Descriptive Summary
Spivak, John L.,
1897-1981
John L. Spivak Papers
1929-1948
TXRC93-A6
2 boxes (.84 linear
feet)
Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center,
University of Texas at Austin
These papers document the
research, writing, and response to Spivak's book
Georgia Nigger (1932). The papers consist
of notes, draft manuscripts, and newpaper clippings created and collected by
Spivak, an American journalist known for his investigative reporting and
support of socialism.
English.
Biographical Sketch
John Louis Spivak was born on June 13, 1897, and grew up in New Haven,
Connecticut. After a series of factory jobs, Spivak began a career in
journalism as a police reporter with the
New Haven Union. His antipathy for the
patriotic hysteria of the late 1910s, coupled with an interest in socialism,
politicized Spivak, who used his investigative skills to expose corruption and
venality in American business and government. By 1919, Spivak was working as a
freelance reporter for the American Socialist Party's paper,
The Call, where he covered labor unrest in
the West Virginia mines, going so far as to personally ask the White House to
investigate the murders of unionizers and the Sacco-Vanzetti murder trial.
Throughout the 1920s and 1930s Spivak travelled around the country and
the world investigating corruption and inequality. He successfully proved that
a New York police commissioner's evidence that
labor unions were receiving funds from the U.S.S.R. were forged. He also
investigated living conditions in Georgia prison camps and chain gangs, which
he revealed in a book of fiction titled
Georgia Nigger. This book caused a
sensation, and is credited with curtailing the chain gang system in the
South.
In the 1930s Spivak investigated the rise of fascism. He was
particularly interested in fascist infiltration in the United States, and
worked with several anti-fascist and Jewish groups to expose German and
Japanese propagandists and spies. His 1934 book
Plotting America's Pogroms investigated Nazi
groups in the United States, and he continued his reports with
Europe Under the Terror (1936), which
interviewed members of the anti-Nazi underground in Rome, Vienna, Berlin,
Warsaw, and Prague. Spivak exposed a group of fascist sympathizers who were
trying to foment a revolution in Mexico in order to divert American attention
from Germany and Japan. His 1940 book,
The Shrine of the Silver Dollar, led to the
downfall of the anti-Semitic broadcaster, Father Charles Coughlin. Spivak's
many exposés led the crusader and muckraker Lincoln Steffens to name himthe best of us.
Spivak retired from journalism in the 1960s and published an
autobiography,
A Man in His Time, in 1967. However, two
years later, he became consumer affairs editor at a Pennsylvania newspaper,
where he exposed a corrupt magazine sales scheme, which led to a new state
consumer protection law. Spivak died September 30, 1981, in Philadelphia.
Scope and Contents
Although he had a long and productive career as a journalist, this
collection reflects Spivak's work on only one book. The two boxes of reports,
correspondence, creative works, and scrapbook material, 1929-48 (bulk 1929-33),
document the publication of John L. Spivak's book,
Georgia Nigger. The material is arranged in
three series. The first, entitled Documentation of Georgia Prison Conditions (2
folders, 1929-31), includes reports and correspondence taken from Georgia state
prison records. Spivak used these in the appendix of
Georgia Nigger to document the conditions he
fictionalized. Of particular interest are disciplinary and whipping reports,
death notices of inmates, and written appeals from prisoners to the Prison
Commissioner of Georgia, along with his responses. Much of the material is
duplicated by photostats.
The second series,
Georgia Nigger (9 folders), contains
Spivak's notes, drafts, and prepublication materials associated with the
publication of this book in 1932. Spivak's earliest attempts to expose the
prison conditions were in the form of notes on prison conditions and
African-Americans, cut into strips with handwritten categorizations like
camp,
migration,
torture, and peonage.
Two folders in this series contain these notes, as well as other research
findings about African-Americans in the South. Four folders contain Spivak's
first draft of the book, which is heavily corrected and modified. Materials
originally paperclipped together by Spivak have been kept together in mylar
sleeves. Many of these contain the paper strips found in his earliest notes,
and illustrate how Spivak's historical and sociological research became a book
of fiction. The series also contains two later drafts of
Georgia Nigger, also annotated, as well as
prepublication materials, including American and English edition dust jackets,
and galley proofs.
The final series, Reaction to
Georgia Nigger (7 folders), is made up of
press releases, book reviews, newspaper articles, orrespondence, and lecture
announcements that show how the book was received in the United States and
abroad.
Georgia Nigger set off a storm of
controversy when it was first released, as is illustrated by the many book
reviews and newspaper articles found in the series. Of particular interest is
the correspondence (2 folders), since the book attracted mail from sympathetic
persons and organizations, and from angry Southerners. Much of the
correspondence centers around the National Association for the Advancement of
Colored People and the American Civil Liberties Union, both of which
distributed copies of the book, and condemned the prison conditions that Spivak
described. Correspondents of note include Will W. Alexander, Roger Nash
Baldwin, Countee Cullen, Michael Gold, Walter White, George Foster Peabody,
John Cowper Powys, and Mary Heaton Vorse. Scattered throughout the series in
articles and correspondence is evidence of Spivak's efforts to halt the
extradition of Robert E. Burns, author of
I Was a Fugitive from a Georgia Chain
Gang.
A strength of the Spivak collection derives from its illustration of the
creative process. Series II traces
Georgia Nigger from the author's earliest
notes to the galleys for the book. The collection also reflects conditions and
movements in the United States in the early 1930s, particularly in the
progressive community.
Associated materials complement the Spivak collection. Of particular
note are 43 prints and negatives taken by Spivak documenting Georgia prison
conditions and African-American life in the state. These were separated from
the collection when it was first purchased, and can be found in the Ransom
Center's Photography Collection.
Acquisition
Purchase, 1968
Access
Open for research
Processed by
Jennifer B. Patterson, 1993
Index Terms
Correspondents
Alexander, William Winton,
1884-1956.
Baldwin, Roger Nash, 1884-
.
Burns, Robert
Elliott.
Burns, Vincent Godfrey,
1893- .
Carmon, Walt.
Cecil, Edgar Algernon
Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, viscount, 1864-1958.
Cleghorn, Sarah Norcliffe,
1876-1959.
Cullen, Countee,
1903-1946.
Gold, Michael,
1894-1967.
Lehman, Herbert H. (Herbert
Henry), 1878-1963.
Moss, Gordon W.
Murphy, Carl.
North, Joseph.
Peabody, George Foster,
1852-1938.
Powys, John Cowper,
1872-1963.
Reavey, George, 1907- .
Vann, Robert L.,
1887-1940.
Vorse, Mary Heaton,
1874-1966.
Walters, Basil Leon,
1896-1975.
Waymack, W. W. (William
Wesley), 1888-1960.
White, Walter Francis,
1893-1955.
American Civil Liberties
Union.
Des Moines Register and
Tribune Company.
National Association for
the Advancement of Colored People.
Prison Commission of
Georgia.
Subjects
Afro-American
prisoners--Georgia.
Convict
labor--Georgia.
Prisons--Georgia.
Document types
Book reviews.
Death records.
Editorials.
First drafts.
Galley proofs.
Newspapers.
Photographs.
John L. Spivak Papers--Folder List
Series I. Documentation of Georgia Prison Conditions,
1929-31
1
1
Reports
1
2
Correspondence,
1930-31
Series II:
Georgia Nigger,
n.d.
1
3-4
Notes
1
5
Early draft -- Chapters 1-5
1
6
Ch. 6-10
1
7-8
Ch. 11-17
2
1
Draft,
n.d.
2
2
Draft,
n.d.
2
3
Prepublication materials
Series III: Reaction to
Georgia Nigger,
1932-47
2
4
Press releases
2
5
Book reviews
2
6
Articles,
1932-37
2
7
Articles,
undated
2
8
Correspondence, A-J,
1932-34
2
9
Correspondence, K-unidentified,
1932-33
2
10
Lectures and interviews
John L. Spivak Papers--Index of Correspondents
- Agence Littéraire Internationale--2.8
- Ainer(?), Henry--1.2
- Alexander, Will W. (Commission on Interracial Cooperation) (Filed
under NAACP)--2.9
- American Civil Liberties Union--2.8
- Arbeiter Photo (Berlin)--2.8
- Baldwin, Roger N. (American Civil Liberties Union)--2.8
- Ballou, Robert (Brewer, Warren & Putnam, Inc.)--2.8
- Barnett, C.A. (Associated Negro Press)--2.8
- Battle, George--1.2
- Brown, Eugene--1.2
- Burns, Robert Elliott--2.8
- Burns, Vincent Godfrey (Union Church)--2.8
- Carmon, Walt (International Literature)--2.8
- Cecil, viscount (League of Nations) (Filed under NAACP)--2.9
- Chauvent, Ernest (
Le Nouvelliste) (Filed under NAACP)--2.9
- Cleghorn, Sarah N.--2.8
- Cohen, Elliot E. (National Committee for the Defense of Political
Prisoners)--2.9
- Cromford, George--1.2
- Cowles, John (
Des Moines Register)--2.8
- Cullen, Countee--2.8
-
Daily Mirror--2.8
- Davin, Tom (Hearst's International)--2.8
-
Des Moines Register--2.8
- Fullilove, H.M. (St. Mary's Hospital) (Filed under F.
Mallon)--1.2, 2.9
- Godley, Neeley--1.2
- Gold, Michael--2.8
- Handler, Charles--2.8
- Henson, W.C. (Finley & Henson) (Filed under ACLU)--2.8
- Hikida, Y.--2.9
- Kelleher, Agnes A. (
Des Moines Register)--2.8
- Kelley, William M. (
Amsterdam News) (Filed under NAACP)--2.9
- Klarin, A. (Bibliographisches Institut)--2.9
- Lehman, Herbert H.--2.9
- Little, Willie--1.2
- Lopashov, S. (State Central Library)--2.9
- Mallon, Frank E.--2.9
- Moore, Hon A. Harry (Filed under NAACP)--2.9
- Moss, Gordon W. (American Civil Liberties Union)--2.8
- Murphy, Carl (
The Afro-American)--2.8
- National Association for the Advancement of Colored People--2.9
- North, Joseph (
Labor Defender) (Filed under NAACP)--2.9
- Peabody, George Foster--2.9
- Pocklington, G.R.--2.9
- Powys, John Cowper--2.9
- Prison Commission of Georgia--1.2
- Reavey, G. (Bureau of Litteraire Europeen)--2.8
- Rose, Ernestine (Harlem Adult Education Committee)--2.8
- S(h)ilensky, Morris (Hays, St. John, Abramson) (Filed under
ACLU)--2.8
- Smith, L.T. (Filed under NAACP)--2.9
- Stanley, Vivian (Prison Commission of GA)--1.2
- Stoklitsky,?--2.9
- Thornton, S.W.--1.2
- Vann, Robert L. (
Pittsburgh Courier)--2.9
- Vorse, Mary Heaton--2.9
- Walters, Basil L. (
Des Moines Register)--2.8
- Waymack, W.W. (
Des Moines Register)--2.8
- Wells, O. (Worker's School)--2.9
- Wendell, Pauline--2.9
- West, T. Newell (Public Works and Roads, Ga.)--1.2
- White, Walter F. (NAACP)--2.9
- Zipper, Hans (Osterr, Rote Hilfe)--2.9