The University of Chicago Library > The Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center > Finding Aids > Guide to the Vincent Sheean and Ruth Falkenau Correspondence 1919-1986
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| Title: | Sheean, Vincent and Ruth Falkenau. Correspondence |
|---|---|
| Dates: | 1919-1986 |
| Size: | 0.25 linear feet (1 box) |
| Repository: |
Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center |
| Abstract: | Letters and texts sent by journalist and novelist Vincent Sheean and his wife Diana Sheean to Ruth Falkenau between 1919 and 1986. Includes personal correspondence describing Sheean's work and travels and a manuscript, "The Voice of the Turtle." |
The collection is open for research.
When quoting material from this collection, the preferred citation is: Sheean, Vincent and Ruth Falkenau. Correspondence, [Box #, Folder #], Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library
Vincent Sheean was born James Vincent Sheean on December 5, 1899 in Pana, Illinois. He studied at the University of Chicago from 1916 to 1918, but left the University before graduation to become a reporter, briefly in Chicago, then for the New York Daily News. From the 1920s through the 1940s, Sheean served as a foreign correspondent in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East, writing for the Chicago Tribune, Saturday Evening Post, and New York Herald Tribune, among other publications. He published several novels works of biography and autobiography. Sheean and Diana Forbes-Robertson were married in 1935, and later divorced and remarried. Vincent Sheean died in Italy in 1975.
Ruth Falkenau was born on September 28, 1895 to Esther Friend Greenebaum and Harry Falkenau, a well-regarded Chicago antiquarian. Falkenau received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Chicago in 1918. Her friendship and correspondence with Sheean continued from their student days at the University until his death in 1975.
The Vincent Sheean and Ruth Falkenau Correspondence contains forty-eight letters. Many of the letters document Sheean’s life as a writer shortly after leaving the University of Chicago in 1918, and his travels in Europe and Asia as a foreign correspondent from the 1920s through the 1950s.
The collection also contains correspondence between Falkenau and Sheean's wife Diana, following his death in 1975, correspondence with biographers of Sheean, and a 1920 manuscript, “The Voice of the Turtle.”
| Box 1 Folder 1 | James Vincent Sheean to Ruth Falkenau, 1919-1920 |
| Box 1 Folder 2 | James Vincent Sheean to Ruth Falkenau, 1920-1927 |
| Box 1 Folder 3 | James Vincent Sheean to Ruth Falkenau, 1928-1939 |
| Box 1 Folder 4 | James Vincent Sheean to Ruth Falkenau, 1940-1958, undated |
| Box 1 Folder 5 | Diana Sheean to Ruth Falkenau, 1975-1986 |
| Box 1 Folder 6 | “The Voice of the Turtle,” December 8, 1920 |