The Harry Golden Papers Biography Charlotte writer, Harry Golden was born Harry Goldhirsch on May 6, 1902 in eastern Galicia, now part of Poland. In 1905, he immigrated to America with his parents Leib and Anna Klein Goldhirsch. The family settled in the Lower East Side of New York City. The family changed its name to Goldhurst. Leib Goldhurst worked as a teacher and later served as the editor of the Jewish Daily Forward. The young Harry Goldhurst was an excellent scholar and equally well read in areas of literature, history and philosophy. During the day, Harry peddled newspapers, straw hats and clerked for Oscar Geiger’s Fur Manufacturing Company. At night, he attended East Side Evening High School and graduated in 1921. For the next three years, Harry attended night classes at the City College of New York, but he left before graduating. While working for Oscar Geiger, became involved with the Round Table Literary Club from 1918 to 1921. It was through this organization that Harry’s rounded off his education. He became a public speaker for the Socialist Party and social reforms. After leaving college, Harry worked as a stockbroker and by 1926 he was the head of the firm Kable and Company. That same year he married Genevieve Alice Marie Gallagher, a schoolteacher. The couple had four sons, Richard (b. 1927), Harry Jr., (b. 1927), William (b. 1929) and Peter (1938-1957). Three years later Harry’s brokerage firm filed bankruptcy and he was charged with mail fraud. Found guilty, Harry spent three and half years in the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary. He returned to New York in 1933 and worked for his brother Jacob, who ran a hotel. However, Harry’s new aspiration was to become a journalist. Between 1939 and 1941, he sold advertisements for the New York Daily Mirror and the New York Post. It is reported that he worked at a number of southern newspapers at this time, but there is no verification of the exact locations. By late1941, after a stint in Norfolk, Virginia, Harry settled permanently in Charlotte. He changed his name and thus Harry Golden was re-born. His first job was selling advertising and writing editorials for the Charlotte Labor Journal and the Charlotte Observer. It was in Charlotte, that Harry Golden’s reputation as a defender of civil rights and social justice solidified. In October 1942, he worked with the Charlotte News to print his own newspaper, the Carolina Israelite. Two years later Harry assumed all publishing and printing duties. This enabled him to publish the Israelite on a regular basis. The paper was solely Golden’s creation. He sold the advertisements, wrote the articles and built an international circulation of 30,000. In 1958, a fire destroyed his subscription lists and this was soon followed by the publication of his criminal record. However, Golden and the Carolina Israelite persevered until it folded in the late 1960s. Harry Golden became the spokesperson for the rights of the oppressed, whether by race, religion or economic status. His articles, although satirical in nature, raised subjects that were often taboo in the south, including equal rights for Blacks, discrimination against Jews. Harry wrote for the Nation, Commentary Life, and Congress Weekly. In 1961, he covered the Eichmann Trial. In 1958, Golden became a best-selling author with the publication of his essays entitled Only in America. One year later the book was adapted by famed playwrights Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee and presented on Broadway. Other works by Golden include Jews in American History: Their Contributions of the United States of America with Martin Rywell (1950), Jewish Roots in the Carolinas: A Pattern of America Phil- Semitism (1955), For 2 cents Plain (1959), Enjoy, Enjoy! (1960) Carl Sandburg (1961), Five Boyhoods (edited by Martin Levin, 1962), You’re Entitle’ (1962), The Harry Golden Omnibus (1962), Mr. Kennedy and the Negroes (1964), So What Else is New? (1964), Ess, Ess, Mein Kindt (1966), The Best of Harry Golden (1967), The Right Time; an Autobiography; an Autobiography (1969), So Long As You’re Healthy (1970), The Israelis; Portrait of a People (1971), The Golden Book of Jewish Humor (1972), The Greatest Jewish City in the World (1972), Travels through Jewish America (with Richard Goldhurst, 1973), Our Southern Landsmen (1974) and Long Live Columbus (1975). At the time of his death, Golden left an unpublished manuscript, “America, I Love You.” Harry Golden was honored throughout his life by colleges, his colleagues and a number of organizations. In 1969, the University of North Carolina at Chapel established a Harry Golden Lecture Series. He was a member of the American Jewish Congress, the N.A.A.C.P, the Southern Regional Council, the Catholic Interracial Council and B’nai B’rith. On October 2, 1981, Harry Golden died in his beloved, adopted city. He is buried at the Hebrew Cemetery in Charlotte, North Carolina. Harry Golden Papers A Description The Harry Golden Papers consist of manuscripts of most of his publications, articles and correspondence from 1960 to 1978. It is a large collection comprising over one hundred boxes. Many of Golden’s original papers were destroyed in a fire; consequently, a number of the items are copies. For additional information regarding Harry Golden, the University of North Carolina at Charlotte also houses a large collection of Golden’s papers. Harry Golden Papers A Collection of His Works from 1960-1978 Manuscript Collection Four Item Number Date Description Box 1 GO.LG.1 c 1964 Photographs & manuscripts relating to A Little Girl Is Dead Box 2 GO.LG.2 ca 1964 1. Knights of Mary Phagan 2. Aftermath 3. Convict Lease System 4. Dreyfus parallel 5. Ballads of Mary Phagan 6. Georgia Race Riot 7. Georgia Department of Corrections 8. Knights of Mary Phagan 9. South Labor-Race Box 3 GO.LG.3 ca 1964 Shows corrections made to manuscript. Box 4 GO.LG.4 ca 1960 Research on Tom Watson Box 5 GO.LG.5 ca 1964 Photostats of the following: 1. The Jeffersonian 2-6.Tom Watson’s Papers 7-8.Hearsts’ Georgian and Leo Frank’s Case. Box 6 GO.LG.6 ca 1964 Original manuscript used by publisher. Box 7 GO.LG.7 ca 1964 Original manuscript used by publisher Box 8 GO.LG.8 ca 1964 Photocopies, Ch. 1-26, some notes Box 9 GO.LG.9 1964 Correspondence, Bibliography, copies of Chapters 24-31 Box 10 GO.LG.10 ca 1964 1. Governor Slaton and Tom Watson 2. Letters to Gov. Slaton for & against hanging 3. Gov. John M. Slaton 4. Photostat of Gov. Slaton’s original Commutation Harry Golden Papers Manuscript Collection Four A Little Girl is Dead Box 11 GO.LG.11 ca 1964 Manuscripts with final corrections, memo. Box 12 GO.LG.12 ca 1964 Uncorrected Galley. (See GO.LG3.) Box 13 GO.LG.13 ca 1964 Manuscript with corrections Box 14 GO.LG.14 ca 1964 1. Inquest and Fst Day of Trial 2. Leo Frank Notes 3. The Trial 4. Evidence Against Conley Box 15 GO.LG.15 ca 1965 1. Reviews & Letters 2.Correspondence 3.ADL Correspondence on Frank Case 4. Engle & Goldstein Corr. On Frank’s Innocence 5. Sidney Blackmer and Hass Letters Box 16 GO.LG.16 ca 1964 Anti-Semitism (The Thunder Bolt. 1) Anti Semitism 2) The Prosecutor Leo Frank & the Jews 3) Jews & Leo Frank 4) The KKK 5) Jews & Leo Frank 6) Jews of the South Box 16 GO.LG.16 ca 1964 8. Chron. 9. Leo Frank case and Jews 10. Jews in Georgia in 1913 & 1916 Box 17 GO.LG.17 various A Little Girl is Dead. 1) Leo Frank’s Phonograph Records 2) Leo Frank’s Last Letter 3) Early Material on Fran Case 4) Chronology of the case 5-7) Orig. Dewitt Robert’s Report 8. Correspondence Marre Dangar Researcher 9. NY Times and the Case Box 18 GO.LG.18 ca 1964 A Little Girl is Lost 1) Harold Ross on Frank Case 2) Lippincott-Oxford Press Harry Golden Papers Manuscript Collection Four A Little Girl is Dead Box 18 GO.LG.18 ca 1964 3. B’nai B’rith News & Georgian Notes 4. Arthur Train on Frank Case 5. Research on the Press and L. Frank 6. Roger Honkanen Research see GO.ML1 Envelope 2. 7. Christian Advocate, Jewish Forward 8. Frank: CAP. Connolly’s Work on Frank’s Innocence 9. Literary Digest 1915 10. ADL in Look Magazine 1965 Box 19 GO.LG.19 ca 1964 A Little Girl is Dead 1. Conley’s notes – H.A. Alexander Analysis 2. Copy of Franks’ last letter 3. Conley letters 4. Defense 5. The Appeals 6. Photostats – Corr. of Haas, Marshall, Laker, Schiff 7. State Appeal, Supreme Ct. Appeal – Marshall-Lasker, Alexander 8. Frank Appeal 9. Photostats: Appeal Decisions of Georgia Supreme Ct. & US Supreme Court Box 20 GO.LG.20 ca1964 A Little Girl is Dead 1. MS: Introduction; Acknowledgements; Ch. 1-15 2. MS: Ch. 16-21 3. MS: Ch. 22-31; Appendix; Bibliography Box 21GO.LG.21 ca1964 Negative Copies of the Atlantic Georgian; NY Times; Sunday American Carl Sandburg Box 22 GO. CS1 ca 1960 Corrected Galley Box 23 GO. CS2 “” 1. Clippings 2. Draft of Book 3. Speeches by Sandburg 4. Corrected drafts 5. The Radical 6. Outline of Chapters 7. Misc. Box 24 GO. CS3 Rewritten and Corrected Drafts Harry Golden Papers Manuscript Collection Four Carl Sandburg Box 25 GO.CS4 ca 1960 Copies of letters to Margaret Ligon at Pack Memorial Library in Asheville, NC in tribute to Carol Sandburg.