Manuscripts Collection
Born in Duluth, Minnesota, on April 18, 1908, Irene (Levine) Paull was a writer and radical labor activist who married Henry Paull, a Duluth attorney who was retained as counsel in multiple cases involving radical labor and political groups. The collection consists of Paull's personal papers, as well as material she collected about progressive politics and Minnesota labor movements.
Her personal papers consist of primarily photocopied correspondence (1964-1966, 1972-1977, 1980?); literary notebooks (1958-1975); published works (1937-1981); typescripts of prose, poetry, and acting skits; a memorial program and condolence letters upon her death (August 12, 1981); material on William Heikkila (1959-1960), a Finnish immigrant and ex-communist; material on Martin Mackie (1967), a communist labor and political leader from the Mesabi Iron Range; poetry of Arnold E. Johnson; and a forty-eight page transcript of Paull's interview (May 1972) with Stanley Volansky, a survivor of a Nazi-run Polish ghetto.
The correspondence is primarily between herself and Morris U. Schappes, editor of
The notebooks are typed and handwritten and contain prose portions, occasional
correspondence, journal entries, and passages from others' published work. Her own
published works appear in magazines, in particular
The material on progressive politics and labor movements in Minnesota is concentrated in three areas: Chester Watson and Workers Alliance (1934-1940), International Woodworkers of America, Local 12-29 (1944-1959), and mining and farm strikes (undated, 1907, 1947).
Portions of the Irene Paull papers were donated by Meridel Le Sueur, Paull's friend and literary peer.
Accession numbers: 11,008; 12,214; 14,525; 15,631
Processed by: Frank Hennessy, November 1991, and Christopher G. Welter, February 2009.
Catalog ID number: 1731035
Correspondents: Carol Jochnowitz, William Jones, Meridel Le Sueur, Morris U. Schappes, and Peter Werner.
Includes two-part pamphlet, "The Strange Case of William Heikkila" (1959), about his deportation to Finland under the McCarran-Walter Act (April 1958) and a memorial booklet upon his death (January 1961).
Includes campaign literature related to Chester Watson's congressional
election campaigns in Minnesota, first as the Farmer Labor candidate for
the first congressional district (1936) and later as the Progressive
Farmer Labor candidate for the fourth congressional district (1940);
letters (1936) from Senator Ernest Lundeen to Watson discussing the
passage of the Frazier Lemke Social Security Bill; and two pamphlets
(1935, 1936) from the Northern States Cooperative League. Chester Watson
was chairman of the Workers Alliance of Minnesota and the remainder of
the material relates directly to the Alliance and to the People's Lobby,
which was sponsored by the Alliance. The material includes a program
from the People's Pilgrimage (April 4-5, 1937), a mass lobbying effort
conducted by the People's Lobby; a pamphlet, "The Truth About the
People's Lobby," by Dale Kramer (1937); printed flyers distributed by
the Workers Alliance of Minnesota (1938); sheet music for the song
"Leaning on a Shovel," music by Chester Watson (1938); a program from
the Workers Alliance "Relief" banquet (June 4, 1938); a
Includes twelve pamphlets (1947-1959) containing agreements between the union and the Lumber Producers Association; a letter (June 5, 1944) from H. D. Grow to the union describing unsanitary conditions in the Martin Steiningers lumber camp; and newspaper clippings (1945) covering union officials' testimony to the Minnesota Senate public health committee on sanitary conditions in the camps.
Includes a typescript essay, "The Minnesota Miners Strike of 1907," which
describes a strike led by the Western Federation of Miners on the Mesabi
Range, a typescript chronology of the strike from the