Edwin Bjorkman (1866-1951) was a Swedish-American literary critic, translator, newspaperman, and author, and, from 1925, a resident of North Carolina. The collection includes literary, personal, and business correspondence, chiefly from 1907, writings and collected writings, of Edwin Bjorkman. His correspondence is divided into two series: Professional (literary), and Personal. The Professional series includes letters from many significant twentieth century authors, including Zoe Akins, Van Wyck Brooks, James Branch Cabell, Olive Tilford Dargan, John Galsworthy, Francis Grierson, Archibald Henderson, Henry Goddard Leach, William Lyon Phelps, Upton Sinclair, Freeman Tilden, and Allan Eugene Updegraff. Topics include Bjorkman's work as a translator of Swedish literature and drama, his World War I experiences in Sweden as an employee of the British Department of Information and the American Committee on Public Information, and his work in North Carolina as literary editor of the Asheville Times newspaper and, after 1935, as director of the North Carolina Federal Writers' Project. The Personal series consists of correspondence of and writings of Bjorkman's family, including his four wives. The bulk of the papers consists of Bjorkman's writings and collected manuscripts, clippings, photographs, and miscellaneous items.
