The materials contained in the Mary Heaton Vorse collection relate almost exclusively to the textile workers strikes in Gastonia, N.C., Marion, N.C., and Elizabethton, Tenn. in 1929. The majority of the papers are concerned with the Gastonia strike and the highly publicized murder trial which followed. Included in the collection are Mrs. Vorse's correspondence and notes taken in Gastonia, her news dispatches to TASS and the New York Evening Graphic, typescripts of articles, and the manuscript and typescript for her book, Strike - A Novel of Gastonia (1930). Also included are 1929 press releases from the Federated Press Eastern Bureau and the International Labor Defense concerning the strike.
For the Marion and Elizabethton strikes, there are Mrs. Vorse's notes, the manuscript and typescript of her article about the Marion strike, “Waitin' with the Dead”, newspaper clippings, and Federated Press releases.
