Federal Writers' Project

Identification New Deal relief program

Date Established on July 27, 1935

The Federal Writers’ Project (FWP) was a public program that sustained writers and their writing during the Great Depression. It created materials that documented extensively the lives of ordinary Americans and the diverse places across the country that people called “home.”

Initial relief programs of the New Deal, a period of economic and social reform, focused on unemployed blue-collar workers. Programs such as the FWP were created to employ people with other talents. The FWP was part of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), itself a part of Federal Project Number One (Federal One), which figured prominently in the New Deal. Federal One also included the Federal Music Project, the Federal Theatre Project, the Federal Art Project, and the Historical Records Survey.

Best known among FWP publications was a series of state guidebooks called the “American Guide Series,” which focused on the forty-eight states and some American regions, territories, and certain cities. The guides followed a common format and included information about history, culture, cities and towns, government, natural resources, industry, and places of interest and significance. There was still room, however, for idiosyncratic particulars. Writers crisscrossed their areas, talking to people, gathering information, and generating text. Because travel by automobile was increasingly popular, guides also mapped out trips to encourage tourism, and photographs were included.

The series was federally funded, but states participated voluntarily. To be hired, writers had to document their unemployment; the term “writer” was interpreted loosely. If enough professionals were not found in an area, others were hired. Some had writing experience; some did not. Most were young people, often from working-class backgrounds, not necessarily with high school diplomas; many were women.

The WPA paid writers about twenty dollars a week for twenty to thirty hours of employment. Each state had a director, who organized staff and was responsible for the guide’s printing and distribution. Some states joined with established publishers to create high-quality books; other states were more modest. Estimates indicate the FWP supported more than six thousand people, including writers, editors, researchers, art critics, archaeologists, cartographers, and historians.

In addition to state guides, FWP materials included oral histories, books for children, pamphlets, local histories, radio scripts, and ethnographies. Through its Folklore Project, thousands of Americans—including those often marginalized—told their life stories, reflecting on experiences of immigration, social and ethnic customs, survival during the Depression, and other things. Frequently, the names of people and places were pseudonyms. Firsthand accounts included those by former slaves.

The FWP was a controversial program. Some questioned the wisdom of supporting artists, and there were bureaucratic battles. Although most of FWP publications were apolitical, the politics of many of its employees tended toward the Left. This irritated conservatives in the U.S. Congress, especially Martin Dies, Jr., a member of the House of Representatives from Texas, who led the House Committee on Un-American Activities and targeted the FWP because he believed its workers were trying to undermine the United States. In 1939, Congress discontinued FWP funding, citing the need for a larger defense budget. Because of conservative opposition during this time, some states hardly distributed their guides, while others continued to fund state guides themselves until the program ended in 1943.

Impact

FWP items archived in the Library of Congress number more than 300,000. Most deal with the guidebooks, which helped promote patriotism and have been called the country’s first oral histories. Author John Steinbeck—a FWP participant who, during the 1960’s, wrote about his own travels across the country working for the program—said that the collective accounting of the United States presented in the guidebooks was never equaled.

In addition to producing tangible products, the FWP had a significant influence on the development of young writers, many of whom later became well known. Having an income allowed them to pursue their own writing after hours, and some included FWP experiences in their later works. Although relatively few FWP writers were African American, a number of them went on to distinguished writing careers. In addition to Steinbeck, writers who worked for the FWP include Saul Bellow, John Cheever, Richard Wright, May Swenson, Loren Eiseley, Conrad Aiken, Margaret Walker, Eudora Welty (who was also a WPA photographer), Nelson Algren, Ralph Ellison, and Studs Terkel. Critics have suggested that in areas such as civil rights and women’s rights, the FWP prefigured social changes that were to occur later in the century.

Bibliography

Brinkley, David A. Soul of a People: The WPA Writers’ Project Uncovers Depression America. Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons, 2009.

Mangione, Jerry. The Dream and the Deal: The Federal Writers’ Project, 1935-1943. Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 1996.

Weisberger, Bernard A., ed. The WPA Guide to America: The Best of the 1930s America as Seen by the Federal Writers’ Project. New York: Pantheon, 1985.