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Creator
Calverton, V. F. (Victor Francis), 1900-1940
Call number
MssCol 459
Physical description
31 linear feet (61 boxes, 25 v.)
Language
Materials in English
Preferred Citation

V.F. Calverton papers, Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library

Repository
Manuscripts and Archives Division
Access to materials
Request an in-person research appointment.Restrictions apply

Victor Francis Calverton (born George Goetz) (1900-1940), radical reformer and author, was founder and editor of Modern Quarterly, an independent Marxist journal. Collection consists of correspondence, writings, business records, photographs, and printed matter. Calverton's correspondence as editor of Modern Quarterly is with many of America's left-wing literary figures of the 1920s and 1930s, including William Z. Foster, Bertram Wolfe, Scott Nearing, Edmund Wilson, Max Eastman, and A.J. Muste. Included is correspondence with Leon Trotsky in which Trotsky and Calverton discuss the nature of proletarian literature. Personal correspondence consists mainly of Calverton's love letters, 1928-1940, to Nina Melville, his second wife. Also, manuscripts of articles, books, book reviews, debates, and lectures; business records of Modern Quarterly; scrapbooks containing reviews of Calverton's writings; and photographs of Melville and Calverton.

Biographical/historical information

V. F. [Victor Francis] Calverton 1900-1940, né George Goetz, was a radical reformer, author, founder and editor of the Modern Quarterly. Calverton was born in Baltimore, Maryland in 1900, the son of Charles and Ida Janette Geiger Goetz. Calverton graduated with an A.B. from John Hopkins University 1921.Calverton was the author of 18 monographs which included: The Newer Spirit 1925, Sex Expression in literature 1926, For Revolution 1932, and Where Angels dared to tread 1939. Calverton was the editor of An Anthology of American Negro literature 1929. Calverton married twice; his second wife was the actress and social worker Nina Melville.

Nina Melville 1910-1966, née Hortense Goodsitt, was a graduate of Hunter College. After a brief career as an actress, Melville pursued social work in New York City where she had a career as an associate editor of the Modern Quarterly. Widowed by the death of V.F. Calverton in 1940, Melville married Peter G. Berdeshevsky in 1942, a consultant engineer in the sugar industry

Scope and arrangement

The Victor Francis Calverton Papers, 1923-1941, contain general correspondence, personal correspondence, writings, scrapbooks, printed material, photographs and artifacts. The General Correspondence, 1923-1940, is mainly incoming letters to V.F. Calverton, in his capacity as editor of the Modern Quarterly. The correspondents included colleagues, subscribers to the Modern Quarterly and left wing organizations. The personal correspondence consists mainly of Calverton's love letters to Nina Melville 1928-1940. There are some miscellaneous letters to both Calverton and Melville. The writings include manuscripts and notes by Calverton and manuscripts submitted to the Modern Quarterly. The additions to the collection include correspondence, manuscripts by Calverton, notes and memos, writings by others, photographs of Melville and Calverton, and an artifact.

The V.F. Calverton papers are arranged in seven series:

  • I. General Correspondence

    Index of names available in printed copy of finding aid.

    The General Correspondence, A-Z, is alphabetical in its arrangement. It consists of incoming letters to V. F. Calverton in his capacity as editor of the Modern Quarterly. The correspondents include the American Civil Liberties Union, Egmont Arens New Masses, Harry Elmer Barnes Marx-Engels Institute-USSR, Alexander Bittelman Daily Worker, Boni & Liveright publishers, Ernest Boyd, Elmer Carter Opportunity: Journal of Negro Life, American-Workers Party, Theodore Dreiser, Daily Worker, John Dos Passos, Max Eastman, W. Z. Hardman Amalgamated Clothing Workers, Abraham L. Harris, John Haynes Holmes, The Nation,Maxwell Perkins Charles Scribner & Co., Herbert Read Criterion, Samuel Schmalhausen, Charles Scribner, Herman Shapiro Monthly Quarterly, Upton Sinclair, Mildred Smith, Irving Sollins, Benjamin Stolberg, Leon Trotsky and Walter White NAACP.

  • II. Writings
  • III. V. F. Calverton - Nina Melville Correspondence

    The Correspondence consists chiefly of Calverton's love letters to his wife Nina Melville. Calverton wrote to Melville daily, up to four letters a day. Calverton traveled frequently; therefore, he would write to Melville from different locations. Calverton would include in his love letters the status of his work including book deals, reviews, individuals he had met and parts of typescripts from monographs and articles. In addition there are letters from Melville to Calverton, condolence letters regarding the death of Calverton and Melville's correspondence with others.

    Calverton letters listed below include typescripts:

    16 May 1928, 22 March 1930, 9 May 1931, 24 April 1932; 17 July 1932, 20 May 1933; 19 June 1933; 30 July 1933, 11 Feb. 1934; 6 May 1934; 1 July 1934, 28 January 1935; 23 March 1935; 23 & 25 May 1935; 21 July 1935; 25 Oct. 1935, 25 April 1936, 31 July 1937; 11 September 1937.

  • IV. Manuscripts

    The manuscripts series contain Nina Melville's college papers, incomplete manuscripts, notes and printed material.

  • V. Photographs

    The photographs are black and white photographs of Nina Melville and V. F. Calverton.

  • VI. Additions

    The additions contain correspondence, manuscripts, notes and memos by Calverton, and writings by others.

  • VII. Scrapbooks

Administrative information

Source of acquisition

Gift of Nina Melville and Bessie Peretz, 1943, 1957, 1958.

Processing information

Processed by Michael Nash, Valerie Wingfield, June 1988, Rev. March 1991.

Related Material

University of Oklahoma Press. Records 1928-1962. Western History Collections, University of Oklahoma, 630 Parrington Oval, Room 452, Norman, Okla. 73019.

Granville Hicks Papers 1906-1980. George Arents Research Library for Special Collections, Manuscripts Collections. Bird Library, Room 600, Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York 13244-2010.

Using the collection

Location

Manuscripts and Archives Division
Stephen A. Schwarzman Building
Fifth Avenue at 42nd Street, New York, NY 10018-2788
Brooke Russell Astor Reading Room, Third Floor, Room 328

Access restrictions

Box 52 is closed. It contains fragile letters and manuscripts copies of which have been placed in appropriate locations in the collection.