The Bessie Papers are arranged as BIOGRAPHICAL MATERIAL, CORRESPONDENCE, HOLLYWOOD TEN RECORDS, and WRITINGS.
BIOGRAPHICAL MATERIAL includes brief biographies and obituaries; a longer biographical work by Pamela Feinsilber, a graduate student in English literature at San Francisco State University; bibliographies of Bessie's writings; and some film, radio, and television contracts. (Several additional research papers about Bessie and the Hollywood Ten may be found scattered within the correspondence.) Also part of the series is Bessie's typically meticulous accounting of his professional income from 1926 through 1985, together with an inventory of trips he took during his career which exhibits the same personality characteristic.
The folder of notes filed here contains copies of the inventories prepared by Alvah and later by Dan Bessie to accompany the shipment of Bessie's papers to Wisconsin. These lists, which are in many cases an item level inventory of the deposited material, contain useful information about Bessie as well as many of the individuals with whom he was associated.
The biographical clippings, which are available only on microfilm, consist of newspaper and magazine articles in which Bessie was mentioned.
Also part of the biographical series are six cassette recordings of taped reminiscences, some apparently prepared in reply to letters or tapes Bessie received from biographer Jerrold I. Zinnamon. (The footnotes in Zinnamon's thesis suggest that the cassettes in the collection are not all of the taped interviews he made with Bessie. On one of these tapes entitled “The $64 Question” Bessie answers the question of whether he was a member of the Communist Party. Cassette 6 is actually not a reminiscence but a dictated response to a letter Bessie had received from an unidentified correspondent about the book Contempt of Congress and other topics.)
Bessie's CORRESPONDENCE is extensive, for he was an enthusiastic and faithful letter writer. The material, however, primarily dates from the late 1950s to the year of Bessie's death. As a result, research on his role in the Spanish Civil War, the blacklisting era, and other aspects of his early life cannot be studied through contemporary correspondence. Nevertheless, researchers on these subjects will find the series is useful to their study, for these topics continued as vital and prominent themes in Bessie's later letters. The correspondence generally includes carbons of letters sent by Bessie (and even of postcards he sent!), as well as the letters he received. Although the files include many personal letters from friends and professional associates, there are virtually no exchanges with his family during any period in his life, and the few letters of this type that are included primarily consist of correspondence with his son Dan Bessie when they were collaborating on a film project. Letters from prison to family members, which form a striking part of several of the collections of other members of the Hollywood Ten held by WCFTR, are completely absent.
The correspondence is divided, as it was by Bessie himself, into two sections: general correspondence and subject correspondence, both of which are then filed alphabetically. The general correspondence consists of exchanges with individuals and is arranged by last name, while the subject correspondence includes correspondence with publishers and organizations, correspondence concerning Bessie's writings (which is most often arranged by title), and topical material (e.g. protest letters and research requests). In arranging the papers prior to transmittal to WCFTR, the Bessies did not apply these filing distinctions consistently, and as a result researchers will find correspondence with some individuals in both the general correspondence and in appropriate subject categories.
The general correspondence consists of separate files for individuals with whom Bessie corresponded often and combined files (e.g. A, B, C) for individuals with whom he corresponded less frequently. Correspondents in this section include publishers and agents (such as Angus Cameron and Maxim Lieber); other members of the “unfriendly nineteen” and other victims of the blacklist (Herbert Biberman, John Henry Faulk, Paul Jarrico, Albert Kahn, Howard Koch, Ring Lardner, Jr., John Howard Lawson, Albert Maltz, and Dalton Trumbo); political activists (such as Herbert Aptheker, Ed Asner, Dorothy Healey); actors, entertainers and individuals in the motion picture industry (Woody Allen, Kaye Ballard, Lenny Bruce, Jaime Camino, Morris Carnovsky, and Bette Davis); fellow members of the Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade (VALB); and literary figures ranging from nationally and internationally prominent authors to writers who were primarily known in the San Francisco area (James Aronson, Martha Gellhorn, Ralph Gleason, Stefen Heym, Cyra MacFadden, Herbert Matthews, Arthur Miller, Vladimir Pozner, George Seldes, and Studs Terkel).
The largest portion of the letters in the subject correspondence concerns editorial matters, some filed by publisher and some filed by title, and when several projects involved the same publisher, by the name of the publisher. Correspondence with the foreign publishers of Bessie's articles and books is a prominent aspect of the section. Novels, which are well documented by correspondence, include Inquisition in Eden, Men in Battle, Solo Flight, The Symbol, and The Un-Americans. Bessie's work as a writer for film and television is less well represented here, although there are materials on his disputed screen writing credit for Smart Woman and on the ABC Movie of the Week that was made from The Symbol. Bessie's experiences as a writer during the period of the blacklist are documented in correspondence with the San Francisco International Film Festival, the San Francisco Mime Troupe, and the Limelighters. (Bessie wrote publicity for all three.)
Other correspondence concerns film projects, grant applications requesting financial support for writing and film projects, protest letters to public and corporate officials, and his employment by the hungry i nightclub. Also here are fan mail, letters concerning Bessie's deteriorating health, sympathy letters received by Sylviane Bessie after his death, and letters indicating Bessie's support for various causes. The folders entitled research questions consist of queries received from scholars and students of literary and political history, together with copies of Bessie's replies. (More extended research correspondence such as his many exchanges with Jerry Zinnamon are filed in the General Correspondence.)
Of particular interest in the Subject Correspondence is the mail concerning Bessie's efforts to secure copies of records kept about him by the federal government, together with the complete file that he received in response to his Freedom of Information request.
The HOLLYWOOD TEN RECORDS are mainly printed or mimeographed materials relating to the HUAC hearings and trials and the blacklisting era. Legal briefs originally in this series have been compared to the very complete legal files that are part of the Biberman-Sondergaard Papers held by WCFTR. As a result of extensive duplication, only one brief which Bessie had annotated (presumably for Helen Clare Nelson) has been retained in the Bessie Papers. Notable among the remaining Hollywood Ten materials in the Bessie collection is a script for the mass meeting held for the Ten prior to their departure for Washington and the script for Hollywood Fights Back. The correspondence here includes letters written by Bessie as early as 1948 that describe the impact of the blacklist on his career and numerous exchanges with Biberman, Lester Cole, and attorney Robert Kenny concerning the suits and legal cases with which members of the Ten were individually and jointly involved after their release from prison. Also of interest here is Helen Clare Nelson's correspondence with Dore Schary about the producer's role in the blacklist, letters of support received from Hugh Bryson of the Marine Cooks and Stewards Union, and a letter from Rex Stout, a New York acquaintance, in which he refused to help Bessie. The section of miscellaneous Hollywood Ten statements and speeches includes some budget material prepared for the defense effort and a copy of Biberman's “Films on Fire.” Also included is a 16mm print of the film The Hollywood Ten, about motion picture industry writers accused of subversive activities.
Bessie's WRITINGS are arranged alphabetically by genre (articles, books, film scripts, miscellaneous writings, radio scripts, reviews, short stories, speeches, television scripts, and theatrical scripts) and thereunder alphabetically by title. Some book and motion picture files include variant drafts, although the number of titles in the collection with multiple drafts is limited. When they exist (primarily for Inquisition in Eden, One For My Baby, Smart Woman, The Symbol, The Very Thought of You, and “The Last Volunteer”) this material is chronologically arranged.
Researchers will find a great deal of overlap between genre in Bessie's work, and it is evident that he frequently reworked the same title or concept in several categories. A bibliography of Bessie's published writings (including some his film, theater, and book reviews) that was last reviewed by Bessie in 1983 is filed with the Biographical Material.
Non-fiction articles, which are available only on microfilm, primarily consist of the final printed works, and only a few items are represented by variant drafts. Occasionally some correspondence is included with the drafts, most often letters from readers of “Letters to the Editor” columns in which letters from Bessie had appeared. Articles Bessie wrote for foreign journals are generally preceded by his English-language version of the story.
Prior to their shipment to WCFTR the articles and columns were grouped into scrapbooks by Alvah and Dan Bessie, one scrapbook for each magazine and newspaper in which Bessie's work frequently appeared (the Brooklyn Daily Eaqle, In These Times, Marin Life, New Masses, People's World) and the remainder grouped together chronologically. The general scrapbook covers the period from 1930 to 1980. Of special note among the articles is the long piece, “Hesitation Waltz,” about the Bessies' 1976 visit to post-Franco Spain which appeared in In These Times, as well as an alternate draft of the same story that was rejected by Atlantic Monthly. Also useful are the many pieces he wrote for New Masses about Spain and the special feature (and draft) of “This is Your Enemy,” as well as his interviews with Morris Carnovsky and Hanns Eisler about Spain and his “Hollywood Letter” column which was published by New Masses after Bessie went to California as a screenwriter. In the tentatively-titled “Weekly Review” file is a regular column “The Root Of It” which Bessie wrote for a left-wing youth newspaper during the early 1940s under the name William Root.
The articles in the scrapbooks representing publications in which Bessie appeared only occasionally cover many topics, with autobiographical pieces appearing with increasing frequency as Bessie emerged during the 1960s and 1970s as a sort of radical celebrity. Also of special interest here is a lengthy, undated obituary of the blacklisted actor-screenwriter Nedrick Young, who allowed Bessie to use his name for Cross of Gold.
Present for Bessie's books are revisions and working drafts of manuscripts, research materials, and published volumes. First-edition, English-language editions of Bread and a Stone, The Un-Americans, and Men in Battle, which were received prior to 1978 were transferred, under the policy then in effect in the SHSW Archives to the University of Wisconsin's Memorial Library, where they are currently available. Because of an altered policy for handling published volumes received with manuscript collections, subsequent editions of these books, including many foreign language editions, that were received from the donor after 1978 have been retained as part of the manuscript collection. (They are catalogued in the SHSW Library catalog, although they are stored with the Bessie Papers.)
Among Bessie's writings for film are final and draft scripts for produced and unproduced films, original motion picture stories (including Operation Burma for which he received an Oscar nomination), ghost writings, and educational films. Particularly interesting here are projects on which Bessie collaborated with Jaime Camino, his son Dan, and Lenny Bruce.
Writings for television and radio are comparatively small segments of the collection, as is the section of miscellaneous writings. The latter includes courses he taught at the People's Education Center, some letters to the editor, poetry, and translations. Also grouped here is another scrapbook (available only on microfilm) comprised of samples of Bessie's writings in various genre.
In order to facilitate their microfilm preservation the reviews in the Bessie Papers have been subdivided into two categories: reviews of his works by others and reviews written by Bessie. Reviews of Bessie's writings are grouped alphabetically by genre (books and films only) and then arranged by title.
Writing under various pseudonyms, Bessie had a very active career as a reviewer of films, theater, and books which is documented in the papers almost exclusively by the final, printed columns. The majority of these reviews were collected by the donors into scrapbooks, one for each of the journals for which Bessie was a regular reviewer; publications in which his reviews appeared only occasionally are arranged together chronologically. Because the scrapbooks were in deteriorating physical condition the originals were microfilmed for preservation, after which the original clippings were destroyed.
The reviews by Bessie have been grouped by genre and then alphabetically by publication name. Among the most extensively documented publications are the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, for which Bessie worked as assistant editor of the Sunday magazine section; the Daily People's World of San Francisco, for which he became a reviewer following the implementation of the Blacklist; and New Masses. Because Bessie regularly reviewed only film and theater for New Masses, his book review of For Whom the Bell Tolls for that paper has been filed with the New Masses non-fiction articles. Researchers interested in The Symbol, Bessie's fictionalized account of the life of Marilyn Monroe, should consult his reviews of Monroe's films and biographies of her by others; these are comparatively numerous and scattered through this section of the collection. Researchers should note that many of the reviews for Scribners written during the early 1930s were pasted on the back of letters that he received, and that these letters also appear on the microfilm.
Bessie's short stories are generally documented in the papers only by published versions. (Much of Bessie's early fiction that appeared in Book and Scribners was republished in 1982 together with a previously unpublished novella, “The Serpent was Subtil,” under the title Alvah Bessie's Short Fiction; because the stories appeared without alteration, only the new introductory matter for that volume appears in the books section of the manuscript collection. The speeches section is divided into general speeches and statements dealing with Spain. The early speeches in both categories are generally represented by typed drafts (some extensively edited), while later speeches and public appearances are also documented by press notices and publicity. A few of the public appearances that Bessie made during the last years of his life are documented only by publicity. The general speech files include a number of addresses made by Bessie during the Hollywood Ten era, together with a full mimeographed transcript of the May 17, 1943, “Erase infamy” rally at Madison Square Garden at which he spoke. This section also includes some undelivered remarks prepared for a jury and a recording of Bessie's appearance before HUAC in 1947. The file of speeches on Spain includes general discussions of the situation in Spain as it existed during the 1940s and 1950s; during the 1970s Bessie's emphasis began to shift to recollections of his own experiences.
