Monthly Archives: September 2011

September 28, 2011

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This past week I’ve focused on reorganizing the blog to reflect a possible chronology and the key actors for my project.

Currently my timeline posts range in date from August 14, 1941 and the signing of the Atlantic Charter to August 15, 1947 and Indian independence. Some of these dates are purely contextual, while on other posts I have begun brief historigraphies by including key scholars interpretations of these events. I’m currently working on incorporating Gary Hess’ analyses and I’m also planning to add the work of the Indian scholars M.S. Venkataramani and B.K. Shrivastava to broaden the historiography. Right now I think 1941 will be a good starting point of my project, but I’m still unsure of when I want to end my analysis–currently I’m leaning towards the end of Mme. Pandit’s U.S. visit in 1945 which would also coincide with the end of WWII.

I’ve changed one my “biography” sub-categories from “diplomats” to “foreign actors” because I was looking for a way to incorporate British actors as well as Indians, like Gandhi, who never went to the United States.

I’m currently struggling at finding journalists and lobbyists with enough primary source evidence to make them feasible to profile. For example, I’m currently looking into the journalist Louis Fischer, who gets mentioned in most of my secondary reading, but doesn’t seem to have left a collection of papers. Because of accessibility, my “state” category is becoming a bit top heavy as many of these actors have published accounts.

My big news this week is that I’m currently in possession of the 1940-1954 issues of India Today. I’ve looked through the issues published during the war period and have become familiar with the monthly periodical’s basic format. India Today is essentially a newsletter, distributed by the India League of America, that seeks to inform Americans on major India issues by publishing pieces written by prominent Indians, Indian experts, or supports of India. In addition, it includes a “suggested reading” section, an “as we see it” editorial, as well as a documentation of the League’s recent activities. Many of my potential key actors are either discussed in India Today or write pieces for the publication. To be honest I’m not sure what to do with this wealth of evidence.

Hearst Papers

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Upon his death on August 14, 1951, William Randolph Hearst’s estate included a publishing company with assets of more than $160,000,000, comprised of 18 newspapers and 9 magazines. These were:

  • Boston American; (pub. 1951-1954)
  • Boston Record
  • Boston Sunday Advertiser
  • Albany Times-Union (pub. 1891-current; on microfilm at Albany Public Library)
  • New York Journal-American (pub. 1941-1966; on microfilm at LoC)
  • New York Mirror
  • Baltimore News-Post (pub. 1936-1964; on microfilm at LoC)
  • Baltimore Sunday American
  • Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph (1927-1960; on microfilm at office of Commonwealth Libr Bur of State, Harrisburg, PA)
  • Detroit Times
  • Chicago Herald-American (1939-1953; on microfilm at LoC)
  • Milwaukee Sentinel
  • San Antonio Light (1911-1993)
  • Los Angeles Examiner (1903-1962; L.A. public library; 1945 at LoC)
  • Los Angeles  Herald-Express
  • San Francisco Examiner  (1902-current; LoC)
  • San Francisco Call Bulletin
  • Seattle Post-Intelligencer (1921-2009)
  • Cosmopolitan, Good Housekeeping*, Harper’s Bazar*, House Beautiful, Town and Country, Motor, Motor Boating, American Druggist, Connoisseur (* also published in London)

Hearst was also associated with The American Weekly, King Features Service, International News Service and International News Photos.

After World War II, Hearst controlled 10% of daily circulation, the largest news corporation in the United States.

W.A. Swanberg, Citizen Hearst: A Biography of William Randolph Hearst (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1961), 531-532.

Thomas C. Leonard. “Hearst, William Randolph”; http://www.anb.org/articles/16/16-00738.html; American National Biography Online Feb. 2000.

Library of Congress, Chronicling America, http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/

Drew Pearson (1897-1969)

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Drew Pearson, 1954, Courtesy of the Library of Congress

  • wrote the popular syndicated political column, “Washington Merry-Go-Round,” for the Washington Post from the 1930s until 1969
  • on July 25, 1944, published a leaked letter written by William Phillips, criticizing the British stance on Indian Independence
  • held a weekly radio program from 1938-1955

Pearson, Washington Post, July 25, 1944

 

 

 

Reference Source

American National Biography, profile

Biographies

Oliver Pilat, Drew Pearson: An Unauthorized Biography. New York: Harper’s Magazine Press, 1973.

Primary Sources

Papers, Lyndon B. Johnson Library, University of Texas, Austin.

Diaries, 1949-1959. Ed. Tyler Abell New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1974.

“Confessions of an S.O.B.,” Saturday Evening Post, November 3, 1956, pg. 23-25, 87-91, 94. (4 Part Series)

  • “The luck really began when I was able to publish, during the latter part of the war, the secret report written to Roosevelt by his special ambassador to India, William Phillips, recommending independence or dominion status for India.  Phillips reasoned that if India were given some inspiration to fight, she could raise enough troops to crack the Japanese from from Burma and the south, thereby saving many American lives. Thanks to a State Department official who wanted to see American lives saved, I was able to obtain and publish that report, together with some intercepted British cables, declaring that Ambassador Phillips, never again would be permitted in India. I think my publication hastened dominion status for India, but in any case it made the British see red” (88, 90).

State Department, in history

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U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian

Foreign Relations of the United States with India:

FRUS, 1941; FRUS, 1942; FRUS, 1943; FRUS, 1944; FRUS, 1945; FRUS, 1946; FRUS, 1947

Department of State, 1941, courtesy of University of Minnesota

 

Clare Boothe Luce (1903-1987)

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  • Republican Representative for 4th District CT (1942-1946)

    Clare Boothe Luce, 1955, Collection of the US House of Representatives

  • writer for Life and Time, both published by husband Henry
  • sponsor of 1946 House bill to extend citizenship to Indians

Reference Sources

American National Biography profile

Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress

 

Biographies

Morris, Sylvia Jukes. Rage for Fame: The Ascent of Clare Boothe Luce. New York: Random House, 1997.

Primary Sources

Papers, 1930-1987. Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress.

Clark Getts (1893– )

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  • owner of Clark H. Getts, Inc., a “lecture and radio production bureau” who organized a lecture series for Mme. Pandit in 1945 as she made her way from New York City to San Francisco
  • In her memoir, Pandit describes Getts as “an amazing little man” who expected her to be bedazzled in colorful saris and jewels (The Scope of Happiness, 192)
  • “Clark was intelligent, sophisticated, and creative. His many interests included art, literature, current events, and history. Although his company was a small one, her was highly respected in the field” (Imperato, They Married Adventure: The Wandering Lives of Martin & Osa Johnson, 194).

Primary Sources

Papers, 1932-1980. American Heritage Center, The University of Wyoming.

Getts' introduction to Pandit lecture series

 

Pandit lecture tour program

Dickinsonians in India, WWII

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Lt. Robert A. Walsh spent one year at Dickinson as a member of the class of 1941 before joining the Army Air Corps after Pearl Harbor. Beginning in March 1943, Walsh served in the India-China line. On May 15, 1943, his plane did not return from a flight between India and China and Walsh was declared missing in action.

In February 1943, First Lt. Theodore C. Stroose left Dickinson College during the last semester of his senior to enlist in the Army Air Corps. Strouse was stationed in the India-China theater, where he flew 41 missions in B-25 Bombers with the 10th Air Force. He was killed on July 11, 1945, while returning to a rest base in India.

First Lt. Theodore C. Strouse


Lt. Robert A. Walsh

The Dickinson Almunus published both students’ obituaries.