Correspondence, clippings, typescripts, holograph manuscripts, research notes, photocopies, reports, printed materials, photographs, financial records, personal records, and maps document the professional and literary endeavors of Michael Josselson from his early adulthood in the late 1920s through his death in 1978, and continuing up to 1991 with related materials collected after his death. The papers are organized into three series: I. The Commander: A Life of Barclay de Tolly, 1914-1990, n.d. [bulk 1970s] (18 boxes, 1 notecard filebox); II. Congress for Cultural Freedom, 1947-1991, n.d. [bulk 1960s] (9 boxes, 2 folders); and III. Personal, 1927-1988, n.d. (6 boxes).
The Barclay de Tolly series contains the largest amount of material and consists mainly of typescript and holograph drafts, research notes, and extensive photocopies of bibliographic materials used by Josselson during research for his book The Commander: A Life of Barclay de Tolly. The photocopies are mostly of Russian language books, journals, and published memoirs dating from the 18th and 19th centuries. The majority of materials were created or collected by Josselson during the 1970s, and include the oldest item in the papers, a 1914 German map of Russia's Baltic provinces. Multiple drafts found in this series show extensive revisions to the work and include outlines and bibliographies.
Besides Russian language materials, there are also considerable amounts of French and German materials throughout the whole of Josselson's papers. Languages found in lesser amounts include Italian, Swedish, Finnish, and Spanish. English is present in greater amounts than any other single language, but is not in the majority.
Correspondence is present throughout the papers, but is concentrated in the Personal Series and the Congress for Cultural Freedom (CCF) Series. The Personal Series correspondence consists mainly of copies of typed, outgoing letters from Josselson dating from the 1960s through the 1970s covering a wide range of topics, including the CCF and his book. Incoming correspondence is found mostly in CCF subject files. Correspondents present in Josselson's papers include: Raymond Aron, Ulli Beier, Daniel Bell, Francois Bondy, Willy Brandt, Zbignew Brzezinski, Theodore Draper, Pierre Emmanuel, John Kenneth Galbraith, George F. Kennan, Arthur Koestler, Irving Kristol, Melvyn Lasky, Minoo Masani, Ezekiel Mphahlele, Jayaprakash Narayan, Nicolas Nabokov, William Oppenheimer, Michael Polanyi, Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., Edward Shils, Iganzio Silone, Stephen Spender, and Shepard Stone.
Josselson's papers do not document his activities during the 1950s as well as in later years of his life. Some CCF materials he gathered to prepare a history of the Congress do give insight to the organization's formation in 1950 and its early activities, as does one folder of personal letters selected by Josselson for his daughter Jennifer's viewing. The majority of the papers, however, date from the early 1960s forward, coinciding with Josselson's move to Switzerland in 1961.
Virtually all subseries and folder headings were derived from folder titles created by Josselson or his wife, Diana. Mrs. Josselson also collected all papers dating after his death in early 1978, and created some of the correspondence and other materials included in the papers prior to 1978. Her handwriting can also be found on numerous letters and folders identifying dates and individuals.
