Manuscripts Department
Library of the University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill
SOUTHERN HISTORICAL COLLECTION
#4031
ERNEST SEEMAN PAPERS
Inventory
Abstract: Ernest Seeman (1886- ) was president of Seeman
Printery, Durham, N.C., 1917-1923; editor of Duke
University Press, 1925-1934; writer; and social critic
of Durham, N.C., and Unicoi County, Tenn.
About half of this collection is composed of
versions of writings by Ernest Seeman. There are
several versions of Tobacco Town, some with
suggestions and emendations by Mimi Conway, Seeman's
editor. Other writings include several unfinished and
unpublished novels and about twenty essays. A run of
diary-notebooks offers a view of Seeman's radical and
independent ideas and activities in the 1930s and
1940s. A series of "Other Papers" includes six
folders of scattered correspondence. Although a
prolific correspondent, according to Elizabeth Seeman,
Ernest Seeman apparently saved few letters. There are
sketches in pencil by Ernest and Elizabeth Seeman. A
final box of unprocessed material also has been kept
with the collection, illustrating the condition of
most of Seeman's materials as they were received at
the Southern Historical Collection and documenting the
way Seeman apparently stored his research materials
and other personal records.
Online Catalog Terms:
Conway, Mimi.
Diaries--North Carolina--History--20th century.
Eccentrics and eccentricities--North Carolina.
Eccentrics and eccentricities--Tennessee.
Duke University Press.
North Carolina--Intellectual life--20th century.
Radicalism--North Carolina--History--20th century.
Seeman, Elizabeth.
Seeman, Ernest, 1886- .
Seeman Printery (Durham, N.C.).
Size: About 450 items (6.25 linear feet)
Provenance: Received from Elizabeth Seeman of Erwin,
Tennessee, in August 1978, and Mimi Conway of
Washington, D.C., in April 1985.
Access: No restrictions
Related Collections: SOUTHERN ORAL HISTORY PROGRAM COLLECTION
(#4007). Interviews with Ernest Seeman
(B-12) and Elizabeth Seeman (G-55).
Copyright: Retained by the authors of items in these papers,
or their descendants, as stipulated by United States
copyright law.
Table of Contents:
Introduction
Biographical Note
Collection Overview
Series Descriptions
Series 1. Writings
Series 2. Other Papers
Series 3. Notebooks
Series 4. Pictures
Shelf List
INTRODUCTION
Biographical Note
Ernest Seeman (1887-1979), the son of Henry Ernest and Bettie
Albright Seeman, was a writer, publisher, and editor who lived in
Durham, North Carolina, and in Unicoi County, near Erwin,
Tennessee.
Seeman was hired to manage the Duke University Press in 1925
after serving as president of the family business, Seeman
Printery Company of Durham, from 1917 to 1923. He helped expand
the Press's catalogue of titles and was associate editor of a new
psychological journal, Character and Personality. Seeman began
writing while at Duke, publishing several essays in general
interest and psychology magazines. Known as a campus radical,
Seeman was fired in 1934 when he was accused of writing a satire
on the Duke administration.
Seeman and his second wife, Elizabeth Brickel Seeman, settled
in a primitive cabin in Tennessee in the early 1940s. For the
next thirty-five years, Ernest Seeman wrote constantly as he and
his wife battled poverty and, sometimes, near-starvation. He
worked frequently on his book, Tobacco Town, which was published
as American Gold in 1978. He also worked on several other novels
and numerous essays. The Seemans founded a lending library for
community children in 1965. Seeman died in Tennessee in 1979.
Collection Overview
About half of this collection is composed of versions of
writings by Ernest Seeman. There are several versions of Tobacco
Town, some with suggestions and emendations by Mimi Conway,
Seeman's editor. Other writings include several unfinished and
unpublished novels and about twenty essays. A run of diary-
notebooks will give researchers a view of Seeman's radical and
independent ideas and activities in the 1930s and 1940s. A
series of "Other Papers" includes six folders of correspondence.
Although a prolific correspondent, according to Elizabeth Seeman,
Ernest Seeman apparently saved few letters. There are also
sketches in pencil by Ernest and Elizabeth Seeman.
A final box of unprocessed material also has been kept with
the collection, illustrating the condition of most of Seeman's
materials as they were received at the Southern Historical
Collection and documenting the way Seeman apparently stored his
research materials and other personal records. About twelve
cubic feet (20,000 items) of jumbled and deteriorating scraps of
notes and writings, routine correspondence, and other incidental
material were discarded during processing.
These papers are arranged in the series and subseries listed
below:
Series 1. Writings
Subseries 1.1. Tobacco Town
Subseries 1.2. Other Writings
Series 2. Other Papers
Series 3. Notebooks
Series 4. Pictures
Subseries 4.1. Photographs
Subseries 4.2. Drawings
SERIES DESCRIPTIONS
Series 1. Writings
1930-1975 and undated. About 50 items.
Typed, handwritten, and published versions of novels, short
stories, and essays. The writings chiefly reflect Seeman's
experience at Duke University, his Tennessee cabin home, and his
interests in birds and developmental psychology. Seeman's
fiction has a strong autobiographical flavor; he apparently cast
himself as John Anders in Tobacco Town and Grasshopper Farm.
Subseries 1.1. Tobacco Town
ca. 1941-1975 and undated. About 20 items.
One apparently complete typed version of the novel, with
Seeman's emendations, and many typed fragments and stray
chapters, none of which are dated.
Folders 1-4 An apparently complete version, pp. 1-696.
5-16 Various incomplete versions and fragments.
17 Letter and novel synopsis for prospective
publishers, undated.
Subseries 1.2. Other Writings
1928-1975 and undated. About 50 items.
Arrangement: alphabetical by title.
Versions of novels, short stories, essays, and a play
concerned with a host of topics. The three unpublished novels,
The Bull and the Thrush, Grasshopper Farm, and Tumbling Creek,
focus on slavery, Seeman's year living in an Orange County, North
Carolina, cabin, and his mountain home in Tennessee,
respectively. Published versions of some of the essays are
included. Subjects of the essays include American business
monopolies, radicalism, ornithology, and child development.
Folder 18 "Adventures of a Square Peg"
19 "Basic Changes Needed in our
Monopoly-Military Ruled Government"
20 "Black Genius"
21 The Bull and the Thrush, 1-174 (1)
22 The Bull and the Thrush, 1-174 (2)
23 The Bull and the Thrush (carbon typescript,
1-159)
24 The Bull and the Thrush (miscellaneous
pages)
25 "Christmas on Buckwater"
26 "Come Winter, Come Spring" (1)
27 "Come Winter, Come Spring" (2)
28 "Come Winter, Come Spring" (3)
29 "A Country Boy in a Fish-Eagle's Nest"
30 "The Cup of Solitude"
31 Duke University, book about (111-182)
32 Duke University, book about (182-232)
33 "The Fetishes We Worship"
34 "The Flying Carpet"
35 Grasshopper Farm, 1-325
36 Grasshopper Farm (Chapter 1)
37 "The Hand of Education in the South"
38 "A Letter to a Young Person"
39 "Mountain Murder"
40 "Minktown" (cover page)
41 "My Credo"
42 Play (untitled)
43 Sir Walter Raleigh, book about (1-94)
44 Sir Walter Raleigh, book about (fragments)
45 Slave narrative of James Brown
46 "Smiling Dragon: A Look at Duke
University." See OP-P-3041/1-2 for
a sketch and engraving plate of the
frontispiece illustration of this essay.
47 "The Smoked Yankee"
48 "Some Practical People"
49 "Song of a Jackass"
50 "Spring Notes from the Mountains"
51 "Square Pegs"
52 "Ten Years in a Liberal College by an
Ex-Employee"
53 "That Old Stove in the Willis Store"
54 "There's History in Your Vegetable Garden"
55 "This Day and Time"
56 Tumbling Creek (fragments)
57 Tumbling Creek (Chapters 2, 4, and 5)
58 "The Two White Horses"
59 Untitled manuscript
60 "A Warning About Pellagra"
61 "What Does Your Boy Want to Be?"
62 "What's Next?"
63 "Windy Drizzle"
64 "Who Defeated Senator Frank Graham?"
65 "Wind and Smoke, 1925"
66 "Young Men in Earnest"
Series 2. Other Papers
1936-1970 and undated. About 65 items.
Arrangement: alphabetical by type.
Miscellaneous items culled from the heterogeneous mass of
material originally received at the Southern Historical
Collection. (See "Collection Overview.") A description of the
contents of each folder follows.
Folder 67 Letters from Elizabeth to Ernest Seeman.
68 Letters to Ernest Seeman from others,
notably one letter from Herbert Aptheker
and one from Seeman's only son, Bill.
69 Letters from Ernest to Elizabeth Seeman.
70 Letters from Ernest Seeman to unidentified
others.
71 Letters to Elizabeth Seeman from others.
72 Correspondence between Ernest Seeman and
Blanche Ayres Reynolds, 1932.
73 Deed of gift to Elizabeth Seeman from
Ernest Seeman, 1938.
74 Duke University Press Material. Includes
annual reports, 1936-1938; catalog of
titles published, 1936-1937; several brief
histories of the Press; and memoirs.
75 Fifty Years: The Seeman Printery, 1885-1935
by E. D. Fowler. Published volume.
76 A numerical list of subjects of interest to
Ernest Seeman.
77 Master's thesis on Ernest Seeman by Susan
Singleton Rose. Provides biographical and
family background as well as a close study
of Seeman's firing from Duke University.
78 Royalty statement for Elizabeth Seeman's
The Talking Dog and the Barking Man.
79 "The Story-Tellers Ring," official
stationery of a literary group Ernest
Seeman helped found.
80 Description of Tumbling Creek cabin, the
Seeman's home in Tennessee.
81 Tumbling Creek Cabin Library. Printed
materials and newspaper articles on this
lending library started in 1965.
82 Who's Who entry for Ernest Seeman,
1932-1933.
"83" Actually a box of miscellaneous scraps of
notes, writings, routine correspondence,
and other items, all unarranged. This box
mirrors both the chaotic condition of the
papers before processing and Ernest
Seeman's eccentric work habits.
Series 3. Notebooks
1933-1964. About 20 items.
Arrangement: chronological.
Chiefly writing notes by Seeman and some diary entries. In
some notebooks, Seeman also included newspaper clippings that
interested him. Quoted titles are those that Seeman gave
particular notebooks. Note that many of these notebooks are
embrittled and very fragile. An addition, a photocopy of "A
Review of American Gold by Ernest Seeman with a Biography of the
Author" by Susan Singleton Rose (1979), was included in Box 6.
Folder 84 1933
85 October 1934
86-88 1934
89 October 1935-January 1936
90 "Trauma notes," 1936
91 "Trauma notes," October 1938-1939
92 May 1937-March 1939
93 "Mountain lore," 15 October 1940-February 1941
94 "Trauma notes," 10 May 1941-October 1941
95 "Trauma notes," 3 October 1941-1 January 1942
96 "Trauma notes," 3 January 1942-10 March 1942
97 "Trauma notes," 10 March 1942-September 1942
98 "Trauma notes," 16 September 1942-23 May 1943
99 "Trauma notes," 24 May 1943-1 November 1943
100 "Trauma notes," 1 November 1943-26 April 1944
101 "Trauma notes," April 1944-December 1946
102 July 1948-November 1948
103 16 October 1950-November 1950
104 April 1964-October 1964
105 "Cane Creek Notebook," undated
Series 4. Pictures
ca. 1907-1970 and undated. About 200 items.
Photographs of Ernest and Elizabeth Seeman, plus photographs
of Ernest Seeman's early Durham, North Carolina, friends, ca.
1907. Sketches and drawings by both Seemans, apparently from the
time they were in Tennessee, are also included. Elizabeth Seeman
worked during this time as a freelance illustrator.
Subseries 4.1. Photographs
P-4031/1-22 Photographs of Ernest Seeman, mostly in poses
in and around the Tumbling Creek cabin,
Tennessee, ca. 1952-1972. The earliest
photograph of Seeman in the collection, taken
ca. 1925-1934, is P-4031/20.
P-4031/23-27 Photographs of Ernest and Elizabeth Seeman, in
and around the Tumbling Creek cabin and
elsewhere.
P-4031/28-29 Photographs of Ernest Seeman and unidentified
others around the Tumbling Creek cabin from
the 1960s and 1970s.
P-4031/30-39 Photographs of Elizabeth Seeman in and around
the Tumbling Creek cabin, mostly from the
1960s and 1970s.
P-4031/40-52 Three photographs of Julia Henry Seeman,
Ernest Seeman's first wife, and other women
and girls of Durham, 1907. The location of
these pictures is downtown Durham.
Researchers may be interested in the picture
backgrounds and dress of these women.
P-4031/53-55 Photographs of various members of the
Explorers' Club in various outdoor scenes
surrounding Durham, in 1933. Seeman
helped found this club.
P-4031/55a Photograph of the Tumbling Creek cabin,
undated.
P-4031/56-67 Photographs of unidentified people, some
involved in protests, undated.
P-4031/68-76 Unidentified outdoor photographs, probably
taken in the Tennessee mountains near
Tumbling Creek, undated.
Subseries 4.2 Drawings
Drawings by Ernest and Elizabeth Seeman, chiefly of people and
animals. In a separate sleeve are several sketches by Elizabeth
Seeman. These drawings are unnumbered; they are filed following
the photographs.
SHELF LIST
Boxes 1-3. Series 1. (folders 1-31)
4. Series 1-2. (folders 32-82)
5. Series 2. (folders 83)
6. Series 3. (folders 84-105)
Items separated:
P-4031/1-76 and unnumbered drawings