Scope and Content Note
The papers of Edgar Ansel Mowrer (1892-1977) and Lilian Thomson Mowrer (1889-1990) date from 1910 to 1970, with the bulk of the material dated between 1940 and 1960. The papers consist of three series: Family Correspondence , Edgar Ansel Mowrer Papers , and Lilian T. Mowrer Papers . The latter two series are arranged in the following subseries: General Correspondence, Subject File, Speech, Article, and Book File, and Miscellany. An addition to the Mowrer Papers covers the period from 1898 to 1977, with the bulk of the material dated between 1933 and 1975. The addition is arranged in two series, Edgar Ansel Mowrer Papers and Lilian T. Mowrer Papers , and in subseries similar to those in the original gift.
Edgar Mowrer's papers reflect a lifetime devoted to the observation and study of foreign affairs, with particular emphasis on the diplomatic policies of France, Germany, Italy, and the United States. A small series of Family Correspondence includes letters from Edgar Mowrer's brother, Paul Scott Mowrer, and his brother's son, Richard Scott Mowrer, both of whom were also journalists. Among the notables represented in Mowrer's correspondence are diplomats such as Dean Acheson, Myron M. Cowen, Christian Archibald Herter, Paul G. Hoffman, Paul-Henri Spaak, and Adlai E. Stevenson. There are also letters from Norman Cousins, John Dos Passos, Hubert H. Humphrey, Estes Kefauver, Clarence K. Streit, and Arthur Sweetser.
An extensive Subject File relates to Mowrer's role in the inception, development, and publication of the magazine Western World, published in Europe under the title Occident. In addition to financial and administrative records, there is a file of articles which appeared in the magazine written by authors such as Raymond Aron, Arthur F. Burns, Jean Cocteau, James Conant, Hans Joachim Morgenthau, and Robert Strausz-Hupé. The General Correspondence series contains letters exchanged between Mowrer and Lucien Radoux of Belgium, formerly private secretary to Paul-Henri Spaak, who directed the European version of Western World.
In addition to speeches and book manuscripts, the Speech, Article and Book File contains an extensive collection of articles prepared by Mowrer for his syndicated columns, "Edgar Mowrer on World Affairs" and "What's Your Question on World Affairs?"
Lilian Mowrer's papers are also oriented toward foreign affairs. In addition to a General Correspondence series, a Subject File relates to two organizations with which she was associated, the Women's Action Committee for Lasting Peace and the Women's World Fellowship. Manuscripts by Lilian Mowrer include The Indomitable John Scott (1960), with research materials that she accumulated while preparing the biography of this seventeenth-century adventurer and landowner on Long Island, New York.
The addition to the Mowrer Papers consists largely of writings on foreign affairs in the 1960s and 1970s. Family and general correspondence of Edgar Ansel Mowrer in the addition includes letters from Charles de Gaulle, Thomas Dodd, Barry Goldwater, William Loeb, J. Allan Nevins, Richard M. Nixon, James Reston, Margaret Chase Smith, Boris Sokoloff, Leland Stowe, and Victor Weybright. His Speeches and Writings file includes drafts and clippings of his articles and columns for the Manchester Union Leader, some accompanied by William Loeb's editorials. The file also includes Mowrer's correspondence with readers responding to his columns criticizing the Vatican's position on fascism and to New York Post editor Ted O. Thackeray's public rebuke of Mowrer's views, 1944-1945. Research material and correspondence relates to Mowrer's autobiography, Triumph and Turmoil (1968); Umano and the Price of Lasting Peace (1973), written with Lilian Mowrer; and drafts of his unpublished Freedom Diary, consisting of daily entries of commentary on Richard Nixon's policy of detente with the Soviet Union and China.
The Subject File includes material concerning Mowrer's expulsion from Nazi Germany in 1933, his service in the Office of Facts and Figures, and resignation from the Office of War Information in 1944. It also documents Mowrer's participation in several conservative organizations during the 1970s. The Miscellany includes address books, notebooks, an autographed portrait of Mowrer with President Lyndon B. Johnson and other photographs, and clippings on Mowrer and his brother, Paul Scott Mowrer.
The addition to the papers of Lilian T. Mowrer contains general correspondence and condolence letters on the death of Edgar Mowrer. Correspondents include Gertrude Enelow, Nellie L. McClung, Abraham Ribicoff, Pierre Salinger, Vincent Sheean, William L. Shirer, and Lawrence W. Towner. Among her speeches and writings are articles and a pamphlet, Concerning France (1944); speeches Lilian Mowrer wrote for Abraham Ribicoff in the 1950s; and drafts, research material, and correspondence for Arrest and Exile (1941), including correspondence with its subject, Olga Kochanska; Riptide of Aggression (1944); a textbook, The United States and World Relations (1952); and Body Dynamics (1960), which Mowrer assisted Gertrude Enelow in writing.