Part I of the papers of Irving Raskin Levine (1922- ) span the years 1945-1964, with the bulk concentrated in the period 1949-1964. The majority of the items document Levine's early career as a foreign correspondent during the Cold War in which he reported on major news events and the economic, political, and social development of countries on four continents. In 1957 Levine was the first American television network correspondent with permanent accreditation in the Soviet Union; prior to that time American television reporters were allowed into the USSR only for brief periods. Part I was arranged by the staff of the George Arents Research Library at Syracuse University before it was transferred to the Library of Congress. The papers consist of four series: Correspondence, Subject File, Writings File, and Miscellany.

The Correspondence series, 1947-1963, consists of incoming and outgoing correspondence exchanged primarily between Levine and staff members of NBC News and of London. Also included are research correspondence for his books, letters from listeners, and requests to speak. Among the subjects discussed in the correspondence are news assignments, filming and transmission arrangements, and activities of the Council on Foreign Relations. Letters from listeners to the radio news program "Monitor" are filed with the scripts for the progam in the Subject File.

The Subject File, 1945-1964, consisting mainly of radio and television scripts, notes, and research material, comprises the majority of Part I of the collection and is divided into four categories: domestic assignments, foreign assignments, news commentaries, and special programs. The domestic assignments relate primarily to Levine's coverage of the 1954 elections for the "Today Show." Many of these programs were televised from the NBC Mobile Color Television Unit in the early days of color broadcasting. Although the foreign assignments material documents Levine's early reporting experiences with the International News Service, most of these papers chronicle his assignments as a chief correspondent for NBC News in Moscow and Rome. Prominent topics include the Hungarian uprisings, the launching of Sputnik, the 1960 Olympic games, and visits to Rome by American dignitaries. Clearance stamps and occasional censored cut marks appear on some of the Moscow scripts. Among the Moscow scripts are those for "Monitor Replies to Listeners" and "This Is Moscow." The Moscow subject files also contain scripts for a radio segment by Levine's wife, Nancy Cartmell Jones. Other overseas assignments took Levine to locations such as the Congo, Algeria, and Tokyo, Japan, to cover breaking news events and diplomatic conferences and summits.

The final categories in the Subject File are news commentaries and special programs. Represented among the news commentaries are fourteen network programs from 1953 to 1964, such as "Emphasis," "Monitor," "Nightline," and "World News Roundup." The "Monitor" files also contain correspondence from listeners which Levine used for many other "Monitor" programs. Special programs, produced for radio and television by NBC News, feature domestic and foreign news events between 1953-1961 and include year-end news analyses, election coverage, and documentaries.

The Writings File in Part I, 1947-1963, reflects Levine's productivity in a wide variety of formats, including articles, books, speeches, and dispatches. The articles, written for magazines in the United States and for of London, cover a number of topics and often include both drafts and final printed copies. The majority of the papers pertain to Levine's books ; ; and Research material for the latter work includes the "Daily Review of the Soviet Press," a mimeographed publication in English by the Soviet Information Bureau that differs from the typescript press excerpts in the Subject File that were used in compiling material for broadcasts. Notes and research material are extensive for the two books on the Soviet Union. The dispatches include mailers, or articles sent by mail rather than cable, to the International News Service from Vienna, Paris, London, and other locations, 1949-1950. Also represented in the dispatches are teletyped news reports from Korea in late 1950 and dispatches from Moscow, 1955-1959, mostly to of London.

Papers in the Miscellany series, 1946-1955, relate primarily to Levine's academic endeavors at the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism and his association with the Council on Foreign Relations. The papers of the Council on Foreign Relations consist of notes, lists, and reports of discussion panels on the major foreign policy questions of the early 1950s.

Part II

Part II of the Irving R. Levine Papers spans the years 1930-1995, with the majority of the papers concentrated in the period 1971-1994. The papers supplement files in Part I and pertain principally to Levine's career as chief economics correspondent for NBC News in Washington, D.C. A pioneer in economics reporting on television, in 1971 Levine became the first network correspondent to cover economics on a full-time basis. The papers in Part II are organized into the following series: Notebooks and Notes, Correspondence, Scripts, Subject File, Chronological File, and Miscellany.

The Notebooks and Notes series, 1947-1993, documents Levine's professional activities as a news correspondent primarily from 1980 to 1993, although there are also four early notebooks relating to the Korean War. The papers in this series record Levine's preparation for and coverage of various news events. Many of the notebooks contain tape notes identifying specific segments of video and verbatims. "Verbatim" is a media term for material used in broadcasts, such as quotations from interviews and press conferences.

The Correspondence series, 1952-1995, consists chiefly of incoming letters and memoranda. The general correspondence contains letters primarily from the public discussing Levine's broadcasts and a few letters from individuals or organizations asking Levine to consider doing a broadcast on a specific subject. The National Broadcasting Company's internal memoranda and email messages provide a behind-the-scenes glimpse of a major news network. The internal memoranda relate principally to staff changes and policy issues. Many of the email messages are staff notes to Levine discussing background information for broadcasts and the logistics for filming specific segments.

The Scripts series, 1950-1995, contains Levine's commentaries for many of the NBC News radio and television programs. The majority of the series consists of scripts, although some background material is interfiled with the scripts, particularly in the later years from 1989 to 1995. In some instances, however, drafts and final copies of scripts have been retained in the Subject File. Levine's files for "NBC Nightly News," the "Today Show," and "News-on-the-Hour" are the most comprehensive, reflecting the wide range of economic stories of national and international significance that Levine broadcast during his tenure as an economics correspondent from 1971-1995. Subjects prominently featured are banks and banking practices, labor unions and employment issues, economic recession and recovery, currency and taxation, tariff and trade matters, and budget appropriation and deficit reduction legislation. Subjects covered by scripts may also be found in individual program files such as "NBC Nightly News." Supplementing Part I of the papers are scripts of Levine's broadcasts as a war correspondent during the Korean War, 1950-1952.

Papers in the Subject File, 1930-1995, comprise the bulk of Part II. Including a wide array of material, such as correspondence, scripts, interviews, verbatims, and background material, most of the Subject File was created to assist Levine and other staff in preparing various news segments and specials for broadcast. In addition to the subjects mentioned previously in the Scripts series, there are extensive files on the major international economic summit conferences from 1978 to 1995 and papers relating to savings and loan association failures. This series also contains transcripts of a number of remarks by prominent national and international officials whom Levine interviewed during his career. Although most of the interviews are filed chronologically in the folder labeled "Interviews: transcripts," transcripts may also be found among files on various subjects.

The Chronological File, 1988-1995, consists of printouts generated from Levine's computer. Some overlap exists between this series and many of the other series because the Chronological File contains a wide range of material that appears in other series of Part II as well.

The final series, Miscellany, 1936-1995, includes correspondence, speeches and speech material, book drafts, articles, school publications, and background material. This series relates primarily to Levine's financial accounts, speeches, and writings. National Broadcasting Company expense accounts record details of his daily professional activities, often indicating names of specific individuals, organizations, and government agencies that he contacted in covering news events and economic matters. The bulk of the speech files contain material relating to Levine's talks as a lecturer for various cruise lines. Most of the Miscellany series consists of drafts and background material relating to Levine's unpublished manuscript written with John Rich entitled "Victory in Korea." Also worthy of mention are Levine's early articles and published photographs from his service as a lieutenant with a photographic battalion of the Army Signal Corps in World War II. Some of Levine's early writings and published photographs appear under the pseudonym Irving R. Lorwin.