Address:
Warren Van Valkenburgh Papers, 1912-1937
Using These Materials
- Restrictions:
- The collection is open for research.
Summary
- Creator:
- Van Valkenburgh, Warren Starr, 1884-1938.
- Abstract:
- An anarchist and editor of Road to Freedom, Van Valkenburgh assisted Emma Goldman in typing and distributing her writings and correspondence. The collection documents his activities in the Socialist Party in Schenectady, N.Y.; as secretary for the Sociology Club, a group in Schenectady organized to study and debate social problems; as editor of Road to Freedom and Spanish Revolution; and as supporter of anarchist causes, including the Sacco-Vanzetti Case and the Spanish Civil War. There is a collection of articles by Van Valkenburgh and others, as well as correspondence with many radical leaders, including Leonard D. Abbott, Stella Ballantine, Gustav F. Beckh, Alexander Berkman, Karl Dannenburg, Hippolyte Havel, Herman Kuehn, Maximilian Olay, Upton Sinclair, and Carlo Tresca. Correspondence with Emma Goldman concerns her lecture tours, politics, his writing for Mother Earth, and her trial, imprisonment, and deportation in 1919. Also included are transcripts of debates, leaflets, and newspaper clippings.
- Extent:
- 1 Linear Foot (2 manuscript boxes.)
- Language:
- English
- Authors:
- Julie Herrada
Background
- Scope and Content:
-
The collection documents his activities in the Socialist Party in Schenectady, N.Y.; as secretary for the Sociology Club, a group in Schenectady organized to study and debate social problems; as editor of Road to Freedom and Spanish Revolution; and as supporter of anarchist causes, including the Sacco-Vanzetti Case and the Spanish Civil War.
There is a collection of articles by Van Valkenburgh and others, as well as correspondence with many radical leaders, including Leonard D. Abbott, Stella Ballantine, Gustav F. Beckh, Alexander Berkman, Karl Dannenburg, Hippolyte Havel, Herman Kuehn, Maximilian Olay, Upton Sinclair, and Carlo Tresca. Correspondence with Emma Goldman concerns her lecture tours, politics, his writing for Mother Earth, and her trial, imprisonment, and deportation in 1919. Also included are transcripts of debates, leaflets, and newspaper clippings.
- Biographical / Historical:
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Warren Starr Van Valkenburgh was born October 25, 1884 in Albany, New York. As a young man, he worked for the railroad and lost a leg in an accident. Around 1911 he joined the local Socialist Party in Schenectady, New York. He soon became interested anarchism and began corresponding with Emma Goldman. On September 19, 1912 Van Valkenburgh resigned from the Socialist Party in favor of anarchism. From 1915 to 1917 he was the Secretary of the Economic Club, renamed the Sociology Club. Van Valkenburgh worked for Elliott-Fisher Co. (New York), a seller of office equipment, from 1921-1927, doing publicity and advertising. He was fired from Elliott-Fisher when his anarchist activities became known, and soon after, adopted the pseudonym Walter Starrett. He became treasurer of the anarchist journal Road to Freedom in 1927, at the same time getting involved in the Sacco-Vanzetti Defense Committee work. In the meantime, he worked various jobs for short periods, including at E.F. Hutton, a brokerage firm. From 1928 to 1931 he edited Road to Freedom (RTF ceased publication in 1932). In 1937 Van Valkenburgh was Director of Metropolitan Lecture Bureau in New York City, which sponsored anarchists and other political lecturers. As editor of Spanish Revolution in 1937-38, Van Valkenburgh was active in organizing street meetings in New York concerning the Spanish anarchists. He was a good public speaker, considered one of the best in the anarchist groups of the time period in New York. He died of a heart attack on May 22, 1938 at the age of 53, leaving his wife, Sadie (nee Ludlow) and several children.
- Acquisition Information:
- Gift of Mrs. Edna M. Holden (daughter of Van Valkenburgh)
- Processing information:
-
The collection was processed twenty years before this finding aid was written. Notes on processing can be found in the collection file. Processed by Karen Koka and/or Kathryn Beam.
- Arrangement:
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The papers are divided into five series: Correspondence, Sociology Club, Road to Freedom, Spanish Civil War, and Articles. The Correspondence series comprises general outgoing letters, including Van Valkenburgh's letter of resignation from the Socialist Party, letters to the editor, letters to various people about Emma Goldman and her activities, World War I, race, economics, prohibition, and Zionism. Also included are incoming letters from Stella Ballantine about Goldman's activities, Gustav F. Beckh about his emigration to the U.S. in 1926 and his lectures and other activities, from Alexander Berkman, concerning publication of The Blast, translation of Konstanti Trenev's play "Pugatchov" and other works for which Van Valkenburgh acted as Berkman's literary representative. A letter from Upton Sinclair concerns a review by Van Valkenburgh of Sinclair's book Boston, enclosing a copy of a letter from Bartolomeo Vanzetti to Sinclair thanking him for his support, and accompanied by Van Valkenburgh's published response, and correspondence with Phalen Wolf about his pacifist activities in Flint, Michigan in 1917-1918. The Economic Club of Schenectady changed its name to The Sociology Club in December 1915. Its purpose was to study social problems, especially the question of unemployment. The series contains correspondence related to Van Valkenburgh's activities as secretary of the Sociology Club (1914-1918). He arranged debates with other organizations, including the Schenectady branch of the Socialist Party, and the publication of The Unemployment Problem by Shankar L. Gokhale, the Club's official expositor. Other correspondence concerns statements of the Club's beliefs on unemployment and its relation to capitalism, socialism, and anarchism, and related topics. Also included are third party correspondence, organizational and business papers of the Club, essays by S.L. Gokhale, debates, Second Revised Tentative Programme of the Abolitionist League in support of guaranteed employment, and miscellaneous material. The Road to Freedom series contains correspondence concerning items to be published in RTF, lectures sponsored by RTF, and other activities relating to RTF, as well as its financial difficulties. Included is a letter from Lucy Parsons correcting errors in an essay by Marcus Graham about her husband. A major topic of this series is the Sacco-Vanzetti case. Included are three letters from Emma Goldman concerning her reactions to the case, other correspondence, and writings by Van Valkenburgh and others published in two special editions of RTF on the anniversary of Sacco's and Vanzetti's executions, and related printed matter. Other materials include articles, writings, a report from the International Anarchist Conference of 1927, and organizational and business papers. The Spanish Civil War series contains correspondence primarily concerning meetings organized by Van Valkenburgh and others in New York to support the Spanish anarchists and the disruption of their meetings by New York Communists; also concerning Van Valkenburgh's periodical Spanish Revolution and articles to be published in it, including translations of news releases and essays from Spain. Also included is correspondence with Maximilian Olay about his writings and translations for Spanish Revolution. A letter from Harry Kelly includes a letter from Abe Bluestein to Emma Goldman describing Bluestein's activities in Spain. Other materials include articles for Spanish Revolution and other journals, and newspaper clippings. The Articles series consists of typed articles concerning anarchism in the U.S. and elsewhere, American politics, capitalism and Communism, censorship, strikes, World War I and pacifism, birth control, and specific anarchists such as Emma Goldman, and clippings. Three additional folders include a notebook, containing what is in part a narrative or notes about Emma Goldman, describing her imprisonment (1894), trial proceedings (1893), sentencing, Mayor A. Oakey Hall's defense speech (1893), Lucchesi's crime (1898), etc. One folder contains miscellaneous newspaper clippings, and biographical material on Van Valkenburgh, as well as the constitution of the Accountants, Clerical Employees, and Stenographers Association. The collection was processed twenty years before this finding aid was written. Notes on processing can be found in the collection file.
- Rules or Conventions:
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Contents
Using These Materials
- RESTRICTIONS:
-
The collection is open for research.
- USE & PERMISSIONS:
-
Copyright has not been transferred to the Regents of the University of Michigan. Permission to publish must be obtained from the copyright holder(s).
- PREFERRED CITATION:
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Warren Van Valkenburgh Papers, University of Michigan Library (Special Collections Research Center)