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Collection Overview

Creator:
Gilman, Mildred Evans
Title:
Mildred Gilman Wohlforth Papers
Repository:
Manuscripts Division
Permanent URL:
http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/3t945q806
Dates:
1910-1994 (mostly 1927-1985)
Size:
25 boxes, 10.2 linear foot
Storage Note:
  • ReCAP (scarcpxm): Box 1-25
Language:
English

Abstract

Mildred Gilman Wohlforth was an American journalist, newspaper reporter, and novelist. Her papers include over 600 letters from friends, family, and literary associates, along with autograph and typed manuscripts for several unpublished novels. Also present are selected papers of her husband, Robert Wohlforth, a journalist, business analyst, and author.

Collection Description & Creator Information

Scope and Contents

The collection consists of papers of Wohlforth. Included in the papers are over 600 letters from friends, family, and literary associates such as Barbara Belford, Silas Bent, Hewood Broun, Robert Benchley, Kyle Crichton, Zona Gale, Julian S. Huxley, Richard and Hildegarde Lockridge, H. L. Mencken, Ezra Pound, and Robert Wohlforth. There are autograph and typed manuscripts for several unpublished novels in various revisions with such titles as Diary of Alice, I Sobbed for Mr. Hearst, and The Woman Angle, as well as the manuscript for The Reminiscences of Mildred Gilman (1973); typescripts for some stories and many articles on a wide range of topics with many relating to issues of marriage and sexuality, such as "Are You Frigid," "Fearless Frances," "I Covered the Crash," "Safe Sex," and "Sob Sister Tells All"; contracts; documents; dreams recorded by Wohlforth; newspaper clippings; and about 120 photographs of the Wohlforth family, Mildred Wohlforth on various reporting assignments, friends, writers, and several movie actors and actresses, including Deanna Durbin, Jane Withers, Tyrone Power, Shirley Temple, Paul Robeson, Hermann Goring, Dorothy Parker, Hewood Broun, and others. There are two videocassettes of an interview with the Wohlforths.

Also present are selected papers of Robert Wohlforth, a journalist, business analyst, secretary-treasurer at Farrar, Straus & Giroux, and author of an exposé novel of West Point entitled Tin Soldiers (1934), articles, and short stories. Included are about 100 letters to him by Harold Bender, Kyle Crichton, Pare Lorentz, Lewis Mumford, James Salter, Louis Untermeyer, and others, 15 typescripts of articles or stories, including "I Married a Sob Sister," and "A Nickelodeon Childhood," reviews of Tin Soldiers, and newspaper clippings.

Collection Creator Biography:

Gilman, Mildred Evans

Mildred Gilman Wohlforth, a graduate of the University of Wisconsin, married James Gilman and moved to New York, where she became Heywood Broun's secretary. From 1928 to 1931 she was a reporter for the New York Journal. After divorcing Gilman she married Robert Wohlforth in 1930, and published Sob Sister (1931), a novel about a female tabloid reporter which was made into a movie. In the late 1930s Wohlforth went to Germany as a reporter for the International News Service to interview Adolf Hitler and Hermann Goring, and worked for the Washington Herald covering Eleanor Roosevelt and New Deal projects. Settling in Ridgefield, Conn., Wohlforth wrote articles, stories and novels, worked for the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, raised three sons, and published her memoirs in 1973.

Collection History

Acquisition:

Gift of Eric E. Wohlforth.

Appraisal

No appraisal information is available.

Access & Use

Conditions Governing Access

Collection is open for research use.

Conditions Governing Use

Single copies may be made for research purposes. To cite or publish quotations that fall within Fair Use, as defined under U. S. Copyright Law, no permission is required. For instances beyond Fair Use, it is the responsibility of the researcher to determine whether any permissions related to copyright, privacy, publicity, or any other rights are necessary for their intended use of the Library's materials, and to obtain all required permissions from any existing rights holders, if they have not already done so. Princeton University Library's Special Collections does not charge any permission or use fees for the publication of images of materials from our collections, nor does it require researchers to obtain its permission for said use. The department does request that its collections be properly cited and images credited. More detailed information can be found on the Copyright, Credit and Citations Guidelines page on our website. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us through the Ask Us! form.

Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements

For preservation reasons, original analog and digital media may not be read or played back in the reading room. Users may visually inspect physical media but may not remove it from its enclosure. All analog audiovisual media must be digitized to preservation-quality standards prior to use. Audiovisual digitization requests are processed by an approved third-party vendor. Please note, the transfer time required can be as little as several weeks to as long as several months and there may be financial costs associated with the process. Requests should be directed through the Ask Us Form.

Credit this material:

Mildred Gilman Wohlforth Papers; Manuscripts Division, Department of Special Collections, Princeton University Library

Permanent URL:
http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/3t945q806
Location:
Firestone Library
One Washington Road
Princeton, NJ 08544, USA
(609) 258-3184
Storage Note:
  • ReCAP (scarcpxm): Box 1-25