NAWSA General Correspondence Schwimmer, Franciska 30 Eastchester Road New Rochelle, N.Y. July 19, 1949 Dear Miss Schwimmer; - Replying to your inquiry about Mrs Catt's international correspondence subsequent to August 1914 - Mrs Catt destroyed a great amount of such material after she retired from leadership of the Alliance in 1923. Again when she moved to New Rochelle in 1929, ahe cleared her files of material she thought unimportant. She never had adequate secretarial service, and she was concerned mainly with keeping abreast with daily correspondence. Such correspondence in her files at the time of her death as was deemed of importance was deposited in the Rare Books and Mss. Dept. of the New York Public Library in charge of Mr Hill, whom you know. I believe access to them is not permitted by the executors of Mrs Catt's estate until after 1965 In my opinion there is nothing in that collection which would have value as connected with the biography of Rosika Schwimmer. You have of course the correspondence between Mrs Catt and your sister which covers the period in question. You have my sympathetic interest in getting out Rosika Schwimmer's biography. The most difficult task in this world is to write the life of a person who has been intimately associated with the writer, and the greater the subject is, the harder it is to be impersonal. With best wishes, Cordially yours Mary Gray Peck Franciska Schwimmer 54 Riverside Drive New York, N. Y. Endicott 2-4711 July 17, 1949. Dear Miss Peck: I am assisting in the preparation of my sister's biography and would be grateful to you for information as to where the following correspondence files may be consulted for research: Mrs. Catt's international correspondence from August, 1814 onwards. Correspondence coming to her connected with the International Woman Suffrage Alliance from August, 1914 onwards. I would appreciate your reply by return post and enclose a stamped envelope. Thanking you in advance, Cordially, Franciska Schwimmer 30 Eastchester Road New Rochelle, N.Y. July 19, 1949 Dear Miss Schwimmer; - Replying to your inquiry about Mrs Catt's international correspondence subsequent to August 1914 - Mrs Catt destroyed a great amount of such material after she retired from leadership of the Alliance in 1923. Again when she moved to New Rochelle in 1929, ahe cleared her files of material she thought unimportant. She never had adequate secretarial service, and she was concerned mainly with keeping abreast with daily correspondence. Such correspondence in her files at the time of her death as was deemed of importance was deposited in the Rare Books and Mss. Dept. of the New York Public Library in charge of Mr Hill, whom you know. I believe access to them is not permitted by the executors of Mrs Catt's estate until after 1965 (over) In my opinion there is nothing in that collection which would have value as connected with the biography of Rosika Schwimmer. You have of course the correspondence between Mrs Catt and your sister which covers the period in question. You have my sympathetic interest in getting out Rosika Schwimmer's biography. The most difficult task in this world is to write the life of a person who has been intimately associated with the writer, and the greater the subject is, the harder it is to be impersonal. With best wishes, Cordially yours Mary Gray Peck Franciska Schwimmer 54 Riverside Drive New York, N. Y. Endicott 2-4711 July 22, 1949. Dear Miss Peck: Thank you very much for your reply. I immediately asked Mr. Hill about Mrs. Catt's material in the Library's possession but his list does not indicate 1914 material at all. However, he said Mrs. Catt's archives have been distributed to three other places -- the Library of Congress, Radcliffe, and her College in Iowa. I would be most grateful to you if you could find out from Mrs Catt's executors just what kind of material went where or at least the exact title of the institutions which received her papers. Edith Wynner is writing Rosika's biography; I am helping with some of the early family background and youth and impressions of the movement in Hungary, also some illuminations on Roskia's collaborators in different countries. I do not believe that being impersonal is a particular virtue in a biography. The chief thing is that it shall be interesting and truthful. I think the first ingredient is assured by Rosika's life and the second by the fact that she never destroyed anything; if she could save anything -- whether hers or that of other feminists from the ravages of war, liberation and revolution she made superhuman efforts to do so. She did her best to persuade Mrs. Catt of the importance of keeping intact the records of the woman's movement, of not weeding out, not destroying anything. The actors are the very last ones fitted to determine what is or what is not important in retrospect. This sort of thing is always done on the ground of weeding out the unimportant, but the scholar going over the sterilized remnants, cannot help but suspect that the reason was to suppress certain facts in order to angle the story. I truly regret that Mrs. Catt joined Jane Addams in this type of vandalism. Rosika wanted her failures documented together with her successes. It is too bad these other ladies lacked the courage to do likewise. I'll be grateful for your help in this. With best personal regards, Cordially, Franciska Schwimmer. Answer in M G Peck file Transcribed and reviewed by contributors participating in the By The People project at crowd.loc.gov.