peterborough pageant and was affiliated with the artists' colony in Peterborough, N.H., as a director of the Edward MacDowell Association. With Porter Emerson Browne, Julian Street, and Charles Hanson Towne he founded the Vigilantes, an organization of American writers founded in 1916 to support American citizenship and preparedness for the war.
During the pre-convention campaign of 1916 he met Theodore Roosevelt, whose personality captivated him; the resulting friendship shaped the course of his career. The former president cooperated with him in the writing of The Boys' Life of Theodore Roosevelt, published in 1918. After Roosevelt's death the following year, Hermann Hagedorn became assistant secretary and later executive secretary of the Roosevelt Memorial Association, an affiliation he maintained for the rest of his life. From the association's offices in the Roosevelt birthplace site in New York City, he researched other books on the former president: Roosevelt in the Badlands, Roosevelt, Prophet of Unity, The Bugle that Woke America, and The Roosevelt Family of Sagamore Hill. He also edited several selections of the president's writings, including the twenty-volume Works of Theodore Roosevelt. Leonard Wood, the military surgeon who was a Roosevelt confidant, and Edwin Arlington Robinson, the poet whose popularity Roosevelt encouraged, were subjects of his biographies. He was the director of the Theodore Roosevelt Centennial Commission from 1955 to 1959.
Other subjects of his biographical pen were William Boyce Thompson, the mining operator, Robert S. Brookings, merchant, philanthropist, and founder of the Brookings Institution, and Albert Schweitzer. A collection of biographical sketches, Americans: A Book of Lives, was published in 1946. His books for children, widely used in schools, include Book of Courage and We, the People. Two later works in verse are Combat at Midnight (1940) and The Bomb that Fell on America (1946); letters regarding the publication and public reception of the latter title make up a part of the correspondence in these papers. In The Hyphenated Family; An American Saga, he tells the story of his German-American family. During much of his adult life he lived in Santa Barbara, Calif., where he died on 27 July 1964.
The Hermann Hagedorn Papers comprise Correspondence of scattered dates, Memorabilia, partial Research files on three subjects of his biographies, manuscripts of some 130 stories and other writings, and a small Biographical file. Although most dated items predate 1950, the span dates of the papers are 1904-1962. Most of the manuscripts carry no dates.
Correspondence--incoming letters and carbons of his replies chronologically arranged--dates from 1905 to 1962. There are 375 letters addressed to Hermann Hagedorn, 102 of his letters, and 33 letters addressed to other correspondents. The earliest letters are from friends and teachers during his undergraduate days at Harvard: George Pierce Baker, LeBaron Russell Briggs, Mark A. DeWolfe Howe, Bliss Perry, Lucien Price, and Barrett Wendell. Edwin Arlington Robinson is the subject of some correspondence from 1935 and 1936. Letters of March 1936 were generated by a memorandum on how best to allocate a half-million-dollar fund given to the American Institute of Arts and Letters; memoranda concerning the endowment fund are located with memorabilia in box 1.
The heaviest concentration of letters is from the 1940s. Albert Schweitzer is the subject of many letters from 1944 to 1946, when the author was preparing his biography. Correspondents include Julius Seelye Bixler, Alice Ehlers, Edith G. H. Lenel, Emmy Martin, Hubert W. Peet, and Everett Skillings, as well as Albert and Hélène Schweitzer themselves. There are carbons of Hermann Hagedorn's letters to Albert Schweitzer, but there are no original letters from Albert Schweitzer in these papers. Copies of Albert Schweitzer's letters to Hermann Hagedorn are located in the research files in boxes 2 and 3. Also in the same files are copies and extracts of Albert Schweitzer letters to other correspondents.
Other correspondents include Van Wyck Brooks, Jack London, Lewis Mumford, Reinhold Niebuhr, and Paul Tillich. A complete index of the correspondence is appended to this inventory. From 1946 there are letters, some of them addressed to the Pacific Coast Publishing Company, that relate to the publication and public reception of Hermann Hagedorn's book The Bomb that Fell on America. Some other correspondence appears elsewhere in these papers. In box 2 there is a small file of correspondence, 1944-1946, exchanged between Hermann Hagedorn and the Reference Department of the Library of Congress, on the subject of books about Albert Schweitzer; these letters are not indexed in the index of correspondents.
Memorabilia from 1907 to 1962 is arranged in boxes 1 and 2. There are clippings of articles by Hermann Hagedorn, including tear sheets of his contributions to The Outlook, clippings about him, photographs, promotional files (of readers' comments, blurb copy, and the like) on four of his books, published reviews of his books, and other items. One folder holds memoranda and other material relating to the use of an American Institute of Arts and Letters endowment fund.
Research files on three subjects of Hermann Hagedorn's biographies are arranged in boxes 2 and 3. Although not complete, these files do hold clippings, notes, and other material used by the author. Edwin Arlington Robinson is represented by clippings, Hagedorn's notes, and other items. Two small folders of printed material on Theodore Roosevelt are followdd by a more extensive file on Albert Schweitzer, part of the notes on which Hagedorn based his biography. There are folders with copies of 22 Albert Schweitzer letters (no originals), 1920-1945, copies of a letter from Hélène Schweitzer and excerpts from additional Albert Schweitzer letters, clippings about Albert Schweitzer, and notes. Typescript memoirs of Albert Schweitzer by Hubert W. Peet and Maude Royden are present, as is a translation from the Swedish of a memoir by Schweitzer himself in which he describes his visit to Uppsala in 1920. Four folders of photographs include 31 snapshots and other prints mailed by Schweitzer to Hagedorn in 1945; a caption list in Albert Schweitzer's handwriting is separately foldered. One of the photographs listed there, number 10, reproduced as the frontispiece of Prophet in the Wilderness, is not now located. Further details on holdings appear in the accompanying shelflist.
Manuscripts of Hermann Hagedorn's writings, 1904 to 1958 with many undated pieces, are arranged in boxes 3 and 4. The 130-odd manuscripts include approximately 30 stories and approximately 60 poems. There are no complete manuscripts of his books, but there is one chapter of Prophet in the Wilderness, apparently not part of the book as published. The earliest item is a 27-page dramatic poem in German, "Das mitternächtliche Königsreich," in a bound leather notebook. A section of miscellaneous manuscripts ends with several unidentified items. A detailed listing of the manuscripts is part of the shelflist.
The majority of our archival and manuscript collections are housed offsite and require advanced notice for retrieval. Researchers are encouraged to contact us in advance concerning the collection material they wish to access for their research.
Written permission must be obtained from SCRC and all relevant rights holders before publishing quotations, excerpts or images from any materials in this collection.
Preferred citation for this material is as follows:
Hermann Hagedorn Papers,
Special Collections Research Center,
Syracuse University Libraries
Gift of Hermann Hagedorn, 1964.
Created by: EL
Date: Jun 1978
Revision history: 8 Oct 2006 - converted to EAD (AMCon);
12 Dec 2016 - index code corrected (MRC)
Biographical material | |||||||||||
Box 1 | Biographical material ca. 1922, undated - holo. and ts |
Correspondence | |||||||||||
Box 1 | 1905 | ||||||||||
Box 1 | 1906-1907 | ||||||||||
Box 1 | 1912-1913 | ||||||||||
Box 1 | 1931-1935 | ||||||||||
Box 1 | 1936 | ||||||||||
Box 1 | 1940 | ||||||||||
Box 1 | 1944 Sep-Oct | ||||||||||
Box 1 | 1944 Nov-Dec | ||||||||||
Box 1 | 1945 Jan-Apr | ||||||||||
Box 1 | 1945 May | ||||||||||
Box 1 | 1945 Jun | ||||||||||
Box 1 | 1945 Jul-Dec | ||||||||||
Box 1 | 1946 Jan-Feb | ||||||||||
Box 1 | 1946 Mar 1 - 19 | ||||||||||
Box 1 | 1946 Mar 20-31 | ||||||||||
Box 1 | 1946 Apr 1 -15 | ||||||||||
Box 1 | 1946 Apr 16-30 | ||||||||||
Box 1 | 1946 May | ||||||||||
Box 1 | 1946 Jun | ||||||||||
Box 1 | 1946 Jul-Dec | ||||||||||
Box 1 | 1947 | ||||||||||
Box 1 | 1955-1962 | ||||||||||
Box 1 | undated | ||||||||||
Box 1 | n.y. |
Memorabilia | |||||||||||
Box 1 | American Institute of Arts and Letters endowment March 1936 - memoranda, covering letter, and mailing list, holo. and ts | ||||||||||
Box 1 | Clippings about Hermann Hagedorn 1936-1958, undated - pr. mat. | ||||||||||
Box 1 | Clippings of articles by Hermann Hagedorn 1957, undated - pr. mat. | ||||||||||
Box 1 | Clippings of work by Hermann Hagedorn in The Outlook 1923-1925 - pr. mat. | ||||||||||
Box 1 | Clippings of other published work by Hermann Hagedorn 1907-1936 - pr. mat. | ||||||||||
Box 1 | Photographs (11) of Hermann Hagedorn undated | ||||||||||
Box 2 | Promotional file on The Bomb that Fell on America ca. 1946 | ||||||||||
Box 2 | Promotional file on The Hyphenated Family ca. 1960 | ||||||||||
Box 2 | Promotional file on Prophet in the Wilderness ca. 1947 | ||||||||||
Box 2 | Promotional file on While There is Time ca. 1962 | ||||||||||
Box 2 | Reminiscences of Hermann Hagedorn by Harold T. Pulsifer undated - ts, 4 pp. | ||||||||||
Box 2 | Reviews of books by Hermann Hagedorn - pr. mat. | ||||||||||
Box 2 | The Hyphenated Family 1960 | ||||||||||
Box 2 | Menschenfreund im Urwald (Prophet in the Wilderness) 1955 - clippings from German publications | ||||||||||
Box 2 | Prophet in the Wilderness 1947-1949 (2 folders) | ||||||||||
Box 2 | Other works 1945-1958 | ||||||||||
Box 2 | Miscellaneous items 1936-1949, undated |
Research files | |||||||||||
Edwin Arlington Robinson | |||||||||||
Box 2 | Address by Kenneth C. M. Sills 12 May 1935 - presented at the memorial meeting in honor of Edwin Arlington Robinson, Gardiner, Maine, ts, 8 pp. (2 copies) | ||||||||||
Box 2 | Bibliographic notes undated | ||||||||||
Box 2 | Clippings 1920-1936 - pr. mat. | ||||||||||
Box 2 | Clippings mounted on scrapbook pages 1905-1931 | ||||||||||
Box 2 | Notes, holo. and ts undated | ||||||||||
Theodore Roosevelt | |||||||||||
Box 2 | Printed items from the Roosevelt Centennial 1957 | ||||||||||
Box 2 | Miscellaneous items various dates - pr. mat. | ||||||||||
Albert Schweitzer | |||||||||||
Box 2 | Correspondence between Hermann Hagedorn and the Reference Department of the Library of Congress 1944-1946 | ||||||||||
Not indexed in the index of correspondence that is appended to this inventory. | |||||||||||
Clippings and articles about Albert Schweitzer - pr. mat. | |||||||||||
Box 2 | 1910-1935 | ||||||||||
Box 2 | 1938-1950 | ||||||||||
Box 2 | 1951-1954, undated | ||||||||||
Box 2 | Clippings and articles about Albert Schweitzer 1925-1949, undated - all photostats | ||||||||||
Box 2 | Envelope that contained letters now at Syracuse and list of notable correspondents, in the handwriting of Hermann Hagedorn probably 1964 | ||||||||||
Box 2 | Letters from Albert Schweitzer to Hermann Hagedorn 1944-1945 - 5, all copies, holo. and ts, no originals | ||||||||||
Box 3 | Letter from Albert Schweitzer to Edith Lenel, dated at Lambaréné 9 May 1931 - 1 copy, in the handwriting of Edith Lenel | ||||||||||
Box 3 | Letters from Albert Schweitzer to Edith Lenel, dated at various places 1920-1936 - 13, all photostat copies, no originals | ||||||||||
Box 3 | Letters from Albert Schweitzer to Everett Skillings, dated at Lambaréné 1943-1944 - 3, all typescript copies | ||||||||||
Box 3 | Letter from Hélène Schweitzer to Everett Skillings 30 April 1944 - typescript copy | ||||||||||
Box 3 | Letter excerpts from Albert Schweitzer to Alice Ehlers, 2 pp. The letters from which these excerpts are taken date 1932-1938 - typescript copies | ||||||||||
Box 3 | Memoir by H. W. Peet, "Where a great man grew up; a visit to Dr. Schweitzer's village in Alsace" undated, undated - 2 copies, ts, 5 pp. and tsc, 12 pp. | ||||||||||
Box 3 | Memoir by Maude Royden, "Dr. Albert Schweitzer" undated - ts, 15 pp. | ||||||||||
Box 3 | Memoir by Albert Schweitzer, "A benefactor to the natives of Ogowes primeval forest" undated, undated - translated from the Swedish by Schurer O. Werner; 2 copies; anno. ts, 7 pp. and tsc, 14 pp. | ||||||||||
Box 3 | Notes, holo. undated | ||||||||||
Box 3 | Notes, ts undated | ||||||||||
Photographs | |||||||||||
Box 3 | Lists of photographs undated - 2 items, one in the hand of Albert Schweitzer, another in that of Edith Lenel | ||||||||||
Box 3 | Photograph of a sculpture portrait of Albert Schweitzer May 1949 - Inscribed by the sculptor, Louis Mayer, to Hermann Hagedorn | ||||||||||
Box 3 | Photographic prints of Albert Schweitzer (14), including some negative prints | ||||||||||
Box 3 | Snapshots and other prints, labeled by Schweitzer and mailed from Gunsbach to Hermann Hagedorn 1945 - 31 of the 32 listed by Schweitzer | ||||||||||
Box 3 | Queries submitted to Albert Schweitzer by Hermann Hagedorn 1944 | ||||||||||
Box 3 | Miscellaneous items, mostly pr. mat. various dates |
Writings | |||||||||||
Books | |||||||||||
Box 3 | Americans: A Book of Lives - chapter on George Washington Carver, holo., 14 pp. | ||||||||||
The Hyphenated Family | |||||||||||
Box 3 | Draft A, rev. holo. - incomplete | ||||||||||
Draft B, anno. tsc | |||||||||||
Box 3 | Chapter 1 | ||||||||||
Box 3 | Chapter 2 | ||||||||||
Box 3 | Chapter 3 | ||||||||||
Box 3 | Chapter 7 | ||||||||||
Box 3 | Fragments | ||||||||||
Box 3 | Draft C, Chapter 3, tsc | ||||||||||
Box 3 | Draft D, anno. tsc - incomplete | ||||||||||
Prophet in the Wilderness | |||||||||||
Box 3 | Chapter 15 - not part of the book as published? | ||||||||||
Box 3 | Miscellaneous pages | ||||||||||
Box 3 | Dramatic poem, "Das mitternächtliche Königreich" 25 August 1904 - holo., 27 pp. in a bound leather notebook | ||||||||||
Speeches | |||||||||||
Box 3 | Remarks at an awards presentation of the Theodore Roosevelt Association undated - tsc, 10 pp. | ||||||||||
Box 3 | "A Sanctuary of the Free Spirit" 4 July 1958 - remarks by Hermann Hagedorn at the dedication of Theodore Roosevelt Island, (2 copies), anno. tsc draft, 4 pp. and mimeographed copy, 4 pp. | ||||||||||
Stories | |||||||||||
Box 3 | The Angel of the Resurrection undated - tsc, 5 pp. | ||||||||||
Box 3 | The Blue Eyed Johnny undated - tsc, 35 pp. | ||||||||||
Box 3 | The Byronic Mechanic undated - tsc, 5 pp. | ||||||||||
Box 3 | The Daughter of the Confederacy undated - ts, 5 pp. | ||||||||||
Box 4 | The Engineers undated - ts, 2 pp. | ||||||||||
Box 4 | The Growth of Tough Luck Zoggie undated - anno, ts, 33 pp. | ||||||||||
Box 4 | The Growth of Tough Luck Zoggie undated - holo., approx. 73 pp. | ||||||||||
Box 4 | The Heavenward Journey of Old Doc John undated - anno. ts, 15 pp. | ||||||||||
Box 4 | It Is the Hour of Stars undated - anno. ts, 11 pp. | ||||||||||
See also There Is Always the Star | |||||||||||
Box 4 | A Leader in Civic Movements undated - tsc, 7 pp. | ||||||||||
Box 4 | The Mirage undated - ts, 3 pp. | ||||||||||
Box 4 | A Mother Explains the Younger Generation undated - ts, 4 pp. | ||||||||||
Box 4 | My Friend Jack undated - anno. ts, 10 pp. | ||||||||||
Box 4 | My Mormon undated - anno. ts, 7 pp. | ||||||||||
Box 4 | Pete Halliday's Housekeeper undated - tsc, 9 pp. | ||||||||||
Box 4 | The Politics of Politics undated - tsc, 5 pp. | ||||||||||
Box 4 | Prohibition's Farce undated - tsc, 3 pp. | ||||||||||
Box 4 | Remembered Springtime undated - ts, 9 pp. | ||||||||||
Box 4 | The State Fair undated - tsc, 4 pp. | ||||||||||
Box 4 | A Strike for Manna Dew undated - anno. ts, 4 pp. | ||||||||||
Box 4 | The Talker undated - ts, 3 pp. | ||||||||||
Box 4 | There Is a Gleam in Amarillo's Eyes undated - anno. ts, 8 pp. | ||||||||||
Box 4 | There Is Always the Star undated - anno. ts, 10 pp. | ||||||||||
Box 4 | There Is Always the Star undated - rev. holo., 10 pp. | ||||||||||
Box 4 | This Fellow Is on Fire! undated - rev. holo., 19 pp. | ||||||||||
Box 4 | The Vicissitudes of a Landlubber undated - ts, 17 pp. | ||||||||||
Box 4 | Vision! undated - anno. tsc, 9 pp. | ||||||||||
Box 4 | Why, Asked the Boy undated - holo., 2 pp. | ||||||||||
Verse | |||||||||||
Box 4 | Affirmation undated - rev. holo., 1 p. | ||||||||||
Box 4 | America 1939, undated - holo., 1 p. | ||||||||||
Box 4 | Das Antlitz der Medusa (The Face of the Medusa) undated - ts, 10 pp., a translation into German, possibly by Ruby Marie Simon | ||||||||||
Box 4 | Die Bombe, die auf Amerika fiel undated - anno. ts, 50 pp., translation by Ruby Marie Simon | ||||||||||
Box 4 | Die Bombe, die auf Amerika fiel, Teil I undated - tsc, 17 pp. | ||||||||||
Box 4 | Die Bombe, die auf Amerika fiel, Teil III undated - anno. ts, 10 pp. | ||||||||||
Box 4 | Broadway and Forty-Second undated - rev. holo., 1 p. | ||||||||||
Box 4 | Combat at Midnight undated - 6 poems from; ts, 18 pp., translated into German by Ruby Marie Simon | ||||||||||
Box 4 | Combat at Midnight undated - ts, 23 pp. | ||||||||||
Box 4 | The Crusaders undated - holo., 3 pp. | ||||||||||
Box 4 | East and West undated - holo., 2 pp. | ||||||||||
Box 4 | Faces undated - holo., 2 pp. | ||||||||||
Box 4 | God Is Not Mocked undated - 2 copies; holo., 2 pp. and 1 p. | ||||||||||
Box 4 | Lights undated, undated - holo., 1 p., and anno. ts, 1 p. | ||||||||||
Box 4 | The News from Quidnet undated - holo., 3 pp. | ||||||||||
Box 4 | Not by Themselves undated - holo., 3 pp. | ||||||||||
Box 4 | So This Is Marriage! 8 May 1928 - To Edith A. and Adolf G. Hagedorn), ts, 3 pp. | ||||||||||
Box 4 | Starry Night undated - rev, holo., 1 p. | ||||||||||
Box 4 | There Is a Need of Bonfires undated - holo., 3 pp. | ||||||||||
Box 4 | What's Right with America? undated - holo., 2 pp. | ||||||||||
Box 4 | While There Is Time undated - holo., 8 pp. | ||||||||||
Box 4 | While There Is Time undated - ts, 8 pp. | ||||||||||
Box 4 | While There Is Time undated - pr. mat., pre-publication printing | ||||||||||
Box 4 | The Wrestlers undated - rev, holo., 19 pp. | ||||||||||
Miscellaneous poems - individual poem titles are listed on the front of the two folders | |||||||||||
Box 4 | 13 poems undated - holo., ts, tsc, and pr. mat. | ||||||||||
Box 4 | 18 poems (some in duplicate), mostly from the collection Combat at Midnight undated - ts and tsc, some annotated | ||||||||||
Box 4 | Fragments | ||||||||||
Miscellaneous writings | |||||||||||
Box 4 | American Citizenship undated - holo., 3 pp. | ||||||||||
Box 4 | The Anti-Nicotine Reformer undated - ts, 2 pp. | ||||||||||
Box 4 | Appeal for funds on Albert Schweitzer's 70th Birthday ca. 1945 - anno. ts, 3 pp. | ||||||||||
Box 4 | The Boyce Thompson Institute of Plant Research undated - holo., 11 pp. | ||||||||||
Box 4 | The Breakfast Station undated - ts, 3 pp. | ||||||||||
Box 4 | Frank Laubach undated - a biographical sketch; anno. ts, 25 pp. | ||||||||||
Box 4 | Frank Linderman as I Knew Him 1939 - holo., 7 pp. | ||||||||||
Box 4 | Franklin D. Roosevelt undated - tsc, 13 pp. | ||||||||||
Box 4 | Frontier undated - outline for a play in one act; anno. ts, 8 pp. | ||||||||||
Box 4 | George Washington Carver undated - tsc, 14 pp. | ||||||||||
Box 4 | The Golden Calf undated - tsc, 5 pp. | ||||||||||
Box 4 | Industrial Histories undated - 6 copies; each is tsc, 6 pp. | ||||||||||
Box 4 | Law in Tennessee undated - ts, 1 p. | ||||||||||
Box 4 | November Dawn undated - ts, 1 p. | ||||||||||
Box 4 | Oklahoma undated - ts, 1 p. | ||||||||||
Box 4 | On Religion undated - holo., 7 pp. | ||||||||||
Box 4 | Tribute to Josephine Preston Peabody undated - tsc, 1 p. | ||||||||||
Box 4 | Unidentified undated - holo., 3 pp. | ||||||||||
Box 4 | Unidentified fragment of a play undated - pp. 19-41, anno. ts |
Abbreviations used: ALS = autograph (handwritten) letter, signed; TLS = typescript letter, signed.