Summary Information
Elmer A. Beck Manuscript
1976-1988
Local History Manuscript Collection 1
0.4 cubic ft. (1 box)
Milwaukee Public Library (Map)
Draft manuscript of The Sewer
Socialists.
To request materials from this collection, create/login to your Special Collections Account.
English
http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.mwpl-lhmc0001 ↑ Bookmark this ↑
Biography/History
Elmer Axel Beck, an author, journalist and socialist, was born May 23, 1906 in
Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He attended Bay View High School in the 1920s and joined the
Socialist Party while studying journalism at the University of Wisconsin in 1932; he
graduated in 1935. Afterwards he worked as a journalist for labor publications in
Milwaukee and Sheboygan such as the Wisconsin Leader,
the Sheboygan Times and the Milwaukee Leader. In 1942 he became the editor of the Kenosha Labor newspaper. He resigned in 1949, moved his
family to Paris, France, to serve as a Labor Information Specialist with the US
Economic Cooperation Administration in Europe. From 1953-1971 he was a Press
Representative for the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace
workers. Meanwhile he earned a Master’s Degree from the University of Wisconsin
finishing in 1968.
Beck retired in 1971 but continued to write. He wrote two books, The Sewer Socialists: A History of the Socialist Party of
Wisconsin, 1897-1940 (1982) and Autopsy of a
Labor Daily: The Milwaukee Leader (1970). The name “sewer socialists”
was a pejorative used among socialists. The context was that Milwaukee socialists
were more interested in cleaning up the city, including building new sewers, then
socialist ideology. Elmer Beck passed away on January 8, 1990 in Kenosha,
Wisconsin.
Scope and Content Note
This collection is a circa 1976 draft manuscript of The Sewer
Socialists. It includes photocopy and typescript pages but is missing
pages 163-212. Also included in the collection are an additional partial draft, some
correspondence and agreements regarding publishing of the book and a published
essay.
Arrangement of the Materials
Subjects are arranged alphabetically and then chronologically within each folder.
Manuscript is arranged in chronological page order.
Preferred Citation
Beck, Elmer A., Manuscript, 1976-1988, Collection 1. Local History Manuscript
Collections, Milwaukee Public Library, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Related Material in the Milwaukee Public Library
Archival Collections
Publications and Other Items
The Sewer Socialists : a History of the Socialist
Party of Wisconsin, 1897-1940
Autopsy of a Labor Daily : The Milwaukee Leader
Administrative/Restriction Information
There are no access restrictions on the materials. The collection is open to all
in accordance with state law. The public may view Local History Manuscript
Collections by appointment at the Central Library. To request an in-person
appointment, create/login to your Special Collections Account. If you have any questions, please
contact the Archives and Special Collections Department at mplarchives@milwaukee.gov.
The researcher assumes full responsibility for conforming with the laws of libel,
privacy, and copyright which may be involved in the use of this collection
(Wisconsin Statutes 19.21-19.39).
No acquisition information is available at this time. Materials were accessioned
as Local History Manuscripts.
Processed by Casey Lapworth, 2018.
Contents List
|
Box
2
Folder
1
|
Agreements, 1979-1981, undated
|
|
|
Box
2
Folder
2
|
Correspondence, 1983-1988
|
|
|
Box
2
Folder
3
|
Essays, 1981
|
|
|
Box
2
Folder
4
|
Manuscript – Partial draft, undated
|
|
|
Manuscript, The Sewer
Socialists
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
1
|
pages 1-100, circa 1976
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
2
|
pages 101-238; pages 163-212 not included, circa
1976
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
3
|
pages 239-350, circa 1976
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
4
|
pages 351-451, circa 1976
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
5
|
pages 452-525, circa 1976
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
6
|
pages 526-599, circa 1976
|
|
|
Box
1
Folder
7
|
pages 600-683, circa 1976
|
|
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