The cool, the pretty, and the snarky in the Shirer Collection

I have been working in the George T. Henry Archives in the basement of Stewart Memorial Library for most of this spring semester, wading through and re-organizing just one box of William Shirer correspondence from the 1960s (hey, it has 19 folders!). And let me tell you, that box was a treasure trove of cool letters, pretty handwriting, and plenty of snarky things.

William Shirer is a notable Coe alum, well-known among the history folk for his monumental work The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, published in late 1960. He wrote mountains of letters and received a ridiculous amount of fan mail praising him and his book, all of which I think I’ve touched at least half a dozen times. So I’d like to share with you some of the more memorable pieces of correspondence in the 1960s box, and maybe you’ll come down and wade through the collection yourself one day to see what snark and praise you can find.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="650"] Here are two letters from the collection written to Shirer. So many of the handwritten letters in the collection are just gorgeous to look at, it doesn't really even matter what they say![/caption][caption id="" align="alignnone" width="650"] Just one example of Shirer's snark. Can't everyone tell the different between Swedish and Norwegian?![/caption]

 

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="650"] One of my absolute favorites, in which Shirer compares 1960s NYC mail delivery to 1930s Afghanistan... unfavorably. Plus, "Whiz-bang society"? You can't beat that.[/caption][caption id="" align="alignnone" width="650"] One of the coolest letterheads. How cool would it be to have letters that say, "from the Inner Sanctum of Stewart Memorial Library, Coe College"?[/caption]

These are just four examples of the pretty letters, snarky letters, and cool letterheads that can be found throughout the Shirer collection and the George T. Henry archives as a whole. Come down, check it out, and maybe even find something to research in the meantime! ~Kristine

From the Archives...

The archive’s second largest collection (the first being the Coe Collection) is from William L. Shirer.  Shirer graduated from Coe in 1925.  He borrowed money from President Gage and used it to high tail it out of Iowa and the United States.  He took a cattle boat to France where he found a job on the copy desk of the Paris Tribune.  He stayed in Europe until December of 1940.  During his 15 years there he covered Gandhi, got married, broke into radio, had a daughter, and covered Hitler’s rise to power.

[caption id="attachment_175" align="aligncenter" width="180" caption="William L. Shirer's CBS press pass"][/caption]

Back in the United States he continued as a radio correspondent for the Columbia Broadcasting System until 1947 when he found himself blacklisted.  Shirer didn’t much like McCarthyism (it reminded him too much of Nazi Germany) and didn’t care much for toeing the line.  After a short stint with another radio station he took to writing.  This would lead to his best seller “Rise and Fall of the Third Reich”, which is still read by serious WWII scholars today.

Shirer’s collection includes an extensive diary spanning over 70 years (1919-1993), his manuscripts, his correspondence, and his lectures along with boxes of publications and newspaper clippings covering the 20^th Century and its many turbulent events.

~Sara