Scope and Content Note
The papers of Irita Van Doren (1891-1966) span the years 1920-1967. The collection consists of correspondence, originals of writings by various authors, and a large file of material relating to Wendell L. Willkie, especially his 1942 world tour and drafts of his book, One World. The papers are organized into the following series: General Correspondence; Special Correspondence; Speech, Article, Poetry, and Book Review File; Wendell L. Willkie File; Miscellany; and Oversize.
Most of Van Doren's correspondence is with American and foreign authors with whom she became acquainted during the years 1926-1963, when she served as editor of the New York Herald Tribune Sunday book review section. The letters pertain primarily to various author's preparation of articles and book reviews and to the planning of the book and author luncheons which were sponsored by the New York Herald Tribune and the American Booksellers Association. Van Doren selected the speakers and presided over the luncheons which were held about eight times each year. Among the outstanding literary figures represented in her correspondence are Samuel Hopkins Adams, Stephen Vincent Benét, Van Wyck Brooks, Witter Bynner, James Branch Cabell, Willa Cather, Walter de la Mare, John Dos Passos, Theodore Dreiser, E. M. Forster, Sinclair Lewis, W. Somerset Maugham, Erich Maria Remarque, and E. B. White.
There is a considerable amount of correspondence from the Southern novelist Ellen Anderson Gholson Glasgow and from Stuart Pratt Sherman, who preceded Van Doren as editor of the New York Herald Tribune book review section. In addition to correspondence, there is a file of original manuscripts of various authors' speeches, articles, poems, and book reviews.
An important segment of the papers pertains to the American industrialist and political figure Wendell L. Willkie. Van Doren became a close friend and advisor to Willkie and assisted him in writing One World. The Wendell L. Willkie File in the papers relates to his 1942 world tour, which was the basis for One World,as well as an extensive collection of his speeches and articles and drafts of One World. In the Special Correspondence series is an original, signed letter of President Franklin D. Roosevelt to Joseph Stalin, August 22, 1942, apparently carried by Willkie to Moscow but not delivered during his meeting with the Soviet leader in September 1942.