Series VII: American Social Credit Movement emblem

The papers of Gorham Munson (1896-1969) deal almost wholly with his support of Social Credit and are confined to the years 1932 to 1945. There is almost no information about his career as a literary critic, book editor, and teacher of writing. The material includes articles, books, correspondence, pamphlets, and scrapbooks

The collection grew out of Munson's interconnected roles as organizer, publicist, fund-raiser, editor, promoter, lobbyist, propagandist, theorist, leader, and diplomat for a succession of Social Credit organizations from 1932 to 1945. Published materials provide the best documentation of the development of the theory of Social Credit in England, Canada, the United States, Australia, and New Zealand. The politics of individual and factional differences within the American movement is represented best by the files of correspondence.

Munson's most revealing correspondence is with the slightly-known figures in the Social Credit movement. The chief exception to this is the correspondence with Ezra Pound, his father Homer Pound, James Laughlin IV and, to a lesser degree, William Carlos Williams. For England there is strong documentation in the letter files of the New English Weekly, Major C. H. Douglas, John Hargrave, Philip Mairet and Stanley Mott. For Canada the documentation lies more in published material Correspondence between Munson and R. Halliday Thompson is revealing of the difficulties of conducting an international Social Credit review, The Beacon of Winnipeg, which incorporated New Democracy in 1937-1939. For Australia and New Zealand there is published material and some correspondence such as that with Lilly Bierne.

For the United States the internal dynamics of the Social Credit movement are manifest in many files, especially those of Herbert Bruce Brougham, Allan R. Brown, Howard L. Buck, A. M. Edwards, Paul Hampden, Laurence Morris, W. A. Nyland, A. H. Spencer, Elliott Taylor, and Mrs. E. Sohier Welch. Congressional correspondents include Charles G. Binderup, Fred L. Crawford, T. Alan Goldsborough and Jerry F. Voorhis.

Correspondence will be found in four difference series in the Munson papers, arranged alphabetically in each by the name of the writer of the letter. In searching for material on any single individual the listings in all series should be consulted.