The Federal Writers' Project
The FWP (Federal Writers' Project) was a program that was functioning between 1935 to 1942 made to publish the strength of the American People. It was a federal government project (as implied by the title), that funded wrtitten work to support writers during the Great Depression. It was a part of the WPA which is a part of the New Deal. It was one of the four New Deal artistic programs, that are known as Federal One. They were known for employing white-collar workers who were un-employed at the time. At the peak of the FWP, there were about 6,600 individuals who were working at the FWP. By the end of the FWP, there were children's books published by the FWP, there are 48 state guides, along with territories guides.
Overview of the FWP
The FWP is most known for their Life Histories, and operated from 1935 to 1942. There were 24 states involved with the Life Histories, and in the Library of Congress collection has about 2,900 documents in total of the FWP. Some of the states involved with FWP were Alabama, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Missouri, Montana, and Nebraska.
American Guide
The FWP was created in 1935 to give jobs to unemployed teachers, historians, librarians, and other white collar workers who had no job to speak of. It was originally created to publish a series of guide book titled American Guide. It was originally going to be about the scenery of farms, cities, and towns. It was also meant to inform people about the history, and culture of places around the country, show the diversity of what's happening, show the similarities. It was also just stories by regular people who lived during this horrible time. The stories proved to people that even in the worst of times, people who don't have that much, still tried to help out people who had even less than them. It was meant to be a reference to when people were going through hard times, that the strength of the human spirit, could still shine through a time when so many people had so little. For the first four year of the FWP, it was run and managed by Henry Alsberg, and later John D. Newsome.
This is the cover of the Illinois American Guide.
Format of the American Guide
Formats include, manuscripts, dialogue, pictures, graphs, narratives, transcripts, maps, and many other forms. Some are written as drafts, or notes. Many were never published, but were kept as documents in the Library of Congress. The files of the Federal Writers' Project are arranged in the following series: Administrative File, American Guide File, Folklore Project, Social-Ethnic Studies, Special Studies and Projects, Negro Studies Project, Slave Narrative Project, Miscellaneous Records, Miscellany and Printed Matter. There were other series that were added as the FWP went on, but these were the series available at the time of the Great Depression.
Henry Alsberg
Henry Alsberg was the director and correspondent for the FWP from 1935 through the end of 1939. Alsberg was a former lawyer who became interested in theater as a writer and wrote many off-Broadway shows. A bulk of the correspondence for the American Guide was done by Alsberg, all throughout his time as director of the FWP.
This is a picture of Henry Alsberg taken in 1955.