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Anna Louise Strong papers, 1885-1971

Overview of the Collection

Creator
Strong, Anna Louise, 1885-1970
Title
Anna Louise Strong papers
Dates
1885-1971 (inclusive)
1969-1970 (bulk)
Quantity
approximately 24 cubic feet (49 boxes, 2 packages, 2 tubes, 4 vertical files, 7 microfilm reels)
Collection Number
1309, 1444
Summary
Papers of a female political activist, journalist, and author who observed the Communist revolution in China
Repository
University of Washington Libraries, Special Collections
Special Collections
University of Washington Libraries
Box 352900
Seattle, WA
98195-2900
Telephone: 2065431929
Fax: 2065431931
speccoll@uw.edu
Access Restrictions

Open to all users.

Some material stored offsite; advance notice required for use.

Request at UW

Languages
English
Sponsor
Funding for encoding this finding aid was provided through a grant awarded by the National Endowment for the Humanities
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Biographical Note

Anna Louise Strong was a journalist, world traveler, observer of revolutions and author of over 30 books and countless articles. She was the daughter of a Congregationalist minister, Sydney Strong, who was a pacifist and practitioner of the social gospel. She was educated at Oberlin College, Bryn Mawr and University of Chicago, where she earned a Ph.D. After finishing her education, Strong joined the National Child Labor Committee and organized child welfare exhibits throughout the country from 1910-1912.

Sydney Strong moved to Seattle in 1906 where he lived until his death in 1938. Anna Louise Strong, who seldom lived anywhere for long, joined him there from 1916 to 1921, which was for her a time of radicalizing events, including the Everett massacre and trial, and the Seattle General Strike. In Seattle, she began her journalism career and wrote for the Seattle Union Record. During this time, she was elected to the Seattle School Board and subsequently recalled because of association with the Industrial Workers of the World (I.W.W.). In the wake of these events, Strong went elsewhere in search of socialism in practice. Her quest took her first to the Soviet Union, where she was based from 1921 until 1940. During this period she spent part of the year in the Soviet Union, but would return to the United States for a lecture tour, usually between January and April.

Strong also became one of the earliest journalists to cover the Communist revolution in China. She visited China first in 1925 and returned frequently until 1947. During the course of her visits to China, she met and interviewed the Chinese Communist leaders, including Chou En-lai and Mao Tse-tung, gaining their respect and trust. In his 1946 interview with her, Mao first used the expression "paper tiger" to describe the United States.

Strong's enthusiasm for the Chinese revolution may have led to her arrest, imprisonment and expulsion from the Soviet Union in 1949. After these events, she was cut off from the Soviet Union, shunned by American Communists and denied a passport by the United States government. She settled for a time in California, where she wrote, lectured and invested in real estate. She was cleared finally of the Soviets' charges against her in 1955. When her passport was restored in 1958, she immediately made her way back to China, where she remained until her death in 1970. During the latter part of her life Anna Louise was honored and revered by the Chinese, one of the few Westerners with entree to China after the revolution and one of the last "Old China Hands" to remain in the good graces of the Chinese through the cultural revolution. The Chinese leaders considered her their unofficial spokesperson to the English speaking world.

Chronology of Strong's Life
November 24, 1885
Born in Friend, Nebraska
1887
Family moves to Mount Vernon, Ohio
1896
Family moves to Oak Park, Illinois; she enters high school
1901
Strong in Hamelin, Germany for a year
1902
Enters Oberlin
1903
Enters Bryn Mawr; Ruth Marie Strong (mother) dies
1904
Returns to Oberlin
1905-1906
Works for the Advance in Chicago, enters University of Chicago; Sydney Strong moves to Seattle
1907
Finishes her graduate degree (M.A.), spends summer in Seattle, works for Sprague-Warner's (cannery) in Chicago, begins going to Hull House
1908
Receives Ph.D., moves to Seattle, organizes "Know Your City" campaigns in Seattle and elsewhere
1909
Visits Japan with Sydney, moves to New York, works for Russell Sage Foundation
1910-1911
Joins National Child Labor Committee, organizes Child Welfare exhibits
1911
Discovers socialism in Kansas City, meets Roger Baldwin, becomes engaged (1912)
1912
Joins United States Children's Bureau
1913
Breaks with Roger Baldwin
1914
Visits Ireland
1916
Resigns National Child Labor Committee, moves to Seattle
1917
Elected to Seattle School Board, covers Everett Massacre trial of Wobblies (Industrial Workers of the World) for New York Evening Post, writes for Seattle Daily Call
1918
Recalled from School Board, joins I.W.W., writes for Seattle Union Record
1921
Goes to Poland and the Soviet Union (for American Friends Service Committee)
1922
Returns to Moscow, reports for Hearst's International Magazine, meets Trotsky, attends Comintern
1923
Meets Mikhail and Fanya Borodin
1924
Works for John Reed Colony, Children of Revolution published
1925
Visits China, meets Soong Ch'ing-ling (widow of Sun Yat sen)
1927
Visits Mexico, returns to Shanghai, Hankow, Hunan, leaves China via Gobi desert with Borodin and the last of the Russians
1928
Spends 2 months in Soviet Central Asia, Uzbekistan, China's Millions published
1929
Visits Tashkent, Pamirs
1929-1930
Visits collective farms, Siberia, starts Moscow Daily News
1931
Marries Joel Shubin, The Soviets Conquer Wheat published
1932
Meets Stalin
1934
I Change Worlds published
1935
Meets Eleanor Roosevelt, tries to join American Communist Party, starts sending yearly contribution
1936
Resigns Moscow News
1937
Visits Spain twice, meets Malraux, Carlos Contreras, Spain In Arms published
1937-1938
To China, to 8th Route Army headquarters, meets generals of the 8th Route Army, Chou En-lai, meets Soong Mei-ling, wife of Chiang Kai-shek, to United States, lunches with Eleanor and Franklin Delano Roosevelt, to Soviet Union, Sydney Strong dies December 30
1939
To United States, drives cross country, Joel in New York, spends weekend at Hyde Park, My Native Land published
1940
To Moscow, to Chung King, meets Rewi Alley, interviews Chou En-lai about conflicts with Kuomintang (KMT), interviews Chiang Kai-shek
1941-1942
The Soviets Expected It published, empties Seattle house, sells it, letters from Joel stop
1942
Begins to suffer from Paget's disease, works in Hollywood for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer for 11 weeks, buys house in California, learns in August that Joel died in March
1943
Lectures at Stanford, meets Sidney Rittenberg, Wild River (novel) published
1944
Flies to Soviet Union via Fairbanks, Peoples of the USSR (textbook) published
1944-1945
Visits Polish front, visits Yugoslavia, meets Tito
1945
Leaves USSR with Jessica Smith by Soviet freighter, I Saw the New Poland published
1946
To Shanghai, Peking, and communist headquarters in Yenan, interviews Mao ("paper tiger" interview), to Kalgan
1947
Long interview with Mao, evacuated from Yenan, to Shanghai, to Russia via North Korea, to Paris to meet representatives of the Chinese, Dawn Over China published
1948
Involved with Wallace campaign, sister, Ruth, will no longer receive her, back to Russia
1949
February 13 arrested and jailed for 6 days in Lubyanka, expelled to Poland, called before a grand jury in United States , publishes account of spy charges in New York Herald Tribune, is shunned by American communist party, settles in Los Angeles and joins the First Unitarian Church, The Chinese Conquer China published
1951
Begins monthly newsletter, Today : a personal news-letter / Anna Louise Strong.
1953-1954
Visits Mexico, Guatemala
1955
Cleared of Russian spy charges
1956
Today ceases, The Stalin Era published
1958
Supreme court decision in Rockwell Kent versus John F. Dulles enables her to get passport again, attends peace conference in Stockholm, 2 months in Soviet Union, to Peking with Emily Pierson, appears on high dais with Mao and Chinese leaders on National Day, meets Frank and Ruth Coe, writes for National Guardian
1959
New secretary, Chao Feng-feng, meets with W.E.B. Dubois and Mao, moves to Peace Compound, visits Tibet, Tibetan Interviews published, meets Che Guevara, has trouble placing articles, Chou attends her 74th birthday party
1960
Emily Pierson visits
1961
Visits Laos and Vietnam, meets Ho Chi-Minh, Cash and Violence In Laos and Vietnam published
1962
Begins Letter From China at Chou's suggestion
1964
Meets with Mao, Frank Coe, Sol Adler, Israel Epstein and Sid Rittenberg, attends International Conference of Solidarity Against United States Imperialist Aggression and in Defense of Peace in Hanoi, Ho Chi-Minh attends her birthday party
1965
Mao and Chou give her 80th birthday parties
1966
Mao purges party, Strong is first foreigner admitted to the Red Guard
1968
Tracy (brother) dies, begins autobiography
1969
Attends October Day premier's banquet, fails to get permission for John Strong, Robbins' son, to visit her
March 29, 1970
Dies, large public funeral

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Content Description

Correspondence, writings, diaries, biography, pamphlets, photographs, clippings, memorabilia, and scrapbooks. Consists of material relating to Strong's personal life as well as to her political and professional interests. Includes notebooks on China, the Spanish Civil War, the Soviet Union, and labor organizing in the Midwest and California in the late 1930s. Also includes a sound recording taped at Strong's seventieth birthday celebration in 1955. Major correspondents include Eleanor Roosevelt, Joel Shubin (Strong's Russian husband), as well as Strong's father, Sydney Dix Strong, and brother, Tracy Strong. Chinese correspondents include, Chiang Kai-shek, Chou En-Lai, Liu Shaoqi, and Mao Tse-tung.

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Other Descriptive Information

Forms a part of the Labor Archives of Washington.

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Use of the Collection

Restrictions on Use

Creator's literary rights transferred to the University of Washington Libraries.

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Administrative Information

Arrangement

Arranged in 8 accessions:

  • Accession No. 1309-001, Anna Louise Strong papers, 1885-1957
  • Accession No. 1309-002, Anna Louise Strong microfilm, 1896-1957
  • Accession No. 1309-016, Anna Louise Strong letters, 1955, 1960
  • Accession No. 1309-017, Anna Louise Strong papers, 1961, undated
  • Accession No. 1309-018, Anna Louise Strong papers, 1904-1970
  • Accession No. 1309-019, Anna Louise Strong papers, 1968-1969
  • Accession No. 1309-020, Anna Louise Strong papers, 1906, 1918
  • Accession No. 1444-001, Anna Louise Strong papers, 1907-1971

Bibliography

Strong, Tracy B. and Helene Keyssar, Right in Her Soul the Life of Anna Louise Strong, 1983. Ogle, Stephanie Francine, Anna Louise Strong, Progressive and Propogandist, unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Washington, Seattle, 1981.

Separated Materials

Material Described Separately:

In 2007, publications received with accession 1309-001 were separated in order to be cataloged individually.

Microfilm is available through Government Publications, Maps, Microforms & Newspapers.

Related Materials

Anna Louise Strong's papers from her last years in China, 1958-1970, including an autobiography, are in the National Library of China in Beijing.

Additional materials related to Anna Louise Strong can be found in the Strong Family Papers (Manuscript Collection 0958) in the repository.

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Detailed Description of the Collection

 


2007 (Last modified: 2/23/2024)

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