Pencil and ink sketches by Edna Manley Lewisohn, including a self-portrait

Papers document mostly Lewisohn's friendship and early homosexual love affair with poet George Sylvester Viereck and Lewisohn's later marriage to Edna Manley. Correspondence (1903-1955) between Lewisohn and Viereck is mostly on literary matters; but early holograph poems by Lewisohn refer to their love affair. Other poems include printed and typescript copies and his English translations of some poems by Rainer Maria Rilke.

Most of the collection documents the relationship of Lewisohn and Edna Manley, with mostly photocopies of her diaries (ca. 1940-1942) which describe her relationship with Lewisohn, her perceptions of him, the custody battle for his son James, his memories of many people and parts of his life, exiled Jewish and other writers fleeing Europe, and other subjects. Present are photocopies of correspondence (1936-1940) regarding the financial arrangements of Lewisohn's divorce from his first wife Mary Childs Lewisohn (who published books under the pseudonym Bosworth Crocker.)

Other literary manuscripts include poems by Lewisohn set to music by Thelma Spear and an unknown composer; and photocopies of an unpublished novel and play by Edna Manley, as well as clippings of her newspaper columns (1934-1936) for a Rochester, NY, newspaper. Lewisohn printed matter includes an inscribed offprint (1904) of his article on the poetry of George Sylvester Viereck, and brochures advertising his lecture tours and his biography of Goethe.

Photographs of Ludwig, James, and Edna Manley Lewisohn and many of her friends and family, including two photographs (ca. 1940s) of Henry Miller and his family at Big Sur. Also included is an audiocassette of a lecture by Lewisohn and materials (1992) from a College of Charleston exhibit on Lewisohn.