Research Catalog

Title

Eugene Gordon papers, 1927-1972.

Author

Gordon, Eugene, 1891-1974.

Supplementary Content

Finding aid

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

Gordon, Edythe Mae, 1896-

Description

4.2 lin. ft.

Summary

The collection ranges from 1927 to 1972 and consists of correspondence, manuscripts and printed matter. Gordon's writings, the bulk of the collection, are organized into three categories: Autobiographical, Fiction, and Nonfiction. The autobiographical narratives range from stories of growing up Black in New Orleans and rural Georgia to an enemy encounter during World War I in France. There is also a detailed diary of a writing retreat in the New Hampshire White Mountains in 1933. His fiction work includes a compilation of short stories and a complete draft of his novel "Picnic in Court House Square." The nonfiction work ranges from his 1920s articles on the Black press and a series of travel articles written in the Soviet Union in the 1930s, to later articles and essays on integration, the columnist George Schuyler and the civil rights movement. "Black Women's Long Tough Course: from 'dat gal' Carline to This Woman Angela," written in defense of Angela Davis in 1972 was his last major essay.

Subjects

• Gordon, June, 1901-1967
• African Americans > Autobiographical fiction
• Cunard, Nancy, 1896-1965
• Davis, Angela Yvonne, 1944-
• Kotane, Moses, 1905-
• American fiction > African American authors
• Gordon, Eugene, 1891-1974
• African Americans > Massachusetts > Boston
• League of Struggle for Negro Rights (U.S.)
• Schuyler, George S (George Samuel), 1895-1977
• Chelsea Minority Action Organization (New York, N.Y.)
• Diaries
• African American journalists
• African American communists
• Asian-African Conference (1st : 1955 : Bandung, Indonesia)
• Saturday Evening Quill Club (Boston, Mass.)
• African Americans > Segregation > Southern States

Genre/Form

Diaries.

Note

• Photographs transferred to Photographs and Prints Division.
• Recordings transferred to Moving Image and Recorded Sound Division.

Source (note)

• Bolerium Books

Biography (note)

• African American journalist and fiction writer born in Oviedo, Florida, in 1891. Gordon studied English and journalism at Howard and Boston Universities and served in World War I in Europe, before joining the staff of the "Boston Daily Post" as an assistant feature writer in 1919. He founded the Saturday Evening Quill Club of non-professional writers, and for three years edited its annual, "The Saturday Evening Quill" (1928-1930). He was also a co-founder of the Boston John Reed Club, and the first editor of its magazine "Leftward." His work, both fiction and nonfiction, appeared in "American Mercury," "Plain Talk," "Scribner's," "Nation" and the "Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science."

Call Number

Sc MG 117

OCLC

NYPW89-A95

Author

Gordon, Eugene, 1891-1974.

Title

Eugene Gordon papers, 1927-1972.

Biography

African American journalist and fiction writer born in Oviedo, Florida, in 1891. Gordon studied English and journalism at Howard and Boston Universities and served in World War I in Europe, before joining the staff of the "Boston Daily Post" as an assistant feature writer in 1919. He founded the Saturday Evening Quill Club of non-professional writers, and for three years edited its annual, "The Saturday Evening Quill" (1928-1930). He was also a co-founder of the Boston John Reed Club, and the first editor of its magazine "Leftward." His work, both fiction and nonfiction, appeared in "American Mercury," "Plain Talk," "Scribner's," "Nation" and the "Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science."

A member of the Communist Party-USA since 1931, Gordon co-authored with Cyril Briggs a pamphlet, "The Position of Negro Women," and worked in the Soviet Union in the 1930s as a reporter for the "Moscow Daily News." He also worked as a feature editor, reporter, and writer for the "Daily Worker" from 1938 to 1946. In the 1950s, he was on the staff of the "National Guardian" newspaper and, as a correspondent for that publication, attended the 1955 Afro-Asian Bandung Conference in Indonesia. He also wrote a column, "Another Side of the Story" for the African-American press, 1958-1959. He died in 1974.

Source

SCM 05-39

Bolerium Books Purchase 2005

Connect to:

Finding aid

Added Author

Gordon, Edythe Mae, 1896-

Research Call Number

Sc MG 117