Anna Strunsky Walling papers

The life of Anna Walling, an advocate of socialism and the cause of labor, was molded by three prominent socialists: Jack London, William English Walling, and Leonard Abbott. The papers of Anna Walling, acquired by the Yale University Library from Walling's family in 1980, are most significant for understanding Walling's relationships with these three men and for the picture of the radical or bohemian circle of friends that surrounded them in San Francisco, New York, England, and Russia. Since the papers came from the family they are uniquely rich in family material. Both incoming and outgoing letters are present for most family correspondents.

The Anna Strunsky Walling Papers are not a complete record of Anna Walling's life. Over the years Walling donated many of her Jack London materials to the Huntington Library. A large collection of William English Walling's papers is owned by the State Historical Society of Wisconsin. (These papers are also available on microfilm) Yet Anna Walling, or her family, retained many early family letters, both those written to her and those by her in which she described her life. Especially numerous in the papers are revealing letters to and from Leonard Abbott. The papers also include the diary and writer's idea books that Walling kept all her life.

The papers are now arranged in five series: I. CORRESPONDENCE OF ANNA WALLING, II. CORRESPONDENCE OF OTHERS, III. DIARIES AND WRITINGS, IV. MEMORABILIA, V. PHOTOGRAPHS.

This arrangement represents an order imposed on the papers during processing. Anna Walling's filing system, if any, was chaotic. The papers seem almost to have been shoveled into storage boxes, which were stored for many years on Cape Cod and exposed to sea air and vermin. After the papers were sorted nearly a quarter of the correspondence showed pages missing, and much of the collection is in deteriorating physical condition. Series I and II have been scheduled for microfilming, and when this has been completed researchers will be required to consult the film before using the original papers.

CORRESPONDENCE OF ANNA WALLING contains all incoming letters addressed to Anna Walling (ASW) and outgoing letters written by ASW. The correspondence is arranged alphabetically by recipient, and the series is the largest in the papers. Correspondence of selected individuals has been foldered and listed separately but general letter files also contain occasional letters from notable persons such as Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Zona Gale, Arnold Genthe, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Raymond Ingersoll, Jesse Jackson, Vida Scudder, David Shannon, Irving Stone, Henrietta Szold, Norman Thomas, and Rabindranath Tagore. These general files are also studded with form letters and newsletters from liberal and radical organizations to which ASW belonged at the end of her life, eg. the Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors, the American Civil Liberties Union, the Massachusetts Council for the Abolition of the Death Penalty, the Fellowship of Reconciliation, and the Greenwich Village Peace Center.

Many of the names listed in this series are persons ASW numbered among her personal friends. Melville Anderson was her professor at Stanford. Gelette Burgess, Harry Cowell, Cameron King, Ray Nash, Jane Roulson and Gaylord Wilshire are friends from her California days. The correspondence with King shows an especially close relationship. When ASW left for Russia in 1905 King sent her news of her family. It was King who wrote at length to assure her that her family had survived the San Francisco earthquake, and his letters contain both verbal and pictorial descriptions of the damage. There is only one scrap of Jack London's own handwriting although there are several copies of London's letters, some of which are included inLetters from Jack London.

One of ASW's closest early friends was Katherine Maryson, who was a participant in New York's radical circles and was, like ASW, a Russian-Jewish immigrant. To her ASW was quite open about her feelings for Jack London, and the Maryson file is interesting because it contains ASW's original letters to Maryson as well as Maryson's responses. These letters are perhaps the best in the collection for understanding the curious Walling-London relationship. ASW also wrote her the details of her trips to Europe and Russia, mentioning the names of all the notables she had met and describing the progress of the "Revolution" as she saw it.

The list of selected files reveals the names of many people prominent in socialist or radical circles. Some were close friends, others slight acquaintances. The Wallings knew Rose Pastor Stokes (RPS) and her husband James Graham Phelps Stokes. For a time the couples lived in close proximity on Caritas Island. The Stokes correspondence is small in quantity but there are good letters filled with RPS's views on the schisms in political parties in the 1912 election and on her divorce from Stokes. There are more letters from Emma Goldman, but though they are usually addressed "Dear Anna" they are not personal in tone. They are full of the details of Goldman's organization of "movement" meetings and of her magazineMother Earth. Charles Edward Russell was another close friend. A few of his letters are written on Pro-Palestine Federation of America stationary but his letters never detail his activities. They are always affectionate communications signed "Uncle Charley". The Upton Sinclair correspondence dates from the end of ASW's life and contains merely fleeting recollections of an earlier friendship. The Wallings had been with the Hutchins Hapgoods in Paris, and there are a few personal letters to ASW from them in the files.

With Selig Perlman, the economist and scholar of U.S. labor history, the Wallings had a special relationship. William English Walling (WEW) had helped Perlman as a young immigrant. The correspondence contains two letters to ASW when Perlman was just getting started as a student of John R. Commons, and as a teacher at the University of Wisconsin. (Additional letters to WEW are filed in Series II.) The friendship continued after WEW's death, and in later years Perlman wrote ASW about his trips to Israel and his feelings about his Jewishness.

The Wallings witnessed the terrible race riot in Springfield, Illinois in 1908. This event supposedly motivated WEW to call a meeting of friends and acquaintances interested in improving race relations. Out of this meeting the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) emerged. ASW's letters mention nothing about either the riot or the founding of the NAACP. There are a few personal letters from Mary White Ovington concerning ASW's son and in one letter Ovington enclosed a copy of a letter from Charles Edward Russell in which he explains why he does not participate in the NAACP.

The files contain letters from many minor writers such as Weston McDaniel, Shaemas O'Sheel, and George Sterling, and from a second generation of Jack London admirers and scholars interested in going to first hand witnesses of the early 20th century radical movement. Vil Bykov, a Soviet writer, interviewed ASW about Jack London; Joseph Backus was doing research on Gelette Burgess; and John Whitcomb was interested in Rose Pastor Stokes.

The best source of biographical detail on ASW is contained in the correspondence files for members of her family and WEW's family. The early letters are full of ASW's undertakings but later letters reflect her growing introspectiveness and the drama of her family's relationships. At times this correspondence reads like a soap opera. The earliest letters are with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Eliaa Strunsky. There are a few letters concerning her engagement and marriage and later letters concerning the children. Unfortunately, many of these letters, especially those from Mrs. Strunsky, are written in Yiddish in a difficult hand.

There is much more correspondence with ASW's new in-laws, Rosalind and Willoughby Walling. ASW was very close to Rosalind Walling. It is through these letters that ASW's life from 1906-1930 can be pieced together. The joy of her love, the grief of her first two pregnancies, her feelings about the Anna Grünspan affair, the various household moves, the children's education and illnesses, and the family financial situation. Even some negative comments about WEW are in these letters. In the earlier letters ASW often comments on her circle of friends and acquaintances. In a February, 1911 letter she mourns the murder of David Graham Phelps and in November of that year the suicide of Kellogg Durland. A February 29, 1912 letter mentions a visit with Jack London, and an August, 1916 letter records the results of a conversation with Charlotte Perkins Gilman on "life" and children. In December, 1918 ASW writes of enjoying the Christmas season, "I have never had a Christmas tree, but I hope to trim a Christmas tree every remaining year of my life." In January, 1919 she writes of her father's business failure with the advent of Prohibition. The 1924 letters show much concern for personal finances and suggest economy measures such as letting the servants go and changing private schools for the children. At the same time, ASW mentions WEW's trip to Cleveland for the LaFollette Convention and his campaign for Congress from Connecticut on the Democratic ticket. In a January,1926 letter ASW describes a dinner she has given for the 80th birthday of Harriet Stanton Blatch.

The death of Rosalind Walling in 1930 ends this source for much of the day to day detail in ASW's life. ASW carried on a similar type of correspondence with her sister Rose Strunsky Lorwin after Rose's marriage in 1920. At first Rose and Louis Lorwin moved to Beloit, Wisconsin where Louis taught at Beloit College. Rose's letters are an interesting reflection of small town life as seen by transplanted city dwellers. In December, 1920, she asked ASW to send her magazines likeSoviet Russiasince Louis would not subscribe fearing to have his name on a subscription list in case of Red scare raids. Many of the letters between the sisters concern the problems of their children and aging parents. Rose and Louis traveled extensively in Europe. In 1936 there are interesting letters from Rose in Germany, but the detailed descriptions break off rather abruptly for Rose feared that bulky letters would be "suspect". In the 1940s and 1950s the sisters'. letters are full of their own infirmities. There are also details of ASW's trips to California and Europe.

The correspondence with William English Walling begins in 1905 with letters from WEW to Miss Strunsky describing his stay in Europe and his plans for his Russian trip, and urging her to come join him. In the following years, there are infrequent letters from ASW when WEW was absent from home, mainly giving details of the growing family. In a letter of January 30, 1914, she describes her own and the children's reaction to a visit with Jack London. During this period the papers contain few incoming WEW letters.

Following World War I WEW began to work closely with Samuel Gompers and the American Federation of Labor. From January-March, 1919, the correspondence contains WEW's letters from his trips to Europe with Gompers. In England he visited with former Fabian Society friends and with British Socialist leader Henry Hyndman and in Paris with George D. Herron, a former Socialist, who like WEW had broken with the party during the war and who was serving now as a Wilson emissary, and with Adolphe Smith and Bohemian and Italian socialists.

In 1921 ASW herself went to Europe to be with her sister Rose whose scoliosis was causing a difficult pregnancy and fears for her delivery. Rose had chosen to go to Freiburg, Germany to be delivered by a new method of anesthesia known as "twilight sleep". ASW's letters to WEW in September and October are full of detail concerning German hospitals and maternity care. Her letter of October 6, 1921 describes minutely Rose's labor and the birth of her son Boris. (ASW would later write an article for McClure's on twilight sleep. See Box 32, folder 379.)

While ASW and the children lived in Paris during the winter of 1923 there were again many occasions for letters to WEW in New York, these containing the details of daily life. Here ASW also describes meetings with Anatole France and Charmian London. The 1924 file contains letters from WEW during the AFL Convention in El Paso, and the 1926-1927 file holds letters describing WEW's trip to Mexico on the Calles project. During the winter of 1928 WEW went to Havana. WEW's letters in these later years are sparse and usually concerned with finances, while ASW's letters are fairly constant. The letters from the summer of 1929 show obvious signs of the marriage in trouble though the final illness of Rosalind Walling in the summer of 1930 seemed to bring a temporary truce. In 1932 there are final breaking up letters and after that the files contain only a few scattered letters of ASW to WEW which are more interesting for the fact that they survive than for their content.

Following WEW's death in 1936 ASW and WEW's brother began work on a volume of tributes in his memory. The series contains occasional typed copies of letters, possibly those intended for publication and letters of condolence and reminiscences. Of interest are letters from George Watt, a boyhood friend of WEW.

ASW's correspondence from the 1930s on is primarily concerned with the lives of her children and grandchildren. Rosamond, the eldest, attended Swarthmore College where she became friendly with her near relative George Gershwin and some of his set. Her letters from college are full of youthful enthusiasm and the details of her social life. Shortly after graduation in 1932 she married Rifat Tirana, an Albanian working with the League of Nations in Geneva. The couple lived in Europe until the outbreak of World War II when they returned to Washington D.C. ASW's letters to Rosamond are full of motherly advice especially concerning nursing and child care for Turhan, Bardyl, and Ganni, her grandsons, Her November 12, 1940 letter does give her feelings about FDR, "Hitlerism", and her own socialism. ASW was closest to Rosamond and to her, more so than to her other children, she revealed her emotional upheavals over the marriage with WEW and her feelings for Leonard Abbott.

ASW's second daughter, Anna, Jr. also attended Swarthmore, but married before she finished school. There are not a great many letters to or from Anna, Jr. (Anna Matson) but in correspondence with other family members the soap opera quality of Anna Matson's life is revealed. The family did not approve of her early marriage to Norman Matson, a Catholic and a man twice her age who had gotten her pregnant. In a September 19, 1932 letter to Rosamond ASW writes that she hopes Anna won't marry and that now she doesn't think it a "heinous crime" for women to bring on miscarriages. Anna and Norman married on October 18, 1932, but the marriage continued to be fraught with financial difficulties and separations.

ASW's two other children also gave her cause for worry. Georgia who had married Dan Eastman, son of Max Eastman, later divorced him and had difficulty settling down to a career, flitting between acting and social work. Hayden moved from school to school but settled on no profession except building a place for himself on Cape Cod. During World War II he received a deferment as a farmer or teacher, but was truly a conscientious objector. After the war he worked for UNRRA in Italy and then for UNICEF in Paris. His correspondence with ASW tells something of his travels and years in Africa but is mainly filled with the strains of his relationships with his mother and three wives.

The extensive Leonard Abbott (LDA) correspondence contains many discussions of ASW's children's problems, but it is of more interest for those interested in Abbott's later life. There are Only a few letters before ASW's break with WEW, but after 1932 there is an almost constant interchange of feelings and ideas. In his letter of September 19, 1933, LDA discusses a meeting of the Bronx Free Fellowship trustees and their views of the struggles going on in the Socialist Party. In 1936 letters LDA discusses his precarious financial situation and his work writing travel guide books as part of a federally sponsored writer's project, and in a letter of December 30, 1937, he describes a meeting of Russian Jewish intelligentsia who were organizing to protest Stalin's purges. His letters 'show his continuing faith in pacifism even in the face of the progress of events in Europe. Many of his letters are introspective and reveal his alternating bouts of "melancholia and ecstasy." LDA's October 16, 1939 letter is interesting for his remarks about Jack London, the class struggle, and his willingness to work with non-Socialists like Franklin Roosevelt. His letters also contain news of his own children, Morris and Ellen. Morris, totally uninterested in any radical causes, served as a U.S. military officer during World War II. Many of LDA's later letters are punctuated with grief and sadness over the deaths of his friends and associates, and memories of earlier days. The correspondence concludes only with LDA's final illness. Some matters concerning his physical and financial situation in this last year, 1953, are also discussed in ASW's correspondence with Leonard White.

Since the Anna Walling Papers came from the family they included a large number of letters not addressed to or written by Anna Walling. These letters are arranged in Series II, CORRESPONDENCE OF OTHERS. They include some correspondence of WEW, his parents, Anna's sister Rose, the Walling children, and even some of Leonard Abbott. This series is arranged so as not to split any one person's incoming and outgoing letters. When family members are in correspondence with each other all incoming and outgoing correspondence between them will be found in the file of the correspondent named first on the list. All letters to or from WEW (not to or from ASW) come first.

The WEW correspondence with others is the most interesting and valuable in this series. There are many early letters to his parents describing his experiences at the Harvard Law School, his residency at the University Settlement in New York, his travels in Europe, and his time in Russia including his engagement and marriage to Miss Strunsky. The latter topic is also discussed in correspondence with Anna's parents (folder 258). In the letters to his parents, during and after World War I, he is more explicit about his work. On October 28., 1917, he wrote, "I have also been actively cooperating with George Creel and his governmental press bureau organized in Washington and also with Gomper's Alliance of Labor and Democracy formed to fight treason in the Labor Union and Socialist Party. Finally, I have taken a very active part, though quiet, in the campaign against Hillquit for Mayor of New York." These letters clearly show WEW's turn away from his radical colleagues. In the fall of 1922, with ASW and the children in Paris, he was working to bring the American Legion closer to the AFL, "They can more than counterbalance all out aliens, pacifists, and radicals. Already they are especially active in regard to the schools and in regard to radical propaganda." Letters to parents also outline the family financial situation.

The WEW files also contain good letters from Rose assessing the situation in Russia (1906) and describing the British General Strike (1911). The files provide some evidence concerning the suit of Anna Berthe Grunspan (folder 256), and the miscellaneous files (folders 279-281) include interesting letters from Hutchins Hapgood, Selig Perlman, George Creel, and Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Adolphe Smith on January 1, 1914, wrote an analysis of the relationships of the British socialists and their relations with the Labor Party. These miscellaneous letters are very scattered and probably reflect the nature of the fuller WEW correspondence at the State Historical Society of Wisconsin.

A few letters in the Rosalind and Willoughby Walling files (folders 282-284) reflect on WEW's life, though for the most part the files contain letters from grandchildren. There is a letter from WEW's headmaster and a [ca. 1901] letter from Willoughby describing WEW's mental state. A few letters from friends praise WEW's books.

Of note in the Rose Strunsky Lorwin files (folders 285-287) are her early letters from her trips to Russia and Finland written to her parents and brothers. These tell of all that she is seeing as well as of the ASW-WEW courtship. There is also an interesting letter from Jane Roulston in San Francisco writing about labor demonstrations, Bill Haywood, and the I.W.W. Of some interest also are a long letter from Hayden to his wife Liza in December, 1945 (folder 294) describing his work for UNRRA and a letter to Mr. and Mrs. Strunsky (folder 296) from Harriet Stanton Blatch following a party given in her honor by ASW.

DIARIES AND WRITINGS, Series III, contains over 100 volumes of diaries or writer's idea books, copies of published writings, and drafts and notes for unpublished writings. These types of material have been brought together in one series to illustrate the connection between ASW's diaries or idea books and her writings.

From the number of diary volumes it seems probable that ASW always kept some kind of notebook with her to jot down her ideas and feelings. The volumes are arranged more or less chronologically, the numbers being assigned by the archives staff. The dates of the volumes overlap; some cover a long period of time, others only part of a year. Volumes were used perhaps only at one location, ie. a summer house, and not used again until ASW returned to that location.

The volumes cover almost her entire life, but the most interesting volumes are the early ones, especially #3 and #4, written during ASW's Russian journey. Some of the early ones also contain notes and outlines for stories, but for the most part the diaries contain her outbursts of emotion at times of family stress. They show ASW's most effusive romantic style. There are a great number of volumes for the 1930s and 1940s, and often passages are repeated or similar feelings restated over and over again. Many are written in the loneliness of the middle of the night. ASW's difficult handwriting is made even more difficult by the smudging of the penciled scrawl. Of some help are typed copies of selected passages up to 1936 made for ASW. These would be of interest to those studying the breakup of her marriage and her relationship with Hayden.

There is no bibliography of ASW's published works so it is difficult to estimate what proportion are represented by the "Writings-Published" section in this series. There are really very few for someone who thought of herself as a writer. These are arranged chronologically and include two memoirs of Jack London, one forThe Massesand one later one for theGreenwich Village Lantern.

The Series contains a large number of drafts, fragments, and notes for unpublished works. Where possible, these have been listed by ASW's titles, or where there is no title, by subject, but there remain two full boxes of unidentified loose pages. There are sketches of notable characters ASW met during her stay in Russia, notes for articles and fiction showing ASW's great abhorrence for capital punishment, and a great many pages for a lengthy memoir of Jack London. There are also chapters for a novel, an outline for a play, and samples of ASW's poetry.

Series IV contains both ASW's personal memorabilia such as programs, clippings, and promotional literature for her appearances, and guest and address books as well as files of material she saved concerning her friends or causes or subjects in which she was interested. Much of this material is printed, though there are unique items such as children's drawings and memorabilia of WEW. Of interest also is a typed memoir by Leonard Abbott recounting the people and events of his long career in radical causes and a box of postcards collected by the Wallings on their travels. Included in the postcards are several from Russia and Europe [ca. 1906]. In the folder "Russia" (folder 467) are a few rare publications from the same period.

PHOTOGRAPHS, Series V, consists of only one box. Many of the photographs are of ASW and the children. There are interesting photographs taken in Russia and also some of the ruins of San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake. Many persons and places are unidentified, but there is at least one photograph of Rose Pastor Stokes on Caritas Island.

The Anna Walling Papers will be of interest to those studying the many other collections in Manuscripts and Archives concerning the Russian revolution and American socialism. The Rose Pastor Stokes Papers (MS 573) are clearly related, containing photographs of and correspondence with the Wallings. ASW met and wrote on Catherine Breshkovsky, the "little grandmother of the Russian Revolution", and her papers are contained in Manuscript Group #606.