Michael Martins

The Knowlton-Pearson Correspondence, 1923-1930 Michael Martins

Fully annotated correspondence between Frank Warren Knowlton, son of prosecuting attorney in the Lizzie Borden murder trial Hosea M. Knowlton, and Edmund Lester Pearson, author and librarian, for the years 1923-1930. Interested in the study of crime for both its psychological and social aspects, Pearson had always been fascinated by the trial of Lizzie Andrew Borden and wished to include an essay on the case in a volume he was preparing about American murders, "The Borden Case," in Studies in Murder, published by The Macmillan Company in 1924.

He began his correspondence with Frank W. Knowlton in 1923. At that time, aside from The Fall River Tragedy by Edwin Porter and a couple of short essays, there was virtually no other material available to Pearson on the subject. This is what prompted his first letter to Knowlton, one that began a correspondence between the two men that lasted until 1930. Pearson's fascination with his topic is evident from the very beginning, when he confides to Knowlton that it is "plain that Miss Borden is my prima donna."

The collection which follows describes how, through their pursuits, the two were able to uncover a considerable number of manuscripts, photographs, and transcripts of testimony. The reader can see first-hand how Pearson persisted, with the assistance of Frank W. Knowlton, until he eventually managed to accumulate a vast body of material from which to draw as he prepared his work.