Scope and Contents
The collection contains professional and personal correspondence, publications and tearsheets, diaries and ledgers, manuscripts, speeches, research materials, a radio interview, and published books.
Wilson made little use of a literary agent and thus his professional correspondence is mostly between him and editors of magazines and publishing houses, and publisher's readers who evaluated Wilson's manuscripts and suggested revisions.
Outgoing professional correspondence is organized by date (1928-1974) and includes letters to publisher's readers.
Incoming professional correspondence is organized alphabetically by last name or agency title and includes letters from editors and publishers.
Incoming personal and miscellaneous correspondence is filed by last name or agency title and includes letters from United Fruit, state agencies, family and friends.
There are fifteen volumes of diaries and ledgers that span 1936-1969.
Manuscript material includes book-length, short story, fragment, article and book proposals, speeches, research material. Book-length manuscripts often include multiple drafts, revisions, research notebooks, printer's copies, and notes. Short story manuscripts occasionally include early and final drafts.
Publications are filed by title and files include correspondence, and reader's responses and fan mail to Wilson's controversial article on Governor Orval Faubus in 1959.
Magazines, reprints, and tearsheets are organized by the article title written by Wilson.
There is also a file of book reviews and press releases, and one folder of miscellaneous material that includes a radio interview with Wilson, book jackets, and photographs.
Dates
- 1908-1979
Creator
- Wilson, Charles Morrow, 1905-1977 (Person)
Conditions Governing Access
Collection is open to the public. Collection must be used in Special Collections and University Archives Reading Room. Collection or parts of collection may be stored offsite. Please contact Special Collections and University Archives in advance of your visit to allow for transportation time.
Conditions Governing Use
Property rights reside with Special Collections and University Archives, University of Oregon Libraries. Copyright resides with the creators of the documents or their heirs. All requests for permission to publish collection materials must be submitted to Special Collections and University Archives. The reader must also obtain permission of the copyright holder.
Biographical / Historical
Born near Fayetteville, Kansas, Charles Morrow Wilson (1905-1977) was a nationally known freelance author. While the majority of his many books and magazine articles were on international trade, agriculture, and medicine topics, a significant number were on Arkansas culture and politics, rural America, Central America, and Africa from a cultural, socio-economic, and historical viewpoint.
In 1929, while Wilson was a special student in economics at Oxford, he wrote magazine fiction and published a novel about the Ozarks, entitled "Acres of Sky" 1930. From 1935-1938 he wrote for various farm magazines such as Farm and Fireside.
Later he would become an analyst for the Atlas corporation, and then special assistant to Samuel Zemurray, president of United Fruit. In this position, he served as medical, research, an management coordinator for the company in Guatemala, Honduras, Costa Rica, Colombia, and Jamaica. The subject of his writings during the period 1939-1950 reflect his involvement with Latin American trade and economics and U.S.- Latin American relations.
Because of his work during WWII on supplies procurement, Firestone Tire and Rubber Company invited him to go to Liberia under the title of "acting assistant manager" of the rubber plantations. He remained for five years, assisting and advising the developing nations of West Africa.
In the 1960s, Wilson turned to juvenile non-fiction with biographies of Rudolf Deisel and Champlain. During this period Wilson worked as special consultant for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Extent
7.5 linear feet (5 containers) : 5 record storage boxes
Language of Materials
English
Abstract
Charles Morrow Wilson (1905-1977) was a nationally known freelance author who wrote books and magazine articles on international trade, agriculture, and medicine topics, as well as on Arkansas culture and politics, rural America, Central America, and Africa from a cultural, socio-economic, and historical viewpoint. The collection contains professional and personal correspondence, publications and tearsheets, diaries and ledgers, manuscripts, speeches, research materials, a radio interview, and published books.
Arrangement
Material within this collection is minimally arranged. Any arrangement is either derived from the records' creators or custodians or from staff at the time of initial processing. It may be necessary to look in multiple places for the same types of materials.
Other Finding Aids
Paper finding aid with additional information is available in Special Collections & University Archives.
Processing Information
Collection processed by staff, 1975.
This finding aid may be updated periodically to account for new acquisitions to the collection and/or revisions in arrangement and description.
This collection received a basic level of processing including minimal organization and rehousing.
Description information is drawn in part from information supplied with the collection and initial surveys of the contents.
- American literature -- Authorship Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Arkansas -- In literature Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Authors and publishers -- Correspondence Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Authors, American -- 20th century Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Book jackets Subject Source: Art & Architecture Thesaurus
- Correspondence Subject Source: Art & Architecture Thesaurus
- Diaries Subject Source: Art & Architecture Thesaurus
- Drafts (documents) Subject Source: Art & Architecture Thesaurus
- Faubus, Orval Eugene, 1910-1994
- Freelance journalism Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Journalists -- United States Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Literature Subject Source: Archiveswest
- Manuscripts for publication Subject Source: Art & Architecture Thesaurus
- Photographs Subject Source: Art & Architecture Thesaurus
- Short stories Subject Source: Local sources
- Tear sheets Subject Source: Art & Architecture Thesaurus
- Wilson, Charles Morrow, 1905-1977
- Wilson, Charles Morrow, 1905-1977
- Wilson, Charles Morrow, 1905-1977
- Title
- Guide to the Charles Morrow Wilson Papers
- Status
- Complete Description
- Author
- University of Oregon Libraries, Archivists' Toolkit Project Team and Tanya Parlet.
- Date
- 2012
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
- Language of description note
- Finding aid written in English
Repository Details
Part of the University of Oregon Libraries, Special Collections and University Archives Repository
