Lloyd Lewis and Bruce Catton research notes collection

Lloyd Lewis: A Biographical and Scope Note, by David L. Wilson, August 14, 1973

Lloyd Lewis was born in Pendleton, Indiana, May 2, 1891. Upon graduation from Swarthmore College in 1913, he entered journalism, working first in Philadelphia, then in Chicago. Between 1920 and 1930 he was involved in advertising in Chicago. Lewis married Kathryn Dougherty, a newspaperwoman, in 1925. He began a long association with the Chicago Daily News in 1930 as a drama critic, a sports editor, and, finally, managing editor (1943-45). From 1945 until his death four years later, he wrote a weekly column for the Chicago Sun-Times, and embarked into the world of the working scholar, basing his operations at the Newberry Library in Chicago. Journalism was Lewis’s vocation; the study of history his avocation. However, he was much more than a dilletante. A prolific writer, he was author, co-author, or editor of ten books, as well as numerous magazine and newspaper articles. Letter from Lloyd Lewis, letter written to his publishers while he was immersed in research on Grant, may be his most valuable contribution to the working scholar. This thin volume of letters, published after his death, contains fascinating insights into a thoroughly professional scholar practicing his craft. Lewis eloquently assessed the pleasures, agonies and pitfalls of a biographer. Lewis’s passion was the Civil War era in American history. Kathryn Lewis was once asked at an afternoon tea what her husband did for a living. “I lost my husband in the Civil War,” she replied. His first venture into serious scholarly writing, Myths After Lincoln, was written at the same time his friend Carl Sandburg was writing Lincoln: The Prairie Years. Lewis examined the folklore and legends surrounding Lincoln’s assassination and subsequent internment. His second affair with an historical figure was with William Tecumseh Sherman, the end result being Sherman: Fighting Prophet. Though additional research has dated much that Lewis wrote about Sherman, his literary craftsmanship was superb, and the book is still a major work on Sherman. Research on Sherman gave Lewis a new enduring respect for Sherman’s mentor and protector, Ulysses S. Grant, at a time when Grant’s reputation as either general or president was not high among scholars. Early in the 1930’s Lewis considered writing a major biography of Grant. His plan, for a variety of reasons, did not come to fruition until 1945 when he signed a contract with Little, Brown Company to write a multi-volume study of Grant. Before his death, he completed the critically acclaimed first volume, Captain Sam Grant. Much of the research for the final volumes was completed at the time of his fatal heart attack on April 21, 1949. The voluminous research notes were sent by Mrs. Lewis to another journalist turned historian, Bruce Catton. Catton used the Lewis material as a solid research base from which to complete the next two volumes of Grant biography, Grant Moves South and Grant Takes Command, which carries the subject through the Civil War. After completing his Grant volumes, Catton, with the encouragement of Mrs. Lewis, donated the Lewis papers to the Ulysses S. Grant Association, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, Illinois. Some of Catton’s own research notes on Grant, along with notes provided for Catton by E. B. Long, are interfiled with the Lewis Papers. A thorough and industrious researcher, Lewis usually typed two or more carbons of each note, enabling him to file the same item under several different subject headings. He also had a journalist’s penchant for cutting and pasting material to fit his immediate needs. If Lewis had a weakness as a researcher, it was his tendency to entrust to memory the source of some research notes. Although the Lewis papers are sometimes difficult to use, the effort is especially rewarding because of the numerous original manuscript sources in private hands he turned up during the course of his investigation. He encouraged the holders of such documents to place them in an appropriate historical library to make them available to all scholars. In a few instances, however, manuscripts have temporarily disappeared, and are not available except through Lewis’s research notes. Lewis also worked extensively with newspapers of the period from all areas of the country, and conducted a thorough survey of secondary sources. Lewis did not confine his research exclusively to Lincoln, Grant and Sherman. He vigorously pursued James H. Lane of Kansas, Hubert Dilger (a Prussian-trained artillery officer in the Union army), and Philip Kearny. By corresponding extensively with descendants he unearthed considerable original manuscript materials, some of which again are available only through Lewis’s research notes. Of equal interest is a large number of drafts of Lewis articles, some unpublished, scattered through his papers. Lewis carried on an extensive correspondence in connection with his research endeavors. Of particular interest in the Lewis papers are some notes and letters from Carl Sandburg and an extensive correspondence with Sherman relatives, including Hugh Ewng, Jr., P. T. Sherman, and Eleanor Sherman Fitch. He corresponded with Louis F. Dilger and other Dilger family members, as well as members of the Kearny family. In addition to the papers at the USGA, a collection of Lloyd Lewis correspondence (about 300 items) at the Newberry Library emphasizes his literary and political aspects of his career.