OF THE PAPERS OF DEVERE ALLEN
The papers of Devere Allen consist of correspondence (bulk, 1910-1955), biographical material, administrative files, minutes of meetings, biographical material, published and unpublished manuscripts, diaries, newspaper clippings, brochures, flyers, leaflets, periodicals, reference material, posters, lapel buttons, stamps, and photographs. The papers reflect his work as a journalist, editor, newspaper correspondent, author of fiction and non fiction, and as a public speaker.
Devere Allen founded and edited the pacifist journal, The Rational Patriot in 1917-1918. Correspondence, manuscripts, and a complete file of this publication are included. From 1918 through 1921, he was secretary of The Young Democracy and editor of its publication of the same name. Records of The Young Democracy (correspondence, financial and membership records) and a set of Young Democracy (1919-1922) are included.
The collection contains substantial reference files in the areas of liberal youth organizations from the immediate post World-War I period.
Correspondence relating to Allen's tenure (1921-1933) as managing editor and editor of The World Tomorrow is included, together with a complete set of this periodical (1918-1934). There are extensive records of the Nofrontier News Service (1933-1941) and the Worldover Press (1942-1955), including correspondence, business, financial, operational, and promotional files, serial publications, news releases, and clippings.
The collection contains information about the many organizations with which Allen was affiliated, including the American Friends Service Committee, the Fellowship of Reconciliation, the International Fellowship of Reconciliation, the War Resisters League, and War Resisters' International. A complete list of the organizations is found in Series C-5 of this checklist.
There is extensive documentation of Allen's involvement with the Socialist Party (U.S.) at the national, state, and local level. (The Socialist Party of Connecticut was forced to change its name to the Labor Party of Connecticut in 1938). Correspondence and organizational material, both primary and secondary, are found throughout Series C-4. Most of Allen's involvement was between the years 1932 and 1940, although there is a small amount of correspondence after 1940.
The many correspondents of Devere Allen include: Dean Acheson, Jane Addams, Friedrich Adler, Gertrude Baer, Emily Greene Balch, Roger Baldwin, Charles Beard, Russel O. Berg, Landrum Bolling, Heloise Brainerd, Ellen Starr Brinton, Vera Brittain, Fenner Brockway, Heywood Broun, Pearl Buck, Corder Catchpool, Carrie Chapman Catt, E. Dixwell Chase, A. Sprague Coolidge, Maurice Cranston, Merle Curti, Dorothy Detzer, John Dewey, Camille Drevet, W.E.B. DuBois, John Foster Dulles, Crystal Eastman, Albert Einstein, H.C. Engelbrecht, Harold Fey, Dorothy Canfield Fisher, Lella Secor Florence, A. Ruth Fry, Marcus Garvey, Donald Grant, Anna M. Graves, Philip Gray, Richard Gregg, Paul Harris, Alfred Hassler, John Hayes Holmes, Jessie Wallace Hughan, Hannah C. Hull, Dorothy Hunt (Mrs. S. Foster Hunt), Grace Hutchins, Samuel Guy Inman, Rufus Jones, David Starr Jordan, Abe Kaufman, Muriel Lester, Alfred Baker Lewis, Fred Libby, A.J. Muste, Tracy Mygatt, Ray Newton, Reinhold Niebuhr, Anna T. Nilsson, Mildred Scott Olmsted, Kirby Page, Sylvia Pankhurst, Clarence E. Pickett, Arthur Ponsonby, Mercedes Randall, Jeannette Rankin, Charles Raven, Reginald Reynolds, Anna Rochester, Romain Rolland, Eleanor Roosevelt, Robert Root, Bayard Rustin, Margaret Sanger, John Nevin Sayre, Rosika Schwimmer, Michael Scott, Vida Scudder, Clarence Senior, Rebecca Shelley, Wallace Stegner, Helene Stocker, John Swomley, Norman Thomas, Magda Trocmé, Caroline Urie, Oswald G. Villard, Lillian Wald, Wilfred Wellock, Howard Y. Williams, E. Raymond Wilson, William Worthy, and Art Young. There is an index to significant correspondents.