Charles Parsons papers

Charles Parsons was born in New York City on May 31, 1889, and educated at Yale University, graduating with the class of 1912. From May 1913 until December 1913 he worked for the freight department of the Long Island Railroad. In May of the following year he joined two friends in a gold and quicksilver mining enterprise at Chloride Cliff, California. Interrupting this venture in June 1916, he served with Squadron "A," Cavalry of New York City, on the Texas border for six months. His return to mining was cut short by the declaration of war on April 6, 1917. Parsons enlisted and was commissioned 1st Lieutenant of Infantry on November 27, 1917. He served with the 153rd Depot Brigade until his discharge on January 16, 1919, having been promoted to Captain of Infantry in September 1918.

While traveling in Europe in 1914, Parsons met Mary Elizabeth Curry of Kansas City, whom he married on April 6, 1918. Their daughter Mary Curry Parsons was born May 5, 1920, in New York City. During the winter of 1921 Parsons worked for a branch of the motion picture industry in Dallas, Texas, but the following spring the main office shut down due to an industry-wide slump. Apparently, this was the last time he was employed.

Parsons' wife died on March 29, 1925. The following year he and his daughter went to England and lived there, chiefly in London, until the war began in 1939. During his stay there he made many friends among the colony of authors and artists and theatrical people. His chief interest was book collecting. He became a member of the First Edition club of London donating many books and manuscripts he had collected to the Yale Library, including manuscripts of Tennyson's earliest poems, personal papers of Robert Browning, and substantial collections of Arthur Machen and James Brand Cabell.

Upon his return to the United States in 1939, Parsons' interest in politics became more active. He was a staunch isolationist and vehemently opposed Roosevelt and the New Deal. He spoke out against U.S. entry into World War II and opposed giving aid to Great Britain.

Parsons befriended Tyler Kent, the young code clerk in the American Embassy in London, who made and kept copies of secret communications between President Roosevelt and Winston Churchill, then First Lord of the Admiralty. Kent was arrested by the British and charged with espionage, although he was finally jailed for the lesser charge of theft of government documents. Charles Parsons considered Kent a patriot and worked for his release. He also corresponded with several of the thirty defendants in the mass sedition trial following their indictment in 1942, especially Lawrence Dennis, Elizabeth Dilling, Ellis O. Jones, and Colonel Eugene N. Sanctuary. Most of the papers concerning this case, together with Parsons' correspondence with Kent, have been arranged separately. See: the Tyler Gatewood Kent Papers, Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library.

Following the war, Parsons continued his political activities by opposing the Marshall Plan, the United Nations, and what he believed were the imperialistic ambitions of the Soviet Union. An early and vigorous supporter of congressional investigations into "un-Americanism" and "subversion," Parsons became an ardent admirer of Senator Joseph McCarthy. He also campaigned for the impeachment of President Eisenhower, who he believed was guilty of appeasing the Soviet Union.

For a time Parsons edited and published "Parsons' Information Service," a mimeographed political newsletter which he circulated among his friends. This collection, however, contains only the issue for July 1, 1942. In addition, Parsons was also a regular contributor to The Broom, a pro-German, anti-Jewish newspaper published in San Diego, California, by Leon C. de Aryan.

Parsons communicated his political opinions primarily through his extensive correspondence with friends and public figures. In addition, he was an enthusiastic and frequent writer of letters to the editor, in which he argued his position with great flourish.

Charles Parsons died on December 23, 1969, at Devon, Pennsylvania.