The Max Otto Papers consist of correspondence, articles, research notes, speeches, lecture notes and other writings, diaries, his autobiography, clippings, and memorabilia. They are arranged in four series: correspondence, writings, biographical materials, and reference materials.
The CORRESPONDENCE is arranged chronologically from 1899 to 1963. There are very few outgoing letters before 1929. In addition to insights on Otto's life and thought, this correspondence reflects the development of American philosophy over a forty-year period. Most valuable to the researcher is the Boyd H. Bode correspondence, which spans the period from 1908 to 1950. In these letters Bode encouraged Otto in his effort to make philosophy relevant to life.. The correspondence with John Dewey reflects the deep friendship between the two men and provides many commentaries on their colleagues in philosophy. The voluminous correspondence with Dickinson S. Miller (which is found throughout from 1927 on) a companion of William James, is also valuable from the philosophical standpoint. In addition, the letters exchanged with prominent figures of the University of Wisconsin and American philosophers such as Albert C. Barnes, Dean E. A. Birge, Baker Brownell, Morton Enslin, University President Glenn Frank, Nathan P. Feininger, Horace Fries, A. Eustace Haydon, Elijah A. Jordon, Horace M. Kallen, William M. Leiserson, Edward C. Linderman, Alain Locke, Alexander Meiklejohn, Frederick Merk, Donald Piatt, Dean George C. Sellery, Harold Taylor, Marten Ten Hoor, and Lewis G. Westgate, give a good picture of the development of American pragmatism, and of the conflicts among American philosophers and within the University of Wisconsin during this period. There is also extensive correspondence between Otto and the editorial staff of The Christian Century, The Crozer Quarterly, The Humanist, The Humanist Press Association, The Journal of Social Philosophy, and The Nation.
A list of the dates of correspondence with Boyd H. Bode, Clarence Darrow, John Dewey, Alexander Meiklejohn, and George C. Sellery is an appendix to this finding aid.
All of the correspondence between Otto and his close friend Phillip La Follette may be found in the additions to the Phillip LaFollette Papers (Wis Mss QS). There is, however, some correspondence between Otto and Phillip's son Robert in this collection, during the years following 1944.
The WRITINGS AND PROFESSIONAL PAPERS series is comprised of the records and papers generated by Max Otto's professional activities, including: (1) his writings -- published and unpublished articles; notes of articles, books, and speeches; and reviews; (2) his lecture notes for University of Wisconsin courses; and (3) his speeches. These materials are arranged chronologically within each category. The articles are preceded by a Bibliography Progress Report dated 1956. The folder of newspaper articles provides an index of Otto's many interests, such as education and theology, and his pacifist and progressive political sentiments. The next two folders contain drafts of About Thinking, the book on logic which Otto worked on for thirty years but did not complete. The folders of miscellaneous notes include fragments of his book The Human Enterprise. The undated book reviews written by Otto are arranged alphabetically by the name of the book's author. The lecture notes for his University of Wisconsin courses are not complete; there is material only from the late 1930s and 1951 and there are no notes for the well-known “Man and Nature” course. The speeches given outside the University include Otto's addresses to the First Unitarian Society of Madison and other Unitarian groups.
The third series, BIOGRAPHICAL MATERIALS, includes all of Max Otto's public expression with the exception of his drawings and the muck-raking political cartoons which he drew for the Wisconsin State Journal between the years 1907 and 1910. These have been placed with the biographical materials because they were done before Otto chose a career in philosophy and because they relate to politics and events of those years. Thus, they were considered to be more of a biographical nature rather than as material revealing Otto's professional thoughts and ideas. Max Otto's autobiography, his diaries, biographical clippings arranged chronologically, and memorabilia make up the remainder of this third series. The drafts of five chapters of the autobiography, “He Came to Himself,” are written as a novel, in the third person. In this fictionalized account, Otto, in the words of Amos Tappan Wilder, tries to “read himself into the optimistic American experience, the American dream.” There is also a piece written during World War I at the height of anti-German feeling, “Living Down the Hyphen.” The first notebook of his diary gives a detailed account of his attempt to prevent the firing of Professor Fiese in 1917 because of an “unpatriotic” remark, but unfortunately the diary resumes only in 1955, passing over the period when he was most severely criticized in the 1930s. The biographical clippings from Wisconsin newspapers bridge this gap.
The fourth series of the collection contains REFERENCE AND RESOURCE MATERIALS: colleagues' and students' papers, a Japanese account of American philosophy and Otto's thought, materials concerning The Humanist, and articles annotated by Max Otto. There are files of reference clippings on incidents threatening academic freedom; on John B. Chapple, the politician who attacked Otto in 1932; on Otto's fellow philosophers; and on other matters which interested him. They are arranged in chronological order.
A list of the books, periodicals, reprints, and pamphlets which were sent to the Historical Society Library, in alphabetical order on index cards, is in the last box of the collection.
