Scope and Content Note
The papers of John Haynes Holmes (1879-1964) span the years 1899-1983, with the bulk of the material concentrated in the period 1935-1964. The collection is composed primarily of correspondence, supplemented by published and unpublished writings, printed matter, and miscellany. The collection is organized into six series: Special Correspondence , General Correspondence , Writings File , Letters Sent , Miscellany , and Addition.
The collection provides a rich source of information on all facets of Holmes's long public career and is particularly valuable to students of twentieth-century libertarian movements. His involvement with civil rights, civil liberties, pacifist, and social service organizations is represented by an extensive correspondence with members and officials of the American Civil Liberties Union, the National Association for the Advance of Colored People (NAACP), the War Resisters League, the American Friends Service Committee, the Council Against Intolerance in America, the League for Industrial Democracy, the Planned Parenthood Federation, the Foster Parents' Plan for War Children, and other associations. The correspondence also contains valuable information on the aims and activities of these organizations.
Material on Holmes's life and his church-related activities can be found throughout the collection. The Special Correspondence , composed primarily of letters to close friends, is especially useful for Holmes's personal life as well as for his observations on political and social topics. The General Correspondence series includes family correspondence and considerable material relating to his activities as pastor of the Community Church of New York.
Holmes was a prolific author of books, articles, sermons, and hymns, and the Writings File focuses on this aspect of his career. Of particular interest are several drafts of two major books, I Speak for Myself and My Gandhi, and an extensive collection of published and unpublished sermons. The Miscellany series contains a variety of material, including the large correspondence stimulated by his anti-war statement of December 14, 1941.
Prominent correspondents include Roger N. Baldwin, Donald Szantho Harrington, Arthur Garfield Hays, B. W. Huebsch, Fiorello H. La Guardia, Norman Thomas, and Walter Francis White. There is also substantial correspondence from Henry Beckett, Arthur E. Calder, Carl Colodne, Ethelwyn Doolittle, Arthur Heller, Corliss Lamont, Lillian Laub, Salmon Oliver Levinson, Minnie Loewenthal, Louis B. Mayer, George E. Moesel, Francis Neilson, Carl Nelson, Edith Lovejoy Pierce, Henriette Posner, Ralph C. Roper, Carl Hermann Voss, and Blanche Watson. The autograph collection includes copies of letters from many prominent individuals, including John Dewey, Mahatma Gandhi, Herbert Hoover, Helen Keller, Charles A. Lindbergh, Jawaharlal Nehru, Eddie Rickenbacker, Bertrand Russell, and Wendell L. Willkie.