World War, 1939-1945 -- Journalists

Abstract This collection contains materials written by and about Ernie Pyle, an American journalist who was most famous for his World War II columns from the 1940s. The collection also covers his early days as the “Roving Reporter,” his life in Albuquerque and overseas, and his eventual death in Ie Shima, Japan in 1948. There is also much information on various tributes and memorials which occurred after his death, including the opening of the Ernie Pyle Memorial Library in Albuquerque, NM.

Scope and Content The collection consists of air mail correspondence and telegrams from Pyle's assignment in Okinawa and from an aircraft cruiser in the Pacific Ocean. The cruiser is not named, probably because the name and location would have been classified during the war. A letter from Scripps-Howard informs Dean G.B. Hammond of the UNM Graduate School that the newspaper agency had no more material to contribute to the collection other than the correspondence which was sent. Dr. Marie Pope Wallis donated...