Scope and Content Note
The papers of Gilbert Avery Harrison (1915-2008) span the years 1902-1978, with the bulk concentrated in 1960-1965. The collection consists of correspondence, newspaper clippings, pamphlets, and articles and is organized in Correspondence and Subject File series relating principally to Harrison’s positions as editor and publisher of the New Republic and president of Liveright Publishing Company.
The collection contains few personal letters concerning Harrison’s youth. However his membership in various groups, including the American Veterans Committee and the Office for Civilian Defense, sheds light on his early development. A file on the American Veterans Committee includes correspondence, financial statements, pamphlets, and newspaper clippings. Through his association with the Office for Civilian Defense, Harrison came to know Eleanor Roosevelt, as reflected in letters from her during World War II and well into the 1950s.
The collection includes correspondence from such notable political figures as Hubert Humphrey, Edward Moore Kennedy, Frank Church, Jimmy Carter, and Morris Udall, who thank Harrison for his advice and contributions. There are also many letters and political literature from Adlai E. Stevenson (1900-1965) during his presidential campaigns, as well as correspondence with Senator John F. Kennedy concerning Algeria and a perceived missile gap between the United States and the Soviet Union leading up to the presidential election of 1960. Harrison’s views on disarmament and social issues often emerge in his papers.
Files for the New Republic and Liveright Publishing Company include correspondence with authors, details of the sale of the New Republic to Martin Peretz, clippings, pamphlets, and annual reports. Also included is a manuscript by Francis Hackett entitled “American Rainbow” and background material and reviews for Gertrude Stein’s America, edited by Harrison in 1965. Some literary figures among Harrison’s correspondents are Saul Bellow, William Saroyan, Lillian Hellman, and Irving Howe. Material from Walter Lippmann, who once served as an editor at the New Republic, consists mainly of articles and clippings, with some correspondence.
The papers of Nancy Blaine Harrison, wife of Gilbert Harrison, are also contained within the collection. Personal correspondence, clippings, and printed material detail her position as a union organizer in North Carolina during the 1940s and her role as an official in the inaugural ceremonies for John Kennedy in 1961.
Other persons and topics represented in the collection include Dean Acheson, Joseph Alsop, American Civil Liberties Union, Roger N. Baldwin, Anita McCormick Blaine, Malcolm Cowley, Felix Frankfurter, J. William Fulbright, John Kenneth Galbraith, Ernest Gruening, Lyndon B. Johnson, Anthony Lewis, Bertrand Russell, Arthur M. Schlesinger (1917-2007), and Gertrude Stein.