Scope and Content Note
The papers of Marquis James (1891-1955) span the years 1914-1955, with the bulk of the material concentrated in the period 1930-1939. The collection consists of a diary, correspondence, book material, literary and biographical articles, radio scripts and plays, legal and financial papers, clippings, printed material, photographs, and other papers related largely to James’s work as a biographer. The papers are organized into nine series: General Correspondence, Literary File I, Newspaper Clippings, Printed Matter, Photographs and Miscellany, Literary File II, Legal File, Personal Correspondence, and Miscellany.
Included with manuscripts of James’s books are voluminous notes covering extensive research on historical events in Texas and Oklahoma in preparation for a biography of Sam Houston and writing of The Cherokee Strip. The printed material includes articles published in various magazines, especially the New Yorker, American Legion Monthly, and Scoop (Chicago, Ill.).
Twice a Pulitzer Prize winner, James had considerable correspondence with residents of Texas and Oklahoma in which the writers volunteered further information about Sam Houston and Andrew Jackson, whose biographies won this prize for the author. Included also is correspondence with Harold Wallace Ross of the New Yorker in the early years of the magazine’s birth and growth. Other material consists of manuscripts prepared for the Writers' War Board during World War II; memoirs of Bernard M. Baruch and related correspondence; and material on John Nance Garner. Also included is the manuscript of James’s unpublished “The Story of William R. Grace” and a diary from 1904-1905 reproduced from the original in private hands and available only on microfilm.