Reporting the War; The Journalistic Coverage of World War II
Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution Press for the National Portrait Gallery, 1994. First Printing [Stated]. Trade paperback. Format is approximately 8.5 inches by 11 inches. This is the catalogue of an Exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C., April 22 through September 5, 1994. This exhibition was made possible in part through a grant from Scripps Howard. in-kind support was made possible by Life magazine. Additional assistance was provided by the Smithsonian Institution Special Exhibition Fund, the Smithsonian Women's Committee, and the Smithsonian Research Opportunities Fund. Decorative covers. xiii, [1], 218 pages. Foreword by Alan Fern. Lenders to the Exhibition. Illustrations Notes. Selected Bibliography. Index. Includes sections on: In on the Ground Floor; The Nation's Security vs. the Right to Know; Putting the War in Focus; No Job For a Woman; The Worm's Eye View of the War; Broadcasting the War; Artists as Field Correspondents; The African American Press in Wartime; the Mavericks; and Dawn of the Atomic Age. Frederick S. Voss was the senior historian and curator of the Time Magazine covers collection at the National Portrait Gallery from 1971 - 2004. He is the author of several books: Majestic Wrath: A Pictorial life of Frederick Douglas, 1995; Hemingway: A write in His time, 1999; and Portraits of the Presidents: The National Portrait Gallery, 2000. The exhibition Features the lives and work of the great journalists who brought news of the war from the European and Pacific theatres to the homefront. More than 100 captioned illustrations accompany Voss's account of the correspondents, photographers, and field artists who braved enemy fire, slept in foxholes, and served as prisoners of war. Paintings, photos, recordings, manuscripts, and memorabilia of 35 journalists tell the story of WWII. The exhibition includes work by Ernest Hemingway, Edward R. Murrow, Margaret Bourke-White, and Ernie Pyle. Also included are taped interviews with William Mauldin, John Hersey, and William Shirer, among others. Frederick S. Voss has written a catalog and served as curator for an exhibition explaining how World War II was reported to home-front Americans. In his statement of purpose, presented at the entrance to the exhibit and in a brochure available to each visitor, Voss calls coverage of the war "one of the more impressive chapters in the history of American journalism . . . an unremitting flood of well-informed reportage. . . . It is difficult to gauge exactly the impact . . . but journalists contributed substantially to the country's collective sense of involvement." Exhibition space was arranged by subject, as is the exhibition catalog: censorship and news control; women corespondents; photographers; field artists; radio; cartoons; the African American press; and "mavericks," or independent journalists. Artifacts include documents, posters, personal memorabilia, and paintings. Several photographs are effectively enlarged to fill entire walls. Three interactive video monitors offer interviews with cartoonist Bill Mauldin, artist Bernard Perlin, and journalists William L. Shirer, Robert St. John, and John Hersey. Condition: Very good / No Dust Jacket issued.
Keywords: WWII, Second World War, Journalism, Photojournalism, Ernest Hemingway, Edward R. Murrow, Margaret Bourke-White, Ernie Pyle, William Shirer, Robert St. John, John Hersey, Bill Mauldin, Bernard Perlin
ISBN: 1560983485
[Book #85151]
Price: $75.00