Laurance Labadie Papers, 1882-1973

Start Over Collection Laurance Labadie Papers, 1882-1973

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9.5 Linear Feet (24 boxes)

The Laurance Labadie Papers document the work and life of Laurance Labadie, anarchist writer and theorist and son of the noted labor leader and anarchist Joseph A. Labadie. The collection contains correspondence, other writings, and printed material related to Laurance's economic theory and work with the School of Living, as well as a series containing papers related to the work of Laurance's father Joseph A. Labadie.

The Laurance Labadie Papers measure 9.5 linear feet and date from 1882 to 1973. The collection documents, through correspondence and writings, Labadie's ideas on anarchism and the social problems of the time, as well as the views of many of his anarchist contemporaries, mainly from 1932 to 1972. Unfortunately, there is little material from the years before this, and little, if anything, on Labadie's family. The correspondence is especially rich for the 1930s and 1940s, when Labadie was corresponding with anarchists who had been active in the late 19th and early 20th century, and who had known Labadie's father. The papers from the 1950s and 1960s document his involvement with the School of Living, a decentralist, back-to-the-land organization that he supported. The Joseph A. Labadie papers held by Laurance are chiefly notebooks and booklets of poetry with broad subject range, and scrapbooks of news clippings about Joseph Labadie, anarchy and labor movements in the 19th century, and Walhalla, the farm of Labadie's friend Carl Schmidt.

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Correspondence

Correspondence (1909-1973) is the largest series in the collection. It is arranged alphabetically, and includes both incoming and outgoing correspondence. The correspondence from the 1930s and 1940s contains lengthy critical and philosophical exchanges with important American anarchists such as Henry Cohen, Steven Byinton, and Marcus Graham. On more personal matters, Labadie corresponded with Theodore Schroeder and John Scott. The correspondence with Agnes Inglis is interesting for its documentation of the early years of the Labadie Collection at the University of Michigan Graduate Library. Inglis frequently wrote to Labadie informing him about the researchers using the Collection, as well as about new acquisitions. It was through her that Labadie met James J. Martin, who later published a collection of Labadie's essays. Labadie's correspondence with Mildred Loomis spans the longest period of time, from 1947 to 1971. Important correspondence in the 1960s include Herbert Roseman and Don Werkheiser, whom Labadie met through the School of Living.