John L. De Forest papers

The John L. De Forest Papers contain forty volumes of typescript diaries, 1935-2000, many with newspaper clippings and other related materials laid in. Diaries include entries relating to jazz musician and family friend Benny Goodman; Yiddish author Sholem Asch, for whom De Forest worked as a secretary in the 1940s; political associate John Davis Lodge, governor of Connecticut, 1951-1955; and Dutch historian and journalist Hendrik Willem Van Loon. The collection also includes typescript autobiographical writings and transcriptions of correspondence, based on excerpts from the diaries; research material and a biography of Tapping Reeve (1744-1823), Connecticut lawyer and educator, typescript draft; photographs of authors, musicians, and politicians represented in the diaries; photograph albums relating to family, friends, and the Brunswick School, Greenwich, Connecticut, 1930s-1940s; a scrapbook containing memorabilia from Oberlin College, 1935-1936; a scrapbook of clippings of newspaper articles written by De Forest for the Stamford Advocate and New Canaan Advertiser, about local news and Connecticut history, 1939-1940; scrapbooks of newspaper clippings concerning De Forest's work in Stamford politics, 1950s-1970s; scrapbooks of photographs, postcards, and ephemera relating to travel by De Forest in Europe, Canada, South America, and Mexico, 1940s-1950s; other newspaper clippings about local and national politics, 1920s-1970s; research materials on Connecticut history and De Forest family genealogy; and newsletters edited by De Forest for Electrolux.