Family and general correspondence, subject files, writings, diaries and memorabilia. The general correspondence makes up nearly half the papers, documenting Fischer's professional career. As editor of Harper's Magazine (1935-1967) with time out as an editor of Harper & Brothers (1947-1953) he numbered many prominent writers among his correspondents. Notable are Bruce Catton, Norman Cousins, Ralph Ellison, Malcolm Foster, John Kenneth Galbraith, John Gardner, Brendan Gill, Walter Kerr, Irving Kristol, Henry Luce, Willie Morris, Reinhold Niebuhr, Milo Perkins, Bertrand Russell, Arthur Schlesinger, Barbara Tuchman, Eudora Welty, Rebecca West, Tom Wolfe and C. Vann Woodward. The correspondence also reflects his political activities, including his involvement in the presidential campaigns of Adlai Stevenson (as speechwriter) and John F. Kennedy. Political figures with whom Fischer corresponded include Maury Maverick, William Blair, Newton Minnow, Willard Wirtz, Dean Acheson, Carl Albert, Chester Bowles, McGeorge Bundy, Frank Church, J. William Fulbright, Barry Goldwater, Hubert Humphrey, Jacob Javits, Lyndon Johnson, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Edmund Muskie, Nelson Rockefeller, Dean Rusk and Harry Truman. Family correspondence also reflects his political interests, and many of these letters discuss such events as Roosevelt's policies, and impressions of Germany and the Saar plebiscite where he was a reporter for the United Press in 1935.
