Harvey Swados Papers

The biographical material consists of brief sketches written by Swados for publishers of his works, and sketches written by others, mostly in memoriam. Photocopies of biographies from reference works have been made. Additional references to biographical material are listed.

Included in the file box are several published volumes by Swados, and two working card files, one of titles of Swados' works, and one of correspondents.

Brief autobiographies present the author's views of himself as a writer and describe his experience in teaching, in factory work, and in the Merchant Marine. He outlines some of the influences on his writing and his struggles to be recognized as an author. Biographies that appeared in newspapers and anthologies reflect the high regard in which he was held both professionally and personally by other writers. He was known as "a man with strong ideas about American life,... a fine writer of fiction, and one of the few whose concerns are meaningfully incorporated into his novels and short stories (Shapiro, "Harvey Swados: Private Stories and Public Fiction"). He thought of himself as a novelist first, middle-class in temper and outlook, a Jew, and a socialist.

Swados wrote detailed notes, especially in his journals, in which he expresses his enthusiasm and excitement about a planned work and argues with himself in order to look at an idea from every angle.

He was a superior journalist and filled assignments ranging from an interview with Julia Child in France to traveling to Biafra for the Committee for Biafran Artists and Writers. A glance at the titles of his articles and essays will provide an idea of the wide range of subjects he covered. He could write a light, entertaining article as well as a serious one full of social comment.

Biographies appeared in Who's Who in America, Who Was Who, and Contemporary Authors. A lengthy article appears in Contemporary Literary Criticism.

When the novel Celebration was published posthumously in 1973, several long articles appeared which were combinations of biography, memorial, and review of the novel. Copies of these are filed with the novel in Series II, Writings.

According to the brief autobiography, other articles about Harvey Swados appeared in:

There is also a reference to Publishers Weekly, 6-1-70.

Letters to Mr. Swados from friends describe his appearance, always in complimentary terms. Letters from and to him provide insight into the importance of his close family life. Letters from Alex Haley could be cited in particular.

The article "A Sentimental Visit to the Lower East Side" and letters of readers reacting to it provide a glimpse of Swados' forebears. A letter in the Biography folder from Harry Sweet gives some information on the Swiadoscz family of Lithuania.

Bibliographies have been made by type of work: stories; essays and articles; novels; collections of stories; collections of essays and articles; anthologies; a biography; plays; screenplays; a chorale; and prefaces, introductions, and forewords. These lists provide publication information for each work, but an exhaustive search of each title has not been made. All titles for which dates have been found are included in a chronological list. Photocopies of title pages and tables of contents of collections and anthologies have been provided.

Reviews of other authors' works have not been listed in a bibliography. Brief reference is made to Harvey Swados' review and column writing at the University of Michigan and since that time in many periodicals and newspapers. Letters to editors, lectures, and speeches have been briefly noted. Copies of three published volumes are included: The American Writer in the Great Depression (paperback), Celebration (clothbound), and Oil the Line (paperback).

Early in his career Harvey Swados was a prolific book reviewer as indicated by the many copies of published reviews in the collection. In his student days at the University of Michigan he wrote a regular column for the student newspaper and reviews of movies and other entertainment as well as reviews of books.

He also wrote forewords and introductions to several books including a juvenile, a few plays and screenplays, and the words for a chorale. Some speeches and lectures are in the collection; however, there is little that may be identified as classroom lectures for his writing classes, seminars, and workshops.

The journals that have been mentioned above cover the period 1945-1972, almost his entire career, and concern his thoughts in developing his works. One journal is on the novel Standing Fast. In addition to the handwritten notes, there are newspaper clippings. There is a typed copy of the journal concerning the novel Celebration. This is filed with the Celebration drafts and other materials.

The subject files of Series 2 include proposals for additional works that, as far as is known, were never completely developed. There are also political speeches written for Sargent Shriver when he was a candidate for vice president running with George McGovern in 1972. Another folder is on the topic of Swados' protest of a Vietnamese writer 's suicide. Some resource materials are included in this series that could not be identified as having been accumulated for a particular work.

Letters from Harvey Swados are relatively few in number. They have been replaced where found in the papers with photocopies and all gathered together in the correspondence file. Some letters have been collected from correspondents; many of these are photocopies.

Note: It has not been possible to identify some correspondents. If researchers can provide identification it would be appreciated.

Included in the Subject File are papers concerned with Swados' teaching career, recognition of his writing in the form of awards and honors, protests in which he took part, royalty statements, and personal business records. Swados' father's medical licenses, a prologue written by his sister Felice, and a brewing formula which is referred to in letters are also in this series.

The first box contains an Awards and Honors folder including recognition of Harvey Swados' work, ranging from a prize of a book for a letter about the periodical The American Boy in 1933, to a Guggenheim fellowship and an award from the National Institute of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Swados was a fiction judge for the National Book Awards in 1970. Correspondence and clippings concerning the controversy that arose are included.

Seminars and workshops in which Swados took part are included in this series, as are student manuscripts from a writing workshop at Columbia University.

Other subjects are Certificates of Copyright, the American Journal, for which Mr. Swados was a contributing editor, positions and offers of positions, a petition regarding Soviet Jews, and a New Jersey Peace Rally with a newspaper picture of Mr. Swados giving his name to a police officer who had been nipped by Swados' dog.

Also included are royalty statements, a small example of the writing of Swados' sister Felice, who had considerable talent, the medical licenses of Swados' father, a contribution in memoriam to Harvey Swados, and the dedication of his papers at the University including a tape of the addresses given.

And there is a brewing formula which the diligent researcher may find referred to in the Harvey Swados Papers. This is for a beer of the "Bavarian type," and the topics treated are all the necessary processes plus "passing remarks on the subject as a part of civilized living." Authorship unknown.

The second box contains personal business records such as income tax returns, items showing income sources and expenses, and checkbooks. These may be useful in tracing Swados' career as writer and teacher, and his travels on reporting assignments. They provide information supplementary to that in the royalty statements.

Originals of materials that have been photocopied are placed at the end of the collection. These can be located through cross-references in the Container List.

Many of the manuscripts and other papers were on high acid content yellow paper, which has deteriorated and become brittle. These were replaced with photocopies and the yellow paper filed separately to reduce handling because of the brittleness and to prevent contact with other papers.

These papers contain numerous pencil corrections and alterations, which are not easily read in the photocopies particularly since the handwriting is very difficult to read in any case. These originals may be consulted if necessary.

In using the papers if the researcher finds photocopies which include unreadable alterations s/he should check the Container List for location of the originals.

Also included are some newspaper clippings and tear sheets from magazines, which have been replaced in the body of the papers with photocopies, again because of yellowing and brittleness.