The New York Public Library Acquires Papers of American Historian and Kennedy Presidential Advisor Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.

Collection Documents the Last Four Decades in American Politics

November 26, 2007, New York, NY – The New York Public Library has acquired the papers of Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., the late American historian, social critic, and advisor to President John F. Kennedy, announced Paul LeClerc, President of The New York Public Library. "Arthur Schlesinger was a pivotally important American in the last century. He was both a brilliant historian and also a witness to, and participant in, most of the significant events of his era," said Dr. LeClerc. "Professor Schlesinger also loved our Library, and we are privileged to have this truly extraordinary collection with us. I'm sure that fascinating new interpretations of our history will find their origin in Professor Schlesinger's papers, correspondence, and journals."

The Arthur Schlesinger papers consist of almost 300 linear feet of correspondence, journals, manuscripts of his writings, research files, phone logs, sound recordings, videos, date books, and clippings and will be housed in the Library’s Manuscripts and Archives Division. The correspondence in Schlesinger's papers includes letters from nearly every significant figure in American politics, as well as many prominent scholars, thinkers, writers, and artists. Examples of prominent correspondents include Kofi Annan, Brooke Astor, Truman Capote, Bill Clinton, Marlene Dietrich, Allen Ginsberg, Hubert Humphrey, Jacob Javitz, Edward Kennedy, Edward Koch, Norman Mailer, Walter Mondale, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Ralph Nader, I.M. Pei, John D. Rockefeller IV, John Updike, Kurt Vonnegut, and Caspar Weinberger.

Schlesinger’s journals begin with those he kept in the mid 1930s as he traveled and end in 1998. His papers contain copies or drafts of nearly all of his writings and speeches, including a draft of McGovern’s 1972 presidential nomination acceptance speech and the typescript of his award-receiving book Age of Jackson (c. 1945). Filed with copies of all of his articles are letters from prominent figures in politics, journalism, and academia. Appointment books from 1966 – 1978 are housed in the archive, as are chronological files from 1966-1994, which detail Schlesinger’s day-to-day work and communication.

The documents in the papers present revealing perspectives from figures with a privileged view of history-making events. In an October 1967 letter to George Kennan at Princeton University, Schlesinger states “Your point that ‘no outside power can hope to do more than the government of that country can do for itself’ is, of course, absolutely crucial. Kennedy used to speak of it as ‘their war’; Johnson calls it ‘our war.’ And you are right too in emphasizing that the administration has not tried seriously to answer the question why the purpose and moral of the Vietnamese who oppose us are so much firmer and better than the purpose and morale of the Vietnamese [who] are on our side.” U.S. Senator Daniel Moynihan wrote to Schlesinger in a June 1984 letter: “I mostly wanted to tell you how much I liked your WSJ article on Salvador. Can no one save you understand that it is the elite that is in revolt. The graduates of the Jesuit university and the like. Which doesn’t make them any the more likeable, but does help in thinking about the subject. Despair.”

Schlesinger occupied a singular place in American cultural and political life. He played the dual roles of participant and observer and is arguably the most well-known and politically active American historian since WWII. Schlesinger is often referred to as the only advisor of President Kennedy who opposed the Bay of Pigs Cuban invasion. He won the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award twice,  each time for his scholarship and writing on United States Presidents Andrew Jackson and John F. Kennedy. He also authored a three-volume set on Franklin Delano Roosevelt. After his years in the Kennedy administration, he worked as an historian, a professor of history at City University of New York (CUNY) and political journalist, writing 19 books and hundreds of articles, essays, and reviews. His own participation in the events he was investigating and his unique access to influential individuals and restricted documents give the notes, correspondence, and even photocopied documents in his research files – especially those for his book on Robert Kennedy – exceptional research value.

“The Library’s Manuscripts and Archives Division is a major resource for primary documentation of American history,” said David Ferriero, the Andrew W. Mellon Director of The New York Public Libraries. “The Arthur Schlesinger papers provide rich new resources for researching our country’s politics in an era of dramatic change and civil unrest. In their remarkable depth they form a new foundation of our collections documenting mid and late twentieth century U.S. history and connect with numerous other collections throughout the Library that shed light on this period.”

“The respect and confidence of the powerful and influential that Schlesinger earned gives his interaction with the American political and cultural elite that is documented in these papers a substance often lacking in the papers of politicians and academics,” said William Stingone, Charles J. Liebman Curator of Manuscripts at the New York Public Library. “His eyewitness experience of world-changing events, which he chronicles in lucid and straightforward prose, will make the journals an essential historical source. The correspondence includes carbons of Schlesinger's letters attached to the letters he received, so researchers will have access to both sides of any given exchange, which are often substantive and candid discussions of significant issues and events of the day.”

In addition to the correspondence and the journals, the papers also include Schlesinger's manuscripts for most of his books, as well as those for many articles, reviews, and book introductions. The oral history interviews, notes, and research files that Schlesinger used as sources for his own writing are important historical sources in their own right. The papers document the man and his times and make Schlesinger's papers a valuable historical resource for scholars studying a wide variety of topics for decades to come.

About The New York Public Library
The New York Public Library was created in 1895 with the consolidation of the private libraries of John Jacob Astor and James Lenox with the Samuel Jones Tilden Trust. The Library provides free and open access to its physical and electronic collections and information, as well as to its services. It comprises four research centers - The Humanities and Social Sciences Library; The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts; the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture; and the Science, Industry and Business Library - and 87 Branch Libraries in Manhattan, Staten Island, and the Bronx. Research and circulating collections combined total more than 50 million items. In addition, each year the Library presents thousands of exhibitions and public programs, which include classes in technology, literacy, and English as a second language. The New York Public Library serves over 16 million patrons who come through its doors annually and another 25 million users internationally, who access collections and services through its website, http://www.nypl.org.

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Contact :             Gayle Snible,   212.592.7713            |             gsnible@nypl.org