Scope and Content Note
The papers of Frederick Lewis Allen span the years 1890-1954, with the bulk of the material concentrated in the period 1933-1954. The papers are organized in five series: Diaries, Date Books, and Biographical Material ; General Correspondence ; Subject File ; Literary File ; and an Addition .
The Diaries, Date Books, and Biographical Material series covers the years 1933-1954 and includes diaries kept by Allen during visits to London in 1943 and to San Francisco in 1945.
The bulk of the General Correspondence focuses on the period 1945-1954 and includes letters written on a weekly basis by Allen to his sister, Hildegarde Allen. Correspondence relating to a particular literary work is kept with other papers related to that work in the Literary File. Prominent correspondents include James Bryant Conant, Vera Micheles Dean, Bernard Augustine DeVoto, Gilbert Highet, Walter Lippmann, Laurence McKinney, Milo Perkins, George Pfeiffer, DeWitt Wallace, and W. S. Zuill.
Included in the Subject File is material related to Allen's term as a member of the Board of Overseers of Harvard University, 1942-1948; his work with the Foreign Policy Association; and his speech to the National Publishers' Association in 1947 on the "closed mind" of journalists regarding American industry.
The Literary File contains manuscripts and notes related to Allen's writings, including popular social histories of the United States such as Only Yesterday and The Big Change, March of Time movie scripts about the 1920s, biographies, magazine articles, speeches, and other short works.
The Addition , consisting of material added to the papers in 1978, 1983, and 1996, supplements the original collection. A travel journal documenting Allen's trip to Great Britain in 1953 was added in 1996.