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Nora Waln Literary Papers
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Held at: Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College [Contact Us]500 College Avenue, Swarthmore, Pennsylvania 19081
This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in their reading room, and not digitally available through the web.
Overview and metadata sections
Nora Waln was a 20th century Quaker author and journalist who wrote about Nazi Germany and China.
Born in Grampion, Pennsylvania, in 1895, she was the daughter of Thomas Lincoln and Lillian Quest Waln. She entered Swarthmore College with the Class of 1919 but left during her second year when war broke out. In 1920 she sailed for China to live with the Lins, a family with Waln connections in Hopei Province. She met her future husband, English foreign service officer George Edward Osland-Hill in the Far East. They were married in 1922 in the Cathedral of the Church of England in Shanghai. Nora and Ted had one child, Marie. Eventually she had to leave China, and in June of 1934 went to Germany with her husband who had retired and wanted to study music.
Nora Waln's best known books include House of Exile and Reaching for the Stars. The former was drawn from her life in Germany, and latter the account of her stay in a Chinese household. She contributed articles to the Saturday Evening Post, the Atlantic Monthly, and other magazines. She was also the European administrator of the Kappa Kappa Gamma Fund for War Mothers and Children. Nora travelled widely, maintained residences in England and Philadelphia, and spent the final years of her life at Rincon de la Victoria, near Malaga in southern Spain.
The collection includes many incomplete manuscripts, at least some of which were returned to her family by the publisher after her death. A portion of this material was never published, and some represents earlier drafts of published works. Series 1 includes correspondence with Edward A. Weeks Jr., her publisher at the Atlantic Monthly, in the late 1930s and the early 1940s. The papers have been maintained in the folder groups with which they were associated, resulting in mixed content, with newspaper clipping, manuscripts, and other materials together as received.
Organized into series: 1. Correspondence; 2. Literary Manuscripts; 3. Miscellaneous.
Donor: Alice Waln, 1997.
- Publisher
- Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College
- Finding Aid Author
- FHL staff
- Finding Aid Date
- 2007
- Access Restrictions
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Collection is open for research.
- Use Restrictions
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Permission to reuse, publish, or reproduce items in this collection beyond the bounds of Fair Use or other exemptions to copyright law must be obtained from the copyright holder or their heirs/assigns. See http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC-RUU/1.0/.
Collection Inventory
Nora's correspondence primarily with Edward (Ted) Weeks, Editor at the Atlantic Monthly in Boston, 1939-1964. Includes a letter about writing a monthly letter for the Atlantic Monthly from the Western Pacific and a letter about the success of The House of Exile, which was about a young Quaker with a Chinese family, a letter on his anticipation for Children of Light, and a letter asking for a possible book to Nora in Japan.
Physical Description1 folder
Correspondence in England during the War. Includes letters from Hector MacQuarrie, 1940, about editing her book, and a letter to Meg, 1941; also includes copied poems and a photograph.
Physical Description1 folder
Letter from Robert L.Waln to Geoffrey Greer acknowledging receipt of photographs. Also includes European photos of author and unannotated postcards from Scotland, Spain, and London
Physical Description1 folder
1958 Spanish newspaper, several articles on the Germans, WWII, the great blitz, and bird watching, Chapters 1, 2, and 3 from book, letter to and from Ami Stewart in 1957
Physical Description1 folder
Parts of Invisible Leopold's Series, In England Now, and multiple copies of Chapters 1, 2, and 3 of Songs in the Night, along with a letter to Ami Stewart in 1957
Physical Description1 folder
Unfinished chapters from book chapter outlines for Andalucia and Horses in Spain, newspaper articles on the Cold War and Communism, and letter to Ted about Spanish Horses book rights
Physical Description1 folder
Chapters 1-5, 9 of unfinished sequel to House of Exile
Physical Description1 folder
Chapter 3 of Children of the Light, Parts1-3, 5 of Letters from the Western Pacific, Seth and Mary, The World is Round, and Convey to China
Physical Description1 folder
Edited and finished versions of Book Two from book with story line about China.
Physical Description1 folder
1 folder
1 folder
1 folder
1 folder
Chapter 4 from book about China
Physical Description1 folder
Chapter 4 from book (same as folder 6), along with article on Japanese art
Physical Description1 folder
Article on Soviet prisons and Chapter 3 from book about a missionary Quaker
Physical Description1 folder
First Day with Rufus Jones by Nora, articles on Japan and Korea, Chapter One: The House with the Rose Red Walls about Korea, Chapter 9: Peonies were in Bloom, and Chapter 4: On a Rice Farm.
Physical Description1 folder
Chapters 1-3, 9 from Return to the House of Exile, and letter to Ted Lambert about Reaching for the Stars.
Physical Description1 folder
Poems in Spanish, pieces of paper with poem ideas, phrases, and quotes on China, ideas for books Horses in Spain and Rural Rides, and brainstorming for other books
Physical Description1 folder
Manuscripts from Atlantic Monthly returned after Nora's death: None Ask Pity from Berlin, Surrender the Heart about China, This is Home, Sliding Door's chapter listings, chapters 1-4 from Book 1 chapter 3 from Book 2 from Return to the House of Exile, Chapter 1 and 2 from Beyond Our Dreams about Spain, Chapter 1 and 2 from This is Home, letter from Atlantic with incomplete manuscript list, and letters from Ted about royalties and missing Nora
Physical Description1 folder
Receipts about Robert Waln's estate, article about Nora, A Quaker Among Nazis, and a review on Nora's book The Approaching Storm: One Woman's Story of Germany 1934-38, photos from Nora's year in Germany, None Ask Pity draft, For the Progress, and several letters from Berlin, and pictures of Nora's husband.
Physical Description1 folder
1 folder