Scope and Content Note
The papers of Arnold Eric Sevareid (1912-1992) span the period 1909-2008, with the bulk of the material dating from 1940 to 1992. The papers primarily document his long career with CBS radio and television as a correspondent and commentator. They contain an extensive file of his radio and television scripts, as well as correspondence, fan mail, writings, speeches, genealogical material, subject files, photographs, and a diary. The papers are organized into three parts, described separately in the container list. There is a great deal of chronological overlap among the three parts, and researchers should search the entire container list for items of possible interest.
Part I
The papers in Part I span the period from 1930 to 1967 but cover primarily the two decades from 1940 to 1960. They consist of personal correspondence, fan mail, office files, scripts, a speech, an article and book file, and a miscellany. Scripts and fan mail constitute the majority of this part of the collection. The Scripts consist mainly of radio news analyses which were broadcast almost daily from 1946 to 1959. In these much-revised and annotated drafts, Sevareid, as chief Washington correspondent for CBS News, gives capsule commentaries on the political scene and life in general. Fan mail provides insight into the impact of these broadcasts on the public and how it reacted to individual programs.
Although labeled by Sevareid as Personal Correspondence, the material in this series is predominantly professional in character. Most of the correspondents appear to be Sevareid's personal friends, but they write about business rather than personal matters. Much of the correspondence is similar to the fan mail, but there is no family correspondence. Included, however, are copies of letters from Adlai Stevenson dated 1950-1956.
The Miscellany series contains abundant material from World War II, including scripts of Sevareid's broadcasts and cables from war zones in Europe and Asia from 1939-1945, as well as speeches and writings dating after his return from Europe in 1941. A chronology of his experience in the Burma jungle after bailing out of an airplane on a flight to China in 1943 can be found among the notes he jotted down in his correspondent's book as well as in other notes, correspondence, and news clippings of the event. This series also documents a canoe trip from Minneapolis, Minnesota, to Hudson Bay, Canada, that Sevareid completed with his companion Walter C. Port, in 1930. Their adventure is preserved in the "log" of the trip and a scrapbook of newspaper clippings of stories they published in the Minneapolis newspaper that sponsored their trip.
The Office Files and the Speech, Article, and Book File contain material related to Sevareid's professional life. The Office Files include large amounts of Columbia Broadcasting System interoffice correspondence and files with his agent, Harold Matson. The Speech, Article, and Book File contains material relating to four of Sevareid's books.
Part II
The Correspondence series of Part II includes one folder of correspondence between family members or about family matters. Most of the series, however, is organized as general correspondence. Special correspondence includes material that Sevareid usually had labeled as "V.I.P." or "media personalities."
The Part II Fan Mail series holds correspondence from Sevareid's general viewing and reading public, usually with copies of his responses attached.
The Subject File includes correspondence with Sevareid's friends and acquaintances, such as Svetlana Allilueva, Robert Ardrey, Helga Sandburg, and Vincent Sheean. The CBS Television Network news material is comprised business records, contracts, and correspondence with many CBS executives and personalities, including lengthy letters from Bill Moyers. The series also related to Sevareid's awards and honors, retirement, speaking engagements, and post-retirement television and film projects.
The Scripts series of Part II contains Sevareid's commentaries for the CBS Evening News and scripts from various news specials, "CBS Reports," and Sevareid's many interview programs. Also present are scripts from a variety of film, documentary, and public television projects dating after his retirement from CBS in 1977.
The final series of Part II, Speeches and Writings, contains the texts of articles, letters to the editor, and speeches, some with attached correspondence.
Part III
The Part III: 2018 Addition consists primarily of correspondence from prominent politicians, journalists and writers. The addition also includes genealogical material, a scrapbook from Sevareid's grandparents' hometown of Etne, Norway, and items from Sevareid's second marriage to and subsequent divorce from Belén Marshall. Correspondents with multiple items or letters of special interest are organized by name into individual folders. The miscellaneous correspondence is organized alphabetically by name. Also included is a file of condolence letters from prominent politicians, writers, and journalists written upon Sevareid's death. Notable correspondence files in Part III include those for Svetlana Allilueva, Robert Ardrey, Warren E. Burger, Hubert H. Humphrey, Alfred M. Landon, Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Norman MacLean, Richard M. Nixon, Vincent Sheean, Adlai E. Stevenson, Harry S. Truman, and Theodore H. White.
The Part III: 2023 Addition complements other materials in the collection documenting Sevareid’s activities as a news correspondent while offering greater insight into his life prior to World War II. It is comprised of newspapers and magazine articles, photographs, family correspondence, fan mail, school memorabilia, business memoranda, and awards. Sevareid’s adolescent diary is especially noteworthy as it provides an account of his earliest aspirations as a journalist. The photographs, arranged chronologically, include rare images from Sevareid’s childhood, 1930 canoe trip on the Mississippi River, and experience in the Burmese jungle. Others depict Sevareid participating in numerous presidential interviews, radio and television broadcasts, and press events during his lengthy career at CBS. This addition also includes material related to memorials honoring Sevareid as well as articles by other journalists regarding newscaster David Brinkley’s controversial 1998 appearance in Archer Daniels Midland Company commercials.