Helen Worden Erskine papers, 1860-1984

Summary Information

At a Glance

Call No.:
MS#0400
Bib ID:
4078525 View CLIO record
Creator(s):
Worden, Helen, 1896-1984
Repository:
Rare Book and Manuscript Library
Physical Description:
72 Linear Feet (154 boxes, 3 oversize flat boxes, 1 map case folder)
Language(s):
English .
Other Finding Aids

Card catalog and list (9 p.)

Access:
You will need to make an appointment in advance to use this collection material in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library reading room. You can schedule an appointment once you've submitted your request through your Special Collections Research Account.

Series I: Catalogued Correspondence, boxes 1-2, is located on-site.

Series II, III, and IV are located off-site. You will need to request this material at least three business days in advance to use the collection in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library reading room.

This collection has no restrictions.

Description

Scope and Content

Correspondence, manuscripts, drafts, notes, documents, drawings, photographs, audio tapes, clippings, and other printed materials covering every aspect of Helen Worden Erskine Cranmer's life and career. There are extensive biographical files on: Jenny S. Bradley, Prince Charles of England, Joseph Dixon, Dwight and Mamie Doud Eisenhower, Rosina LheĢvinne, Paul Niehans, the Morgan twins (Gloria Morgan Vanderbilt and Thelma Morgan Converse Furness), Jovanka Tito, Harry and Bess Truman, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor; and large files on crime, recluses, New York City history, and travel. There are extensive drafts and source materials for her unpublished autobiography. There are pencil sketches, pen-and-ink drawings, watercolors, charcoal sketches, photographs, and printed copies by Helen Worden Erskine Cranmer and by others.

Arrangement

Material is arranged into four series.

Using the Collection

Other Finding Aids

Card catalog and list (9 p.)

Restrictions on Access

You will need to make an appointment in advance to use this collection material in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library reading room. You can schedule an appointment once you've submitted your request through your Special Collections Research Account.

Series I: Catalogued Correspondence, boxes 1-2, is located on-site.

Series II, III, and IV are located off-site. You will need to request this material at least three business days in advance to use the collection in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library reading room.

This collection has no restrictions.

Terms Governing Use and Reproduction

Single photocopies may be made for research purposes. The RBML maintains ownership of the physical material only. Copyright remains with the creator and his/her heirs. The responsibility to secure copyright permission rests with the patron.

Researchers must wear gloves when handling photographs and artwork.

Preferred Citation

Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Helen Worden Erskine papers; Box and Folder; Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Columbia University Library.

Related Materials

Wilbertine Teters Worden papers: papers of Helen Worden Erskine's mother, the journalist and writer Wilbertine Teters Worden. At the Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Columbia University.

Luellen Teters Bussenius papers: papers of Helen Worden Erskine's aunt, also a journalist and editor of The Delineator.

John Erskine papers: Papers of Helen Worden Erskine's first husband, Columbia University English professor, writer, and president of the Juilliard School of Music. At the Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Columbia University.

Reminiscences of Helen Worden Erskine : oral history, 1957: Transcript of an oral history interview with Joan Pring, in which Worden discusses her early life in Denver, Colorado and New York City; Paris, 1925; the New York World and World-Telegram, 1926-1931; and Professor John Erskine.

Accruals

Materials may have been added to the collection since this finding aid was prepared. Contact rbml@columbia.edu for more information.

Ownership and Custodial History

Gift of Linda Bradley Cranmer, 1986.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Source of acquisition--Cranmer, Linda Bradley. Method of acquisition--Gift; Date of acquisition--03/15/86. Accession number--M-03.15.86.

About the Finding Aid / Processing Information

Columbia University Libraries, Rare Book and Manuscript Library

Processing Information

Processed HR 03/16/88.

Revision Description

2014-07-11 xml document instance created by Adrien Hilton

2019-05-20 EAD was imported spring 2019 as part of the ArchivesSpace Phase II migration.

2022-10-17 Biographical note expanded and other front matter updated by CLB.

2022-10-26 Photographs and artwork inventories updated by CLB.

Biographical Note

Helen Worden Erskine Cranmer (1896-1984), was a journalist, advice columnist, biographer, and ghostwriter. She worked as a reporter and columnist for The World (later New York World-Telegram) from 1926 to 1944, contributed freelance work to magazines from 1944 until 1956, worked as associate editor for Collier's from 1952 until 1956, and wrote the Dorothy Dix syndicated advice column from 1959 until 1964. She also published books on New York City and recluses, and served as a ghostwriter for several autobiographies and many biographical and autobiographical magazine articles.

Helen Worden was born in Denver, Colorado on July 12, 1896. Her father, Charles George Worden (1869-1897), was an attorney and publisher who died the year after Helen's birth. Her mother, Wilbertine Teters Worden (1867-1949), was also a journalist, as was her aunt, Luellen Teters Bussenius. She spent her childhood in Colorado and New York City.

Worden studied drawing at the University of Colorado from 1915 until 1919 and in Paris, with Andre Lhote (1885-1962), in 1925 and 1926. She often incorporated her own sketches in her columns. She joined the staff of The World as a society reporter, and later worked as a crime reporter for the New York World-Telegram from 1937 until 1944. (This role supported her subsequent appearance on "The $64,000 Challenge" television program with crime as her specialty.) In addition to her newspaper work, Worden published several books during the 1930s and early 1940s: The Real New York (1932), Round Manhattan's Rim (1934), The Society Circus (1937), Here is New York (1939), and Discover New York (1943).

In 1938, Worden wrote the first of a series of popular articles on the "Mystery Men of Harlem," the wealthy and reclusive brothers Homer and Langley Collyer. New York City's recluses were also the subject of Worden's 1953 book, Out of This World. She left the New York World-Telegram in 1944 to focus on freelance work. In 1953, during her tenure at Collier's, she joined the press pool for United States Secretary of State John Foster Dulles' tour of the Middle East and Asia; she was the only woman correspondent on the tour.

The Dorothy Dix advice column Warden wrote from 1959 until 1964 was the first syndicated advice column, originated by the journalist Elizabeth Meriwether Gilmer (1861-1951) in 1895 and distributed by The Bell Syndicate. In some papers it appeared over other signatures: Clara Valli, Muriel Nissen, Kitty Kelly, or Gladys Parker. Joyce Brothers took over the column on Worden's departure in 1964.

Helen Worden was married to John Erskine, author and professor of English at Columbia University, from 1945 until his death in 1951; and to William Henry Harrison "Harry" Cranmer, a mining engineer, from 1959 until his death in 1967. She died in New York City on July 31, 1984.

Subject Headings

The subject headings listed below are found in this collection. Links below allow searches for other collections at Columbia University, through CLIO, the catalog for Columbia University Libraries, and through ArchiveGRID, a catalog that allows users to search the holdings of multiple research libraries and archives.

All links open new windows.

Genre/Form
Articles CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Clippings (Information Artifacts) CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Correspondence CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Diaries CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Drafts (documents) CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Memorandums CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Photographic prints CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Scrapbooks CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Short stories CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
typescripts CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Name
Barton, Bruce, 1886-1967 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Bolton, Guy, 1884-1979 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Bradley, Jenny S., 1886-1983 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Charles, Prince of Wales, 1948- CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Dixon, Joseph, 1799-1869 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Eisenhower, Dwight D (Dwight David), 1890-1969 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Erskine, John, 1879-1951 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Graham, Stephen, 1884-1975 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Hurst, Fannie, 1889-1968 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Hurston, Zora Neale CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Lhevinne, Rosina, 1880-1976 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
New York world-telegram CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Niehans, Paul, 1882-1971 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Vanderbilt, Gloria Morgan, 1904-1965 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
World CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Place
Colorado -- Description and travel CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
New York (N.Y.) -- Description and travel CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
New York (N.Y.) -- History CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Subject
Advice columnists CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Advice columns CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Biographers CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Crime CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Frontier and pioneer life -- Colorado CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Ghostwriters CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Recluses CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Royal households -- Great Britain CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Travel CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Women journalists -- United States -- 20th century CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID