Converted to EAD3 : Encoded Archival Description (EAD), Version 3 : Release: 1.1.1 : Release Date: 2019-12-16. Validating against latest version of schema.
Contact information: https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/mss.contact
Catalog Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/mm77013383
Collection material in English
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the LC Catalog. They are grouped by name of person or organization, by subject or location, and by occupation and listed alphabetically.
The papers of Catherine Drinker Bowen were given to the Library of Congress by Bowen and others between 1963 and 2023.
The papers of Catherine Drinker Bowen were processed in 1978 by Michael McElderry and revised and expanded in 1984 by David Mathisen. The finding aid was revised in 2011. The collection was expanded and the finding aid revised by Katherine Madison in 2023. The finding aid was updated in 2024 by Maria Farmer as part of a division-wide remediation project by the Inclusive Description Working Group.
Prints and photographs have been transferred to the Prints and Photographs Division where they are identified as part of the Catherine Drinker Bowen Papers. Patrons are encouraged to contact the Prints and Photographs Division in advance of a research visit.
Copyright in the unpublished writings of Catherine Drinker Bowen in these papers and in other collections of papers in the custody of the Library of Congress has been dedicated to the public.
The papers of Catherine Drinker Bowen are open to research. Researchers are advised to contact the Manuscript Reading Room prior to visiting. Many collections are stored off-site and advance notice is needed to retrieve these items for research use.
Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: Container number, Catherine Drinker Bowen Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
The papers of Catherine Drinker Bowen (1897-1973) consist largely of manuscripts, typescripts, and research notes used in the production of her books. This material is arranged in the Speeches and Writings File series, which also includes correspondence, printed copies of speeches and articles, and miscellaneous items. The collection is dated from 1793 to 1980, but most of the material is concentrated between the years 1934-1972. The papers are organized in five series: Family Correspondence, General Correspondence, Speeches and Writings File, Miscellany, and Additions.
Though reproved by some critics for her novelistic devices, Bowen, unlike other popular writers of fictionalized biography, enjoyed the respect of many academics for the integrity of her research as well as for her vivid writing style. Julian P. Boyd in a letter to Bowen wrote, "If we differ in our interpretation, we at least agree that the historian must go to the sources....On that issue I know that you and I stand together." [*] Despite such support, Bowen found it necessary to defend her interpretive approach to writing biography; correspondence in the Speeches and Writings File series provides documentation of this problem.
Correspondence in the Speeches and Writings File series is arranged under the respective book title and under speech and article groupings. The creative and corporate processes from literary creation through book distribution are reflected in this correspondence. Letters exchanged between Bowen and Harold Ober, her literary agent; Edward Weeks, publisher at Atlantic Monthly Press; and Barbara Rex, Bowen's longtime friend and editorial assistant, are of particular importance; supplementary material also exists for each individual under specific folder headings in the General Correspondence series. The General Correspondence series also contains photocopies of letters from Bowen to writer Bernard Augustine De Voto from 1934 to 1952. A loyal admirer and friend of De Voto, Bowen's letters encompass a variety of subjects and constitute one of the more fully documented exchanges of correspondence in the collection.
Bowen was a frequent participant at the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference held during the summer at Middlebury College in Vermont. Her activities at these sessions are chronicled in the correspondence relating to speeches. Other subjects of interest in the Speeches and Writings File include correspondence with J. H. Powell, historian, friend, and adviser to Bowen, and the controversial censorship fight over the Soldiers Vote bill, which barred her book,
Scrapbooks in the Miscellany series supplement the Speeches and Writings File and contain book reviews, photographs, awards, and printed matter. Scattered items of correspondence can also be found in these scrapbooks.
Correspondents include Julian P. Boyd, John Ciardi, Henry Steele Commager, Norman Cousins, Bernard Augustine De Voto, Felix Frankfurter, Elizabeth Gould, Hubert H. Humphrey, Lady Bird Johnson, Archibald MacLeish, Richard M. Nixon, Harold Ober, Ezra Pound, J. H. Powell, James Reston, Barbara Rex, Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., Barbara Wertheim Tuchman, Earl Warren, and Edward Weeks.
*General Correspondence, Julian P. Boyd, Sept. 29, 1966.
The collection is arranged in five series:
Catalog Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/mm77013383
Letters sent and received by family members.
Arranged alphabetically by name of family member.
Letters received and copies of letters sent, telegrams, memoranda, and miscellaneous attachments.
Arranged alphabetically by correspondent and thereunder chronologically.
Typewritten drafts, holographs, galley proofs, printed copies, research notes, financial and legal papers, printed matter, and correspondence, including fan mail, relating to books, speeches, and articles.
Arranged by type of material. Books are arranged alphabetically by title; speeches and articles are arranged chronologically.
Correspondence, memoranda, speeches and writings by others than Bowen, awards and honorary degrees, certificates, printed matter, and scrapbooks relating to Bowen's books.
Arranged alphabetically by type of material with oversize material at the end.
The Additions series consists of correspondence, workbooks, and drafts of
Arranged into two subseries.
Two typewritten drafts with annotations of
Arranged by type of material and therein chronologically.
The 2023 Addition consists of correspondence from Bowen to the composer Elizabeth Gould and attorney George J. Gould, as well as a publicity photograph of Bowen.
Arranged alphabetically by name or material type.