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Elias Tobenkin:

An Inventory of His Papers at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center



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Repository: Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas at Austin
Creator: Tobenkin, Elias, 1882-1963
Title: Elias Tobenkin Papers
Dates: 1899-1963 (bulk 1917-1962)
Extent: 28 boxes, 3 galley files, 3 oversize flat files, 5 sound recording discs (11.5 linear feet)
Abstract: Correspondence and newspaper clippings contained in this collection provide insight into Tobenkin's experiences as a reporter and editorial writer in New York and Chicago and as foreign correspondent during World War I, while manuscripts of all eight of Tobenkin's novels, including Witte Arrives, as well as manuscripts of his short fiction and non-fiction, represent his career as a novelist. The personal correspondence and unpublished short fiction of Tobenkin's son Paul are also included in the papers.
RLIN Record # TXRC99-A4

Administrative Information

Acquisition:

Purchase and gift, 1960-62

Processed by:

Bob Taylor, 1998


Restrictions

Access:

Open for research


Biographical Sketch

Elias Tobenkin was born to Marcus A. (Mosheh Aharon) and Fanny Tobenkin in the village of Slutsk, Russia, on 10 February 1882. When Elias was 17 the Tobenkin family left the poverty, bigotry, and growing political instability of Romanov Russia behind and emigrated to Madison, Wisconsin.

Elias prospered academically in Madison, receiving BA (1905) and MA (1906) degrees from the University of Wisconsin. In 1906 Tobenkin began his career in journalism with the Milwaukee Free Press. After his 1907 marriage to Rae Schwid, Tobenkin worked on the Chicago Tribune, San Francisco Examiner, and the New York Herald as a reporter and editorial writer.

Elias Tobenkin's long-standing interest in a literary career led to his first novel, Witte Arrives (1916), an early examination of the immigrant Jewish experience in America. Witte Arrives, along with God of Might (a 1925 novel depicting the problems of interfaith marriage), were to be the best-received of Tobenkin's six published novels.

After employment with the federal government's Creel Committee in the First World War Elias Tobenkin pursued a career as a foreign correspondent, travelling to Europe in 1919 and 1920, and to Soviet Russia in 1926 and 1931. During the decade he alternated between foreign affairs reporting (primarily for the New York Herald Tribune and the New York Times) and continuing his work as a novelist and writer for the periodical press.

Tobenkin's Russian birth and growing American interest in the Soviet Union led increasingly to his involvement in interpreting Russian trends and the world scene in the 1930s. His 1935-36 around-the-world tour was a factfinding mission which resulted in his last work, The Peoples Want Peace (1938).

The death of Rae Tobenkin in April 1938, together with the outbreak of world war in September 1939, seem to have had the effect of hampering Elias Tobenkin's career in journalism. The war brought to the fore a new generation of radio-based foreign correspondents; Tobenkin and others of his generation were effectively shunted aside.

As the career of Elias Tobenkin stagnated in the later 1930s, that of his only son, Paul, began to flourish. In his career with the New York Herald Tribune Paul Tobenkin made a name for himself as a reporter specializing in reporting labor and economic issues, as well as revealing to his readers the effects of racial and religious bigotry.

After the death of Rae Tobenkin, Elias and Paul lived together in New York or Washington, the elder man doing some syndicated journalism and working on his last unpublished novel, and Paul pursuing his career with the Herald Tribune.

After Paul Tobenkin's death in 1959 his father spent his final years trying--with eventual success--to place his library of Soviet materials and to create a memorial to his son. Elias Tobenkin's library came to the University of Texas at Austin in 1962; the Paul Tobenkin Memorial Award for "outstanding achievement in newspaper writing in the fight against racial and religious intolerance and discrimination" was established at the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University not long before Elias Tobenkin's death in 1963.


Sources:

Baldwin, Charles C. The Men Who Make Our Novels. Rev. Ed. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1924. Biographical Encyclopedia of America, v. 1. New York: Biographical Encyclopedia of America, Inc., 1940. The Universal Jewish Encyclopedia, v. 10. New York: Universal Jewish Encyclopedia, Inc., c1943. Who Was Who in America, 1961-1968, v. 4. New York: Marquis Who's Who, c1994.

Scope and Contents

The Elias Tobenkin papers, 1899-1963, comprise correspondence, manuscripts, clippings, photographs, notes, documents, diaries and address books, and biographical and autobiographical materials. The collection is in part grouped as it was foldered by Tobenkin in the 1940s and '50s, but in the main the present arrangement is an imposed one.

Series I--the bulk of the collection--contains the papers of Elias Tobenkin subdivided into large correspondence and works subseries and a smaller personal subseries. The second series--that of son Paul Tobenkin--is altogether smaller and principally includes personal correspondence and some unpublished fiction. Series I represents the years 1899 to 1963, while that of Paul Tobenkin covers the period 1913 to 1963.

The materials in Series I relate to Elias Tobenkin's dual careers as journalist and novelist. Little of the material in the series apart from Tobenkin's early published journalism predates 1917, and apart from correspondence with his wife and son there is little reflection of his non-professional life. Series II includes, in addition to his family and professional correspondence, some of Paul Tobenkin's unpublished fiction and songs, along with manuscripts of some of his journalism.

Specific subjects significantly represented in the collection are Central and Eastern European affairs at the end of the First World War, Soviet Russia in the early Communist period, and the antiwar movement of the middle 1930s. These topics are in most cases seen and described from a Jewish perspective and often for a Jewish readership.

Elias Tobenkin's major correspondents were his employers, his agents and literary outlets, and his family. Specific correspondents include Ann Watkins, Inc.; Collier's; Doubleday, Doran & Co.; G. P. Putnam's Sons; Garet Garrett; Harcourt, Brace and Co.; Irma E. Hochstein; the Jewish Telegraphic Agency; Liberty; Minton, Balch & Co.; the New York Herald Tribune; the New York Times; and the North American Newspaper Alliance. A list of all correspondents in the Tobenkin papers is located at the end of this inventory.

Elsewhere in the Ransom Collection is found the Elias Tobenkin Collection of Soviet Propaganda and Literature, comprising about a thousand volumes published in or about Soviet Russia between 1918 and 1936. In the HRHRC Photography Collection the 180 images of the Elias Tobenkin Collection of Russian People Photographs (theater, architecture, peasant life, Soviet political figures) is maintained.

Material withdrawn from the Tobenkin papers and housed in the Ransom Center's Vertical File Collection includes pamphlets, periodical issues, and clippings on the peace movement of the 1930s, anti-Semitism, and political radicalism. Also present is Elias Tobenkin's card catalog of his library, together with clippings of Paul Tobenkin's journalism, reviews of Elias Tobenkin's books, together with a number of Yiddish-language Russian newspapers. This material represents about ten document boxes in volume. A number of issues of Pravda, Izvestia, and other Soviet Russian-language newspapers published between 1926 and 1962 were removed from the collection, and a small group of coins, stamps, and currency was withdrawn to the Personal Effects Collection.




Index Terms

People

Dreiser, Theodore, 1871-1945
Garrett, Garet, 1878-1954
Hard, William, 1878-1962
Hochstein, Irma E., 1887-1974
Hohlfeld, A. R. (Alexander Rudolph), 1865-1956
Landfield, Jerome Barker, 1871-1954
Lewis, Sinclair, 1885-1951
Rosenwald, Julius, 1862-1932
Schapiro, Israel, 1882-1957
Tobenkin, Paul, 1913-1959
Tobenkin, Rae, d.1938

Organizations

Ann Watkins, Inc.
Doubleday, Doran & Company
Frederick A. Stokes Company
G. P. Putnam's Sons
George T. Bye and Company
Harcourt, Brace and Company
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Minton, Balch & Company
North American Newspaper Alliance
Simon and Schuster, Inc.
United States Committee on Public Information

Subjects

Foreign correspondents--United States--Biography
Journalists--United States--Biography

Document Types

Broadsides
Christmas cards
Commonplace books
Diaries
Galley proofs
Juvenilia
Legal documents
Negatives
Phonograph records
Postcards
Scripts
Sound recordings

Titles

Chicago Tribune
Collier's
Current History
Everybody's Magazine
Liberty
New York Herald Tribune
New York Post
New York Times
The New Republic
The New York Tribune

Container List

I. Elias Tobenkin, 1899-1963

This series is arranged in three subseries: A. Correspondence, 1899-1963 (6 boxes), B. Works, 1903-1962 (12 boxes), and C. Personal, 1917-1963 (5 boxes).

The large correspondence subseries is strong in its documentation of Elias Tobenkin's work as a reporter and editorial writer in Chicago and New York into the middle 1920s. Letters and telegrams between Tobenkin and his editors during his trips abroad between 1918 and 1926, as well as his correspondence with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in the early 1930s, provide insight into the work of a foreign correspondent of the time. The extensive body of Tobenkin's correspondence with his wife during his overseas trips between 1918 and 1936 clearly illustrates the travails and day-to-day problems of an American abroad in that troubled era.

The substantial correspondence with Garet Garrett and Irma Hochstein is collegial and provides insight into Tobenkin the journalist from a different perspective. Tobenkin's career as a literary figure is not well-revealed in his correspondence, being generally limited to his communications with literary agents, publishers, and magazine editors. Unusual exceptions are the two letters from Sinclair Lewis in 1916, accompanied by Lewis' enthusiastic reader's report of the manuscript of Witte Arrives. Also of note are three letters from Theodore Dreiser encouraging Tobenkin to publish Witte Arrives.

In addition to the general lack of personal correspondence, there are also few letters of any kind dating from before the First World War, apart from those received from Everybody's Magazine and one or two other periodicals for which Tobenkin was writing at that time.

Elias Tobenkin's published work is well represented in Subseries B., containing, as it does, manuscripts of all eight of his published books, together with manuscripts of short fiction and non-fiction. An extensive representation of his journalism, comprising photocopied newspaper clippings, documents the evolution of his career from social commentator to foreign affairs expert. Much of Tobenkin's writing for serial publications--short fiction and non-fiction--is represented in the subseries in the form of articles detached from periodical issues.

Accompanying the manuscripts of his six published novels in the subseries are multiple drafts of his unpublished novel The Father, intended to complete the trilogy begun with Witte Arrives and God of Might.

Subseries C. contains Elias Tobenkin's diaries and address books, a few commonplace books, along with a quantity of photographs (family, Russian scenes, figures in European affairs and the peace movement), calling cards, and broadsides. Among the broadsides are a number of colorful anti-war posters, Russian-and Yiddish-language items, and a large poster announcing the 1918 formation of the Soviet Republic of Bavaria.

A. Correspondence, 1899-1963
Incoming
BoxFolder
1 1 A
Ann Watkins, Inc.
BoxFolder
1 2 To ET, 1926-1933
3 From ET, 1926-1932
4 B
5 Ca-Ci
   
2 1 Cl-Cu
2 D-E
3 F
4 Frederick A. Stokes, 1917-1936
5 G
6 G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1930-1939
7 H
8 Harcourt, Brace, 1920-1932
   
3 1 Hochstein, Irma E., 1922-1948
2 I-J
3 Jewish Telegraphic Agency, 1925-1938
4 K-L
5 Liberty, 1925-1933
6 M
   
4 1 Minton, Balch & Co., 1924-1938
2 N-New W
3 New York-Nye
4 New York Herald; New York Tribune, 1915-1923
5 New York Herald Tribune, 1925-1959
6 New York Times, 1924-1943
7 O-Q
8 R
   
5 1 S-Sm
2 So-Sw
3 T-V
Tobenkin, Rae
BoxFolder
5 4 To ET, 1918-1936
5-6 From ET, 1918-1924
   
6 1 From ET, 1926-1931
2 W-Z
3 The Father correspondence, 1954-1962
4 Letters of condolence, 1959
5 Outgoing
6 Unidentified correspondents
B. Works, 1903-1962
Books, 1916-1962
BoxFolder
7 1 Outlines of the novels, nd
City of Friends (1934)
BoxFolder
7 2 Revised typescript
3 Final typescript
* Galleys [*removed to Galley Files]
The Father (unpublished; several working titles), 1943-1962
BoxFolder
7 4 Ancestors (carbon typescript)
5 Race (carbon typescript)
   
8 1 Race (revised typescript)
2 David and Diane (revised typescript)
3-4 The Father (revised carbon typescripts)
   
9 1 The Father (revised carbon typescript)
2 An American Postscript (typescript)
3 An American Postscript (carbon typescript)
4 Fragments and extraneous material
   
10 1 God of Might ( typescript) 1925,
House of Conrad (1918)
BoxFolder
10 2 Typescript, to p. 145
3 Typescript, from p. 146
In the Dark (1931)
BoxFolder
10 4-5 Revised carbon typescripts
* Galleys [*removed to Galley Files]
   
11 1 Meet the New Russia ( project) ca. 1928,
2 Neighbor Stalin (Stalin Speaks) ( carbon typescript) 1944,
The Peoples Want Peace (1938)
BoxFolder
11 3 Notes on world peace, 1936-1938
4 Research notes
5 Notes on Japan and the Soviet Union
6 Notes on Birobidjan, Germany, Scandinavia
   
12 1 ABC of peace (notes)
2 Peace notes (ca. 1935)
3 European peace movement,1935-1936 (notes)
4 Draft pages
5 Typescript
6 Typescript, final
* Galleys [*removed to Galley Files]
The Road (1922)
BoxFolder
12 7 Typescript, to p. 131
   
13 1 Typescript, from p. 132
2 "Stalin's Blueprint" (1943, notes and syndicated text)
Stalin's Ladder (1933)
BoxFolder
13 3 Typescript (revised)
4 Typescript (final)
5 Typescript (excerpts)
6 Witte Arrives (1916, revised typescript (2 fragments))
Dispatches and other unpublished material, 1918-1948
BoxFolder
14 1 News dispatches on Russia, 1926
2 Notes and drafts on Russia, 1926-1948
3 Notes and drafts on Soviet society, ca. 1935
4 Fragments on Russia, peace, etc., nd
5 Trotsky (notes and articles on), nd
6 Litvinov (notes and articles on), nd
7 Birobidjan notes, nd
   
15 1 Stories about Soviet Jews (for Jewish Telegraphic Agency), 1931
2 News stories on Europe, 1918-1920
3 Notes on Germany, 1920-1938
4 Prospecti and speeches, 1920s and '30s
Newspaper and periodical writings in ms.
Fiction, 1903-ca. 1920
BoxFolder
15 5 A-L
6 M-U
Non-fiction (never published)
BoxFolder
15 7-8 ca. 1915-ca. 1935
   
16 1-2 ca. 1919-ca. 1955
3-4 Non-fiction (published), ca. 1920-ca. 1936
Newspaper pieces, 1906-1939 (in photocopy)
BoxFolder
16 5 Milwaukee Free Press and Chicago Daily Socialist articles, 1906
6 Chicago Tribune articles, 1907-1909
7 Chicago Sunday Tribune articles, 1912-1914
8 Chicago Tribune editorials, 1912-1914
9 Articles for New York papers, 1909-1910 and "articles on life of the poor, 1911-13"
10 Witte Arrives (Yiddish serialization, 1917)
   
17 1 Newspaper articles and reviews, 1915-1939
Periodical pieces, ca. 1905-1939
BoxFolder
17 2 ca. 1905-ca. 1907
3 1908-1918
4-5 1919
6 1920-1923
7 1924
8 1925
   
18 1 1926
2 1927
3 1928-1931
4 1932-1935
5 1937-1939
6 1937-1939 (for North American Newspaper Alliance)
   
19 1-2 Script proposals, ca. 1928-ca. 1932
3 Verse, ca. 1906-ca. 1920
C. Personal, 1917-1963
Biographical material
BoxFolder
19 4-5 The Small and the Great (autobiography, ca.1958)
6 Autobiographical sketches, nd
7 Autobiographical fragments, nd
8 Biographical and critical notes, ca. 1939
   
20 1 Criticism of ET, nd
2 Biographical clippings, 1916-1938
3 Bibliographical material, ca. 1935-1955
Documents and related matter
BoxFolder
20 4 Contracts, will, IDs, 1915-1962
5 Minor documents, ca. 1915-1963
6 Banking and investments, 1916-1963
7 Menus and passenger lists, 1919-1936
Diaries, 1919-1961
BoxFolder
21 1 1919
2 1920
3 1926
4 1931
5 1935
6 1935
7 1936
8 1960
9 1961
Address books, ca. 1925-1950
BoxFolder
21 10 ca. 1925
   
22 1 ca. 1935
2 ca. 1950
Commonplace books, ca. 1920-1960
BoxFolder
22 3 ca. 1920
4 ca. 1920
5 1930-1939
6 Jewish topics
7 Russia (ca. 1931)
8 ca. 1960
9 Postcards (unused), 1905-1930
10 Audio tape, nd
* Broadsides, 1916-1936 [*removed to Flat Files]
Calling cards
BoxFolder
23 1 A-L
2 M-Z
Photographs, 1905-1955
BoxFolder
23 3 Central Europe and Scandinavia, 1919-1936
4 Russia, 1920-1926
5 Peace movement, 1935-1936
6 Tobenkin, Mosheh A. and Elias, ca. 1910-ca.1935
   
24 1 Tobenkin, Rae, ca. 1905-1938
2 Tobenkin, Paul, ca. 1916-ca. 1955



II. Paul Tobenkin, 1913-1963

This second series is organized in five subseries: A. General Correspondence, 1931-1963 (1 box), B. Correspondence with Elias Tobenkin, 1918-1948 (1 box), C. Correspondence re Sale of Library, 1945-1963 (.5 box), D. Works, 1929-1958 (.5 box), and E. Personal, 1913-1963 (2 boxes).

Paul Tobenkin's general correspondence subseries includes a variety of letters from his friends and associates in journalism, the labor movement, and Jewish organizations. Apart from a number of notes of condolence written at the time of his mother's death there is little of a purely personal tenor. The most extensive correspondence in the series is that with the New York Herald Tribune, his employer for virtually his entire professional life.

Subseries B. contains the correspondence between Paul Tobenkin and his father, the bulk of which dates from April to October 1943 when Paul was in the U.S. Army. The correspondence illustrates the perceptions of an educated urbanite in the melting-pot army and describes his honorable discharge for a disability suffered in basic training.

The efforts of Paul and Elias Tobenkin to sell the extensive collection of Russian-language materials Tobenkin pere had gathered during his foreign trips is documented in the correspondence forming Subseries C. The replies of numerous institutions to the Tobenkins' offers document the finances and collecting policies of American universities of the time.

Subseries D. contains drafts of some of Paul Tobenkin's journalism, along with an unpublished play and short story, poetry, and song lyrics. Phonodiscs of several songs Paul wrote in collaboration with Ulpio Minucci are included.

The final subseries of personal materials includes some biographical materials and personal documents, along with correspondence between Elias Tobenkin and the Paul Tobenkin Memorial Award Committee leading up to the establishment of the memorial award.

A. General Correspondence, 1931-1963
Incoming, 1931-1963
BoxFolder
24 3 A-K
4 L-R
5 New York Herald Tribune, 1933-1958
6 S-Z
7 Outgoing, 1931-1958
B. Correspondence with ET, 1918-1948
Incoming, 1918-1948
BoxFolder
25 1 1918-1942 and undated
2 1943 Apr.-June
3 1943 July-Oct.
4 1944-1948
Outgoing, 1923-1943
BoxFolder
25 5 1923-1942, 1944, nd
6 1943 Apr.-Oct.
C. Correspondence re Sale of Library, 1945-1963
Incoming, 1945-1963
BoxFolder
25 7 A-G
   
26 1 H-University of Michigan
2 University of Pennsylvania-Y
3 Outgoing, 1945-1959
D. Works, 1929-1958
Journalism
BoxFolder
26 4 Labor, politics, social issues, ca. 1938-1958
5 Bigotry in American elections, 1958
6 Articles submitted for 1958 Broun award
Fiction
BoxFolder
26 7 Evergreen in winter (play), 1953
8 The man who came back (short story), ca. 1944
9 Drama and fiction (mostly fragments), nd
   
27 1 Song lyrics and poetry, 1929-1955
Phonodiscs ("acetates"), ca. 1955
Box
SR1 "Dreams" and "Wonderful to Me"; "Too Early to Care" and "Respond with Your Heart"
 
SR2-3 "Thanksgiving Song"
 
SR4 "Stranger" and "Dreams"
 
SR5 "Recording Blank"
E. Personal, 1913-1963
BoxFolder
27 2 Biographical notes, ca. 1955-1959
3 Personal documents, 1913-1960
4 Paul Tobenkin Memorial Award, 1960-1963
5-6 Ephemera, 1916-1957
 
28 Commercial phonodiscs by others, ca. 1950



Elias Tobenkin Papers--Index of Correspondents

Names in bold appear in the RLIN record.