- unitid
-
{"value"=>"MssCol 182", "type"=>"local_call"}
{"value"=>"182", "type"=>"local_mss"}
- unitdate
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{"value"=>"1913-1977", "type"=>"inclusive", "normal"=>"1913/1977"}
- date_inclusive_start
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1913
- date_inclusive_end
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1977
- keydate
-
1913
- unittitle
-
{"value"=>"John Edwin Bakeless papers"}
- physdesc
-
{"format"=>"simple", "value"=>"29.9 lin. ft. (74 archival containers"}
- repository
-
{"value"=>"The <span class=\"corpname\">New York Public Library. Manuscripts and Archives Division.</span> <div class=\"address\"> <span class=\"addressline\">5th Avenue and 42nd Street, New York, New York 10018-2788</span></div>"}
- abstract
-
{"value"=>"John Edwin Bakeless (1894-1978) was an American author, historian, journalist, soldier, teacher, and amateur horticulturist. Collection contains manuscript and typescript drafts of Bakeless's writings; research notes and papers on military intelligence; general and family correspondence; and personal papers including diaries, scrapbooks and other miscellany."}
- prefercite
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{"value"=>"<p>John Edwin Bakeless Papers, Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations</p>"}
- origination
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{"value"=>"Bakeless, John Edwin, 1894-", "type"=>"persname"}
- bioghist
-
{"value"=>"<p>John Edwin Bakeless (1894-1978) author, historian, journalist, soldier and teacher, was born at Carlisle Barracks, Carlisle, Pennsylvania, the son of Oscar Hugh Bakeless and Sara (Harvey) Bakeless. His father was head of academic instruction at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School and later (1902-1928) professor of pedagogy at Bloomsburg (Pa.) State Normal School. Owing to his father's position at the Carlisle Indian School Bakeless's childhood companions, as well as his nurses and physicians, were almost entirely native American Indians (a circumstance which may account for the lifelike descriptions of Indians, noted by his editors, in his historical writings).</p> <p>After graduating (1913) from Bloomsburg State Normal School Bakeless took a baccalaureate in philosophy (1918) at Williams College, and at Harvard, a master's in philosophy (1920) and a doctorate in English philology (1936). His academic career was exceptionally brilliant. At Williams he won numerous prizes (for Greek, public speaking, etc.,) as well as the David A. Wells Graduate Prize for his essay The Economic Causes of Modern War (Moffat, Yard, 1921), his first book. At Harvard, where he also won many honors, he obtained the added distinction of being the only student since Emerson to have won the Bowdoin Prize in successive years (1922-1923), first in the humanities, for an essay on Marlowe's <span class=\"title\">Tamburlane</span>, and subsequently in science, for an essay on the migration of insects.</p> <p>Although by 1926 he had completed the course work for his doctorate, he delayed the completion of his dissertation (\"Christopher Marlowe, A Biographical and Critical Study\") until he had produced what he regarded as a publishable manuscript. Two books, in fact, each acknowledged classics, ultimately resulted from it: Christopher Marlowe, The Man in His Time (Morrow, 1937); and The Tragical History of Christopher Marlowe (Harvard and Oxford, 1942). His Marlowe studies were aided by a Guggenheim Fellowship (1936-37) which permitted him to complete his research in England. (He received a second Guggenheim Fellowship in 1946 for his book on Lewis and Clark).</p> <p>Bakeless's journalistic career began in 1911 when he was hired as a reporter (part time) for his hometown newspaper, the Bloomsburg Morning Press. During the next two years he acceded to the positions of full time reporter, night editor and feature writer, and he continued to write for the Press during his college vacations. This practical journalistic experience coupled with a brilliant academic record brought him to the attention of the editor of The Atlantic Monthly (Ellery Sedgwick) who in 1921 offered him the position of literary editor of The Living Age. Bakeless accepted, advancing to the position of managing editor (1923-25) and editor (1928-29). He was also for a time (1926-27) managing editor of The Forum, literary editor (1937-38) of the Literary Digest, and literary advisor (1925-26) to The Independent. Throughout his journalistic career he contributed numerous articles and book reviews to newspapers and magazines.</p> <p>Although he was well prepared for a career in teaching and had been offered attractive professorships (at Harvard and M.I.T.) Bakeless was reluctant to embark upon it full-time. In later years he maintained that he had developed early in life an \"abiding distrust of deans, chairmen, professors\", resolving never to place his future entirely in their hands. Nevertheless, his love of teaching which he avowed was in the family blood (besides his parents, an aunt and two close cousins were also teachers) precluded his total disengagement from it. He also needed the income from teaching in order to supplement his earnings as an author.</p> <p>From 1927 until 1940 Bakeless taught journalism and literary criticism (part time) at New York University where he was successively lecturer, instructor, assistant professor and from 1940 to 1947 associate professor of journalism. The latter title, however, was largely symbolic for he spent the war years on active military duty and upon his return he requested demotion to the rank of lecturer (a part time position) which allowed him to indulge his other love, historical writing and research. Bakeless also taught at Sarah Lawrence College (1931-36) and at Finch College (1948-52) and lectured at numerous colleges and universities including Dickinson College, Harvard, Yale, and the universities of Colorado and Michigan. In 1953 he retired from teaching to devote full time to his books.</p> <p>Bakeless's military career began in 1917 while he was a student at Williams College. When war was declared he joined the R.O.T.C. and upon his graduation he was commissioned a second lieutenant in the infantry and assigned as instructing officer at a training school for officers at Camp Lee, Virginia. After the war he joined the Officers Reserve Corps rising to the grade of Colonel on the General Staff. From November of 1940 until May of 1946 he was on active duty serving successively as assistant chief (later, chief) of the Balkan and Near East Section of the Military Intelligence Division in the War Department (1940-44); as assistant military attaché at Turkey (1944) and as Chief Intelligence Officer on the American Delegation of the Allied Control Commission in Bulgaria (1945). During a part of 1944 he was on a secret mission in Greece behind the German lines. In 1953 he was retired from the active reserves. During the post-war period he was also, as his papers reveal, a consultant to the Central Intelligence Agency.</p> <p>Bakeless considered his training and experience in military intelligence (G-2) an excellent preparation for his extensive research on the role of military intelligence in American history. His indefatigable searches of libraries, archives, historical societies and private sources, resulted in the accumulation of much unique and previously unknown material.</p> <p>By the outbreak of World War II. Bakeless's reputation as an historian and author had already been established. In addition to his remarkable studies of Christopher Marlowe and his prize- winning book on the economic causes of war he had also published The Origin of the Next War (Viking, 1926), Magazine Making (Viking, 1931), and Daniel Boone, Master of the Wilderness (Morrow, 1939).</p> <p>In the post-war period much of his time was devoted to researching and writing his other biographical and historical works on early America (Lewis and Clark, Partners in Discovery (Morrow, 1947); Eyes of Discovery (Lippincott, 1950); Background to Glory, The Life of George Rogers Clark (Lippincott, 1957); and his books on military intelligence (Turncoats, Traitors and Heroes (Lippincott, 1959); and Spies of the Confederacy (Lippincott, 1970)). He also wrote three books jointly with his wife (They Saw America First (Lippincott, 1957), Spies of the American Revolution (Lippincott, 1962), and Signers of the Declaration (Houghton, Mifflin, 1962).</p> <p>In June of 1920 Bakeless married Katherine Little (1895-92) of Bloomsburg (Pa.), a music teacher and later the author of several works on music and the lives of composers. Her father, who was descended from Mayflower stock, was an attorney and judge. In 1926 the Baklesses moved from Cambridge to New York taking up residence in an apartment in Greenwich Village. In 1940 Bakeless purchased an historic farmhouse on several acres of land at Great Hill, Seymour, Connecticut (near New Haven) which he named \"Elbowroom Farm\" (after Daniel Boone's remark that he needed \"elbow room\"). Here he spent the post-war years commuting to his teaching jobs in New York, researching and writing his books, and indulging his life long passion for horticulture.</p>"}
- scopecontent
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{"value"=>"<p>The bulk (over 75%) of the John Edwin Bakeless Papers consists of writings and research notes and papers reflecting Bakeless's career as author, historian and historical researcher. Included are manuscript and typescript drafts of several of his published works including Background to Glory, Spies of the Confederacy and Traitors, Turncoats and Heroes; and five book- length drafts (some incomplete) of unpublished writings including a history of popular culture in America and a history of the Missouri Pacific Railroad. There are also research notes (some on 8x10 index cards) and papers relating especially to his searches for source materials in libraries, archives and in private hands for his books on military intelligence during the American Revolution and the Civil War. The remainder of the papers (about 25%) consists of correspondence with historians, scholars, publishers, librarians, archivists, family members, personal friends and others; and personal diaries and scrapbooks, military service records, and other miscellany including a diary kept by Bakeless's father, Oscar H. Bakeless.</p>"}
{"value"=>"<p class='list-head'>The John Edwin Bakeless papers are arranged in four series:</p>\n<ul class='arrangement series-descriptions'>\n<li><div class='series-title'><a href='/mss/182#c723615'>Series l. Correspondence</a></div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>The Correspondence is arranged into four sub-series: A. General Correspondence; B. Correspondence Sent; C. Correspondence with Librarians and Archivists; D. Family Correspondence & Papers.</p></div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/mss/182#c723705'>Series II. Writings</a></div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>The Writings are arranged into three sub-series: A. Books; B. Miscellaneous Writings; C. College and University Essays.</p></div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/mss/182#c723770'>Series IIl. Research Notes and Papers</a></div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>The Research Notes and Papers are arranged into three sub- series: A. American Revolution; B. Civil War; and C. Miscellaneous.</p></div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/mss/182#c723809'>Series lV. Personal Miscellaneous Papers</a></div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>The Personal Miscellaneous Papers include personal diaries, and scrapbooks, pocket memo books, bills and receipts (1926-75), royalty statements 1940-67), military service records (1938-66), personal miscellany including curriculum vitae, personal publicity, snapshots of Bakeless in military uniform and in civilian clothes, a photo identification in Russian of Bakeless as a delegate of the Allied Control Commission in Bulgaria, a snapshot of Mrs. Katherine Bakeless and other personal memorabilia.</p> <p>The diaries consist of an unbound typescript narrative (June- July 1927, 1938-72 [gaps]); and 21 bound volumes (1957-77) of varying sizes [the year 1974 is missing].</p> <p>A large portion of the unbound typescript diary records Bakeless's gardening and horticultural activities at his farm in Seymour, Connecticut, his observations of nature, and his bird and wildlife sightings. There are scattered references to his counter- intelligence activities during W.W.II. (see especially entries for Jan. 7, 1950, Feb. 15, 1951) and to the Battle of the Bulge (entries for Dec. 27-28, 1955, Dec. 24, 1956, and Sept. 27, 1969). There are also scattered references to his literary work in progress, social and luncheon engagements, the history of the Town of Seymour (Conn.). In the earlier period (1927) the narrative contains anecdotal accounts of magazine publishing in New York City and of spying activities in W.W.I. gathered by Bakeless from conversations with his associates. During the war years (1940-45) the narrative was kept by Katherine Little Bakeless (wife of John Bakeless).</p> <p>The bound diaries (1957-77) record in abundant detail Bakeless's daily routine on his farm in Seymour (Conn.), his daily readings, literary work, farming activities, and his personal and social life.</p> <p>The scrapbooks kept by Bakeless consist of an unbound volume (1930s-1960s); and a bound volume (1913-14, 1938-40, 1967-74).</p> <p>The unbound scrapbook (1930's-1960's) contains numerous curricula vita of John Bakeless and of his wife, Katherine Little Bakeless; correspondence, genealogical notes and memoranda relative to the history of the Bakeless and Harvey families and to the history of the town of Bloomsburg and Columbia County (Pa); and memoranda (1930's) of luncheon and dinner conversations Bakeless had with associates relative to the Literary Digest, The Forum, and The Century (magazine).</p> <p>The bound scrapbook (1913-14, 1938-40, 1967-74) contains clippings (1913-14) of Bakeless's articles published in the Bloomsburg (Pa.) Morning Press and a printed flyer of his instructions (as editor) to rural correspondents; and numerous clippings relating to the Bloomsburg State College, the Bakeless Memorial Fund, and to John and Katherine Bakeless. Some clippings bear manuscript annotations by Bakeless relative to his newspaper career. There is also an autograph note (Feb. 7, 1914) in pencil by Gifford Pinchot written during his campaign for the U.S. Senate.</p> <p>The pocket memo books (1946 & undated) contain notes relating to his research on Lewis and Clark and miscellaneous notes.</p></div></li></ul>\n", "type"=>"arrangement"}
- arrangement
-
{"value"=>"<p>The papers are arranged in four series: I. Correspondence; II. Writings; III. Research Notes and Papers; IV. Personal Miscellaneous Papers. The series are described in sequence below.</p>", "supress_display"=>true}
- acqinfo
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{"value"=>"<p>Estate of Katherine Little Bakeless, April 5, 1993.</p>"}
- processinfo
-
{"value"=>"<p>Processed by John D. Stinson; machine-readable finding aid created by Melanie A. Yolles.</p>"}
- date_start
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1913
- date_end
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1977