The collection documents 39 years of Robert Pierpoint's life and career as reporter, news commentator and analyst, public speaker, and author. The bulk of the material dates from his years as a White House correspondent for CBS, with a heavy concentration on the years of the Nixon presidency. Documentation on the Korean War and events in the Far East during the 1950s is strong as well. In addition to providing information of general interest to students of journalism, Pierpoint's news stories provide a particularly vivid account of the Korean War, while the Watergate-era materials will be of value to those studying the interplay between elected officials and the press.
The papers, which were received in random order, have been organized into five series: biographical material, reporter's notebooks, news stories, personal materials, and material related to At the White House.
REPORTER'S NOTEBOOKS constitute the largest grouping in the collection. Largely undated, the individual stenographer's pads have been organized by geographic assignment: Scandinavia, the Far East, the Middle East, the White House, and the State Department. The White House notebooks are further subdivided by presidential administration, although there are no notebooks about the Kennedy years. Unfortunately the handwriting makes all of the books difficult to use.
NEWS STORIES consist of typewritten scripts which were broadcast over both radio and television. Although the majority are Pierpoint's work, some from his CBS colleagues Lou Cioffi and George Herman are inter-filed. Nearly all of the stories date from Pierpoint's years in the Far East, and concern such topics as the Korean War, the Panmunjom truce talks, the exchange of prisoners, fighting in Indo-China, atomic bomb tests in the Pacific, and Communist influence in the region. There are, however, almost no news stories from Pierpoint's years in Washington. Because of their deteriorating condition the news stories on the Far East are only available on microfilm.
The PERSONAL MATERIALS include narrative expense reports and paycheck stubs which contain information on the programs on which his stories appeared, other financial records, and professional and personal correspondence. The activities and publicity files, which constitute the bulk of this series, include miscellaneous academic records, posters, and programs relating to Pierpoint's appearances and public speaking engagements; biographical newspaper clippings; miscellaneous memorabilia; and copies of articles for publications such as H.B. Remissan (Swedish), University of Redlands Alumnus, Montana Journalism Review, and William and Mary Quarterly. There is a conspicuous absence of professional or personal correspondence; financial data from Pierpoint's years in Scandinavia and Washington, D.C., is also lacking.
The final (and second-largest) series consists of items pertaining to the writing and publication of AT THE WHITE HOUSE. Primarily drafts, these materials were received in a wholly disorganized fashion--mainly bits and pieces, nearly all undated--which have consequently been arranged by chapter. Some groupings of complete, or nearly complete, manuscripts were found, and these have been left intact. Also included in this series are working papers (notes, memoranda, miscellaneous references materials, annotated manuscript fragments), reactions of readers to the books, and published book reviews. There is also an unrelated manuscript by Joel Swerdlow, Pierpoint's collaborator on At the White House, entitled American Night: One Night in the Life of the See-Me Era.
Also part of the collection are a number of photographs, films, and sound recordings. All of the media in the collection is somewhat miscellaneous in character, but all features Pierpoint, if only in a minor role. Included, for example, are his audio notes on the 1967 Glassboro Summit, film of an Eisenhower press conference in which Pierpoint rises to ask a question, and recordings of some of his news stories from Plains, Georgia; Sweden; Korea; and Central America. Also of note are several folders of photographs of Pierpoint at work and posed with various prominent individuals and many slides of the Korean War prisoner exchanges in 1953.
