Scope and Content Note
The papers of Elmer Gertz (1906-2000) span the years 1789-1997, with the majority of the papers concentrated from 1926 to 1988. The bulk of the papers documents Gertz's career as a lawyer, author, and manuscript collector. The collection consists of eight series: Family Papers, General Correspondence, Legal File, Subject File, Speeches and Writings File, Miscellany, Addition, and Oversize.
The Family Papers series, 1926-1991, consists primarily of letters between Gertz and family members concerning personal matters. Gertz's letters to his children, Theodore G. Gertz and Margery A. Hechtman, often summarize his professional and personal activities, providing a glimpse of the attorney's busy schedule.
The papers in the General Correspondence series, 1925-1991, also chronicle Gertz's varied interests. Incoming and outgoing correspondence relates to personal and professional matters, including various commissions and organizations with which Gertz was associated. A few of the notable correspondents in this series are Louis Adamic, Richard J. Daley, Paul Howard Douglas, Albert Einstein, Eli E. Fink, Arthur J. Goldberg, Carey McWilliams, Leo Calvin Rosten, Carl Sandburg, and George Sylvester Viereck.
The Legal File, 1905-1992, constituting over half of the collection, documents Gertz's lengthy and prominent legal career. Papers in the series are divided into two subseries: Personal and Professional. The Personal subseries, 1950-1988, pertains to cases in which Gertz was a litigant. The private lawsuit which brought Gertz national attention was Gertz v. Robert Welch, Inc., a precedent-setting case which changed libel laws throughout the nation. The Chicago attorney sued the publishers of a John Birch Society publication for reporting that Gertz was involved in a Communist plot to discredit the Chicago Police Department. The United States Supreme Court ruled that Gertz, as a private individual, did not have to prove “actual malice” to receive compensatory damages.
The Professional subseries, 1905-1992, consists of correspondence and memoranda, chiefly between Gertz and clients, lawyers, and judges, as well as extensive legal files including opinions, orders, briefs, writs, motions, petitions, exhibits, and transcripts. Both case files and client files reflect the wide range of cases handled by Gertz, particularly those involving libel, obscenity, capital punishment, and copyright issues. One of Gertz's clients was novelist Henry Miller, who challenged charges that his work was obscene. Gertz fought successfully in Illinois against censorship of the writer's book Tropic of Cancer.
Another of Gertz’s clients, Nathan Freudenthal Leopold, was convicted with Richard Loeb of murdering fourteen-year-old Bobby Franks in a sensational trial that captivated the nation in 1924. Gertz later helped Leopold obtain a parole after thirty-four years in prison. Correspondence relating to Leopold's release is located in the early correspondence files of Leopold v. Levin, Leopold's suit seeking compensation from Meyer Levin, whose book and film, Compulsion, were based on the murder and subsequent trial. Background files for the Levin case also contain court documents and other material relating to Leopold's murder trial, Illinois v. Leopold.
Gertz was also one of a team of lawyers representing Jack Ruby, who was convicted of killing Lee Harvey Oswald, assassin of President John F. Kennedy, in November 1963. Gertz joined the defense team in December 1964 and assisted with Ruby's appeal which succeeded in getting his death sentence set aside. Several items in the Ruby v. Texas case file are worthy of mention: Ruby's letter to his brother Earl, located in the folder "Miscellaneous, 1964-70, undated"; Ruby's note to Gertz of 9 September 1965, located in the folder "Correspondence, Aug.-Sept. 1965"; and a reporter's note to Gertz describing his visit with Ruby shortly before Ruby's death, located in the folder "Correspondence, Mar.-Aug. 1967, undated" Additional material pertaining to Ruby may be found in the Speeches and Writings File relating to Gertz’s book Moment of Madness: The People vs. Jack Ruby.
Papers in the Subject File series, 1894, 1903-1990, illustrate Gertz's diverse interests and activities. This series chronicles his service with committees and organizations and documents his duties as a delegate and committee chair of the Illinois constitutional convention, 1969-1970; his work with the Chicago Bar Association, 1977-1985 and the Illinois Coalition Against the Death Penalty, 1977-1985; and his membership on the Chicago Citizens Commission to Study the Disorders of Convention Week (1968 Democratic national convention). Also reflected in the series is Gertz's interest in various historical and literary figures: James Baldwin, Clarence Darrow, Frank Harris, John F. Kennedy, Henry Miller, Carl Sandburg, Harry S. Truman, and Bernard Shaw. Other topics prominently featured include censorship, housing, obscenity, and the death penalty. There is some overlap between this series and the General Correspondence series, and many of the same individuals appear in both series. Also included are legal papers relating to Gertz's consultations in his later years.
The Speeches and Writings File, 1888-1990, document Gertz’s activities as a prolific writer and speaker interested not only in legal matters but in literary subjects as well. Some of his most voluminous papers relate to two of his books, Frank Harris: A Study in Black and White and Odyssey of a Barbarian: The Biography of George Sylvester Viereck. Gertz corresponded with both Harris and Viereck and accumulated a large amount of research material pertaining to each, including some of their original manuscripts, numerous autograph letters, and notes from prominent literary figures. The Viereck research material includes one reel of microfilm of original material not in the collection, letters and messages of Sigmund Freud to Viereck. Other books by Gertz include A Handful of Clients, a description of some of the attorney's more interesting clients, and To Life, an account of his personal and professional life.
The Miscellany series, 1789, 1860-1991, consists chiefly of manuscripts and printed matter collected by Gertz, which complement material in the Speeches and Writings File and pertain to his general research interests. Also included in the series are papers relating to his academic career and his awards and honors.
The Addition series supplements previous installments of the Gertz Papers and span the years 1921-1997, with the bulk concentrated from 1989-1996. The Addition includes correspondence, memoranda, family papers, legal files, subject files, and writings. The subject file, comprising almost half of the addition, reflects Gertz’s affiliation with organizations such as the Blind Service Association, the Caxton Club, and the Decalogue Society of Lawyers. Also documented in the subject file is Gertz’s interest in writers Frank Harris and George Sylvester Viereck and the assassination of John F. Kennedy. The writings file in the Addition relates primarily to Gertz v. Robert Welch, Inc. and the revised 1990 edition of Gertz’s memoir To Life. This file also includes a number of articles and book reviews that Gertz wrote for Real Crime Book Digest.
Among the most prominent and frequent correspondents are George Anastaplo, Allen Crandall, Paul Crump, Richard M. Daley, Lord Alfred Bruce Douglas, Otto Eisenschiml, Wayne B. Giampietro, Frank Harris, Samuel G. Herman, John F. Kennedy, Nathan Leopold, Gene Lovitz, Russ Meyer, Henry Miller, Hesketh Pearson, Muriel Peters, Peter Pollack, Jack Ruby, William F. Ryan, Edward P. Schwartz, Upton Sinclair, Kate Stephens, A. I. Tobin, George Sylvester Viereck, Peter Robert Edwin Viereck, and William W. Witherspoon.