Card catalog and list (9 p.)
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.
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 LheĢvinne, 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 There are extensive drafts and source materials for her unpublished autobiography.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.
Material is arranged into four series.
Card catalog and list (9 p.)
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.
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.
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Helen Worden Erskine papers; Box and Folder; Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Columbia University Library.
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.
Materials may have been added to the collection since this finding aid was prepared. Contact rbml@columbia.edu for more information.
Gift of Linda Bradley Cranmer, 1986.
Source of acquisition--Cranmer, Linda Bradley. Method of acquisition--Gift; Date of acquisition--03/15/86. Accession number--M-03.15.86.
Columbia University Libraries, Rare Book and Manuscript Library
Processed HR 03/16/88.
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.
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.
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Manuscripts, drafts, notes, correspondence, and related items for her projected autobiography which included family history, her grandfather (Col. Wilbert Barton Teters) and his Civil War experiences, her childhood in New York City and in Colorado, life with her mother (Wilbertine Teters Worden), her career in journalism, her travels, and her marriages to John Erskine and to William Henry Harrison Cranmer. She published many articles based on her childhood and on her mother's adventures. Guy Bolton's play, Jenny Kissed Me, was based on her memoirs of her mother. There are also many genealogical notes on the Teters, Wordens, and other related families.
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Manuscripts, typescripts, memoranda, notes, correspondence, tape cassettes, transcripts, photographs, clippings, and other related materials for her biographical articles and columns for magazines and newspapers and for her books and planned books.
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The unpublished biography, Many Sinners and a Few Saints, of this French literary agent.
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28 audiocassette tapes
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A 1955 magazine articles and a projected biographical book.
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A 1955 magazine articles and a projected biographical book.
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A 1955 magazine articles and a projected biographical book.
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The Von Dehn family of California commissioned her in 1958 to write a biography of this Danish and German diplomat. She withdrew from the arrangement in 1961.
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The Von Dehn family of California commissioned her in 1958 to write a biography of this Danish and German diplomat. She withdrew from the arrangement in 1961.
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She was commissioned in 1956 by The Reader's Digest and in 1958 by the Dixon Crucible Co., of Jersey City, New Jersey, to write a biography of this American inventor. Her article appeared in 1958 but the book was abandoned in 1961 for lack of surviving documentation.
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She was commissioned in 1956 by The Reader's Digest and in 1958 by the Dixon Crucible Co., of Jersey City, New Jersey, to write a biography of this American inventor. Her article appeared in 1958 but the book was abandoned in 1961 for lack of surviving documentation.
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She wrote several articles about her first husband, Professor of English at Columbia University, 1909-1937 and President of the Julliard School of Music, 1928-1937.
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Gen. and Mme Christian Castries, Genevieve de Galard-Terraube, Andre Geraud-Pertinax, Andre Maurois, the Rothschilds, and Misia Sert.
Newspaper articles for the New York World-Telegram and stories for various magazines, later drawn upon for her book, Out of This World (New York, G.P. Putnam's Sons, circa 1953), from which the play, The Girls in 509 (1959), was adapted by Howard Teichman.
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A projected biography of this pianist and music teacher.
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She helped this American songwriter with his autobiography.
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From about 1962 until 1971 she wrote articles about Dr. Niehans' cellular therapy and worked on his biography which failed to find a publisher.
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Her article on salespeople and correspondence for her projected book, Drummer Boy; a history of the traveling salesman.
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From 1956 until 1958 she worked on the dual autobiography of the Morgan twins; after a disagreement, the book was completed by another author. These files include early materials on the Gloria Vanderbilt custody trial and Thelma's affair with the Duke of Windsor.
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Her newspaper and magazine articles and clipping files on Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt, Mrs. Hamilto, McK. Twombly, and other family members.
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Their courtship, the abdication crisis, and their subsequent lives.
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Their courtship, the abdication crisis, and their subsequent lives.
Newspaper articles, drafts, planned books, clippings, notes, and correspondence about crime and trials, primarily in New York City, Helen Worden was a crime reporter for the New York World-Telegram from 1937 until 1944. Later she appeared on "The $64,000 Challenge" television program with crime as her specialty.
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Drafts, Proofs, Notes, Correspondence, and Publicity Materials
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In 1952 she collaborated with Rita Weiman on this unpublished mystery story which is based on the Parsons' abduction case which she had covered as a crime reporter.
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Editorial correspondence about her many magazine articles, along with some drafts, memoranda, contracts, photographs, and printed articles.
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There is correspondence from readers, manuscripts and drafts of her replies, business correspondence and memoranda about the column, her subject files for replies, and promotional materials.
This advice column was distributed by The Bell Syndicate from 1959 until 1964. In some papers it appeared over other signatures: Clara Valli; Muriel Nissen; Kitty Kelly; and Gladys Parker. She was succeeded by Joyce Brothers.
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This column of commentary was distributed by the Hall Syndicate in 1955 and 1956. Correspondence, manuscripts, drafts, memoranda, contracts, and related materials.
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This column of commentary was distributed by the Hall Syndicate in 1955 and 1956. Correspondence, manuscripts, drafts, memoranda, contracts, and related materials.
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Articles, book manuscripts, drafts, correspondence, journals, memoranda, photographs, printed and other related materials about her travels.
Articles about her childhood family, travels, and history of the Colorado area and its people.
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She wrote several guidebooks to New York City and many series of newspaper articles on New York City history.
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From 1951 to 1956 she wrote many articles about the Middle East and in 1953 she covered the Middle Eastern tour of John Foster Dulles, the American Secretary of State.
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From 1951 to 1956 she wrote many articles about the Middle East and in 1953 she covered the Middle Eastern tour of John Foster Dulles, the American Secretary of State.
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From 1951 to 1956 she wrote many articles about the Middle East and in 1953 she covered the Middle Eastern tour of John Foster Dulles, the American Secretary of State.
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Notes, articles, correspondence and clippings on fiction, composition, vocabulary, correspondence-courses, criticism, playwriting, suggested topics, and scrapbook pages.
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Scrapbooks of her newspaper articles and columns along with articles of interest to her. There is also some correspondence included.
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1923-1951
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1929-1966
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1940-1958
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1949-1968
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1926-1970
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1943-1969
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1951-1969
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1954-1969
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1961-1969
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1927-1933
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1934-1939
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1937-1940
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1940-1944
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Box 155 Folder 4-8
By Helen Worden and others. Also includes one folder of prints and maps.
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Original artwork
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Mapcase 14-H-3
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Denver, Boulder, and excursions into the mountains
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Helen Worden and friends with animals, mostly cats and dogs.
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