Biographical Information

Introduction

The Dartmouth College Library received the James Isaac Loeb Papers in 1996, the gift of Paula Harris of Norwich, Vermont. Although a small collection, it illustrates the life of a Dartmouth alumnus (1929) who wore many hats: teacher, political organizer, diplomat, newspaperman, civil rights activist, husband, and father.

James Isaac Loeb, Jr. was born August 18, 1908, in Highland Park, Illinois. After obtaining his A.B. degree from Dartmouth College in 1929, he spent 10 months in France studying the language. He went to Northwestern University as a Romance Languages teacher in 1930, and received his A.M. degree there in 1931. Loeb married Ellen Katz in 1932. He earned his Ph. D. from Northwestern in 1936, and the following year moved to New York to teach languages at Townsend Harris High School.

Loeb's first love, however, was politics. In 1941, he left teaching to co-found, with Reinhold Niebuhr, the Union For Democratic Action. He was Executive Director until 1947, when he left to found Americans For Democratic Action. He was a consultant to President Truman's legal counsel, Charles S. Murphy, for 4 months in 1951 - 1952, and later was Executive Assistant to W. Averell Harriman for several months. Loeb and a partner bought a smalltown newspaper, The Adirondack Enterprise, of Saranac Lake, New York in 1953. Loeb, as president, editor, and publisher, ran the newpaper until 1970. He was active in civic affairs, being named to the Whiteface Mountain Authority by Governor Harriman in 1957, and co-founding North Country Community College in the late 1960's; he was also one of the first trustees.

In 1961, President Kennedy named Loeb Ambassador to Peru, but the political situation in that country led him to resign in 1962. He was named Ambassador to Guinea in 1963, and stayed on there until 1965, when he returned to Saranac Lake. He retired from the newspaper in 1970; he and his wife soon divorced. Loeb married Anna Frank in 1971, and in 1978 they moved to the Upper Valley. Anna Frank Loeb had been engaged in fundraising for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fundfor many years; they established the Upper Valley Fund for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, and were responsible for bringing many well-known speakers to the area.

Loeb received a Distinguished Service Award from North Country Community College in 1983; he celebrated his 75th birthday that year at a huge party for family and friends. He had been interviewed by oral historians, The Dartmouth Alumni Magazine, The Valley News, and other publications as one knowledgeable of the political arena of the 1940's-1960's. His health, however, began to fail, and he died in early 1992.

The James I. Loeb Papers occupy 4 boxes, or approximately 5.0 linear feet of shelf space. The materials consist of articles, book manuscripts, clippings, correspondence, pamphlets, photographs, reports, speeches and theses, among other items. Both of Loeb's ambassadorships are represented, but the most important group of papers in the collection is the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund materials. Both the legal work the Fund was engaged in, and the educational help given to poor black students, is well documented. Loeb's writings, too, are of particular interest. Two draft manuscripts, especially, Confessions of an Egghead, and Failure of Two Missions, give the reader Loeb's perspective on his political and diplomatic careers, and provide a first-hand look at the political history of the mid-twentieth century.

No restrictions have been placed on the use of any of the materials in the collection. However, due to the fragile nature of certain documents, photocopying will be done at the discretion of Special Collections staff. Further information concerning James I. Loeb may be found in Special Collections in Webster Hall.