Guide to the S. E. Solberg Papers
1943-2000

Biographical Note

Sam Solberg was a scholar, translator, University of Washington professor, and community activist. In addition to being an authority on Korean Literature, he was a pioneer in the study of Asian American literature. He also played an active role in Asian American immigrant community organizations in Washington state.

S.E. (Sammy Edward) Solberg was born in Fertile, Minnesota, in 1930 and was raised in and around Big Timber and Cardwell, Montana. He earned a B.S. in education from Western Montana College in 1951 and served with the U.S. Army Signal Corps in Korea. After earning his master's degree from the University of Washington in East Asian Area Studies in 1960, Solberg completed three years of graduate study at Yonsei University in Seoul, Korea, where he also served as an English language instructor.

Upon his return from Korea, Solberg worked as a teaching and research fellow at the University of Washington while working towards his doctorate in comparative literature, which he earned in 1971. From 1973-1974, he served as assistant to the director of the Institute for Comparative and Foreign Area Studies (now the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies) and in 1974 was appointed to a part-time faculty position in the American Ethnic Studies and Comparative Literature Departments. He remained affiliated with the University of Washington for 30 years.

Solberg was first recognized as an authority in Korean literature. In 1963 the Asia Society asked him to serve as an editorial consultant for a proposed anthology of Korean literature, and his work resulted in the publication of the Korean literature issue of its journal, Literature East and West. He continued to translate and write about Korean literature, songs, and plays. However, Solberg's interests expanded to include Korean-American and Asian-American literature and the Asian immigrant experience. In the early 1970s, Solberg received a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities to study Asian American literatures, which he used to do research in the papers of Filipino-American writer Carlos Bulosan. At the time of Solberg's research, Bulosan, who died in 1956, was an obscure figure. Bulosan's novel, American Is In the Heart, was first published in 1946 and was one of the few describing the Filipino immigrant experience. Solberg successfully campaigned for the University of Washington Press to reissue the long out-of-print work in 1973.

Solberg also promoted contemporary Asian-American writers. In 1976 Solberg and graduate student Steve Sumida organized the Pacific Northwest Asian American Writers Conference. The conference was the first in the region to bring together writers, students, and educators to examine literature by and about Asian Americans. Solberg himself presented a paper on Sui Sin Far (Edith Maud Eaton) and helped bring renewed recognition to this early Chinese-American writer. Solberg was instrumental in the University of Washington's decision to reissue Japanese-American novelist John Okada's novel, No-No Boy in 1979. In the 1980s he published major papers on Carlos Bulosan and on the role of Hawaiian music and dance in American culture. He and Sid White co-edited People of Washington: Perspectives on Cultural Diversity in 1989. The book, a collection of essays about Washington's ethnic communities compiled to celebrate Washington's centennial, was awarded the Governor’s Writers Award in 1991. That same year he received the People’s Scholar Award of the Korean American Journalists Association. In the spring of 1997 he was awarded the Pioneer Award by the Association for Asian American Studies.

Solberg was long involved with the local Korean-American community in Seattle and closely followed Korean political affairs. In the 1980s he became heavily involved with Cambodian affairs. He started a correspondence with Prince Norodom Sihanouk, then living in exile in Paris. He also became advisor to the University of Washington's Khmer Student Association and other Khmer community organizations.

Solberg was a partner in two far east business ventures that capitalized on his Korean and other Asian connections, Amkor Trading Inc. and Lutusco International Ltd. The latter was involved in the import/export of goods and business consulting in Asia.

S.E. Solberg died on April 26, 2005.

Scope and Content

The S.E. Solberg Papers consist of 9.53 cubic feet of correspondence, writings, publications, and photographs from the period 1943-2000 (bulk 1975-1998) that document Solberg’s career as a translator, editor, scholar, teacher, and pioneer in the promotion and study of Korean and Filipino-American literature. The collection consists primarily of Solberg’s correspondence with writers, editors, and scholars of Asian American literature, the correspondence he kept with newspapers and magazines that published his book reviews and articles, and copies of manuscripts sent to him during the 1990s.

The General Correspondence series consists largely of correspondence between Solberg and Asian-American writers, as well as other scholars interested in Korean-American and Filipino-American writers. Extensive correspondence with Bonnie Crown and Susan Conheim of the Asia Society documents Solberg’s role as editor for a proposed anthology of Korean literature. The work was never published, but the appointment resulted in publication of a Korean literature issue of the journal Literature East & West. Korean-American physician and writer Richard S. Hahn, husband of author Gloria Hahn (Kim Ronyoung), wrote Solberg extensively about his wife's work and his own biographical novel based on the life of his immigrant father, Jason Hahn. Other major correspondents include Filipino-American writers N.V.M. Gonzalez and F. Sionil José; Korean-American writers Won Ko, Ty Pak, and Gary Pak; Korean literature scholars Bruce Fulton and Kichung Kim, Bulosan scholar Epifanio San Juan; and Korean-American journalist K.W. Lee. There are also letters from journalist James Fallows and writers Doris Grumbach and William Saroyan. Some correspondence includes copies of small manuscripts, original poems, or translations.

There is also extensive correspondence concerning Solberg's involvement in Cambodian political, social, and cultural matters. The most frequent of his correspondents was Sothirak Pou. Pou, who would assume various governmental posts after the ouster of Lon Nol in 1991, lived in the Seattle area in the 1980s and was active in the royalist opposition to the Vietnamese-supported government in Cambodia. His correspondence with Solberg documents Pou's work in Thailand as leader of the royalist's Humanitarian Aid work, local Khmer community politics, and the efforts to train Cambodian wrestlers in Seattle for their participation in the 1987 ASEAN Games. There is also correspondence from Prince (later King) Norodom Sihanouk, then living in exile in Paris, his son, Prince Norodom Ranariddh, and others involved in Front Uni National pour un Cambodge Independant, Neutre, Pacifique et Cooperatif (FUNCINPEC), the French acronym for National United Front for an Independent, Neutral, Peaceful, and Cooperative Cambodia. A portion of the correspondence with Prince Sihanouk is in French.

Interdepartmental Correspondence regarding the University of Washington Department of American Ethnic Studies Chair Search Committee consists of three folders of letters, emails, and clippings from the period 1995 to 1999 and documents the controversy over hiring a new department chair in 1997. Solberg's correspondence with the University of Washington Press, which dates from 1971 to 1995, documents his efforts to have the UW Press re-issue Carlos Bulosan’s novel, America is in the Heart, as well as his roles as a consultant to the UW Press on subsequent projects in Asian-American literature and as a liaison between Asian-American writers and the UW Press.

The Writings of Others series contains manuscripts Solberg received for comment during the 1990s, many of which were subsequently published, as well as some correspondence. This series includes works by Jonathan Raban, F. Sionil José, and Gary Pak. The Writing Projects series consists primarily of Solberg’s correspondence with magazines, newspapers, and journals concerning publication of book reviews or articles he wrote as well as copies of some of his published reviews. There are also files on book projects he undertook, including a proposed book of Korean-American oral histories; Peoples of Washington: Perspectives on Cultural Diversity, published in 1989; and The Land and People of Korea, published in 1966 and re-issued in 1991.

The Conferences and Conventions files contain materials from conferences primarily on the topics of Asian-American studies and foreign policy. Audio tape recordings of one such conference, the Council on US-Korean Security Studies' First Annual Conference, are found in the Sound Recordings series. Papers in the Campaign Materials series were generated during Solberg's work on the Congressional campaign of James B. Wilson, who ran against United States Representative Tom Pelly in 1956. The Research Material series consists of academic writings, primarily on Southeast Asian history, collected by Solberg as background material.

Clippings primarily document the progress of the armed conflict in Cambodia during the 1980s. The Ephemera is largely related to Asian American cultural and student events. There are posters, fliers and programs from Nippon Kan Heritage Association and other Asian American arts and cultural groups. There are also fliers and advertisements of a more commercial nature aimed at the local Korean American community. The Subject Series consists primarily of files that document Solberg’s interest in a variety of issues. The most prominent concern the Asian American community in Washington state and Asian American and ethnic studies.

The collection contains seven subgroups. The largest of these is the American Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences subgroup. The AIHSS was a nonprofit organization founded in 1991 dedicated to high-quality translation and publication of Korean-language writings into English. Solberg founded the organization with James Namchin Kim, a Korean-American entrepreneur and business consultant, and served as its director from 1992 to 1995. The papers in this subgroup consist primarily of files documenting events sponsored by AIHSS. Also included are papers documenting the planning of the Korean Literature in Translation Conference, organized by Solberg and University of Washington colleague Bruce Fulton and held in Seattle in 1991. The conference was funded by James Kim.

The Lotusco International, Ltd. subgroup contains files from one of Solberg's business ventures. Only a portion of these records were retained, primarily those concerned with a project to introduce a containerized vegetable growing system in Cambodian displaced persons camps in Thailand. Information on this topic is also located in the subject series file on Vert-I-Grow Systems.

The remaining five subgroups document Solberg’s involvement with the Asian immigrant community in the Puget Sound region, particularly the Cambodian and Korean communities.

Arrangement

Arranged in eight series:

Personal and professional papers

American Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences, 1989-1995

Cambodian Democracy Support Group, 1984-1992

Khmer Buddhist Society of Seattle TEACH project, 1992

Korean American Historical Society, 1994-1998

Lotusco International, Ltd, 1984-1988

Melus (Society for the Study of the Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States), 1976-1989

Northwest Asian Weekly foundation, 1994-1995

Restrictions on Use

Donor's literary rights transferred to the University of Washington Libraries.

Restrictions on Access

Open to all users, but access to portions of the papers restricted. Contact repository for details.

Access to archival recordings: Due to the fragility of archival tape recordings, potential users may be required to arrange for transfer to digital format before the material can be accessed. Please contact Special Collections for further information.

Preferred Citation

S.E. Solberg papers, Special Collections Division, University of Washington Libraries.

Acquisition Info

The S.E. Solberg papers were donated by S.E. Solberg in installments from August 1971 to October 2001.

Processing Info

This accession is a merger of accessions 1679, 1679-2, 1679-3, 1679-4, 1679-5 and 1679-6. Processing was completed in 2007.

Approximately 100 prints, 3 negatives and 4 slides of photographs of Korea taken by Hyongwon Kang for Solberg's book, The Land and People of Korea, were relocated to the Photography Collection, PH Accession No. 2002-006 on August 31, 2001.

One carton of business records, primarily of Lotusco International, Ltd., and typescripts of Peoples of Washington were discarded during processing in 2005.

Twenty six issues of Washington State Korean News and a single issue of Korea Focus were transferred to the East Asia Library. Forty-seven other publications, mostly on Korean topics, were sent to the Libraries' Gifts Processing in 2005.

Other Finding Aids

Further information about the visual materials that form part of this collection is available in the repository.

Inventory