Interview
Fiester was included amongst the interviewees for the TWUA Oral History Project upon the advice of several other interviewees. Although he was with the Union only eleven years, they were crucial years. He joined the Union when it was riding high, took an active role in the 1952 internal fight, and left when the Union's decline appeared irreversible. He became rather close to President Emil Rieve and frequently sat in on discussions of the inner council. As editor of Textile Labor he was probably closer to more events than any other staff member.
I [interviewer James Cavanaugh] interviewed Fiester for five hours in a Washington, D.C., hotel room on April 10 and for four-and-a-half hours in his living room in Bowie, Maryland, on April 11. Later I conducted a joint interview with him and his close friend, Education Director Lawrence Rogin (see separate abstract to that joint interview]. Fiester, short and stocky with a black crew cut and twinkling eyes, was a delight to interview. His memory is near photographic and his speaking style is photogenic.
Fiester has a virtually endless series of anecdotes which he relates with precision and relish. His anecdotes alone would have made him worth interviewing, but he is also intelligent and analytical. Because of his closeness to Rieve, his excellent memory, and his inside position, Fiester is an authoritative source on virtually every aspect of TWUA's history which occurred during his tenure with the Union. The interviews are particularly valuable for all events relating to the 1952 internal fight. The interview is rather long, and Fiester at times tends to leap from subject to subject and time period to time period, so researchers should be sure to make use of the index.
Abstract
The tapes for this interview have two tracks: a voice track containing the discussion and a time track containing time announcements at intervals of approximately five seconds. The abstract lists, in order of discussion, the topics covered on each tape, and indicates the time-marking at which point the beginning of the particular discussion appears.
Thus, the researcher by using a tape recorder's fast-forward button may find expeditiously and listen to discrete segments without listening to all of the taped discussion. For instance, the user who wishes to listen to the topic on “College” should locate the place on the second track of tape one, side one, where the voice announces the 02:05 time-marking (the voice says at this point, “Two minutes, five seconds”), and at this point switch to the first track to hear the discussion. The discussion on “College” continues until approximately 04:40 at which point discussion of the next topic (“Family Background”) begins.
Notice that in most cases sentences beneath each headline explain more about the contents of the topic. For example, the sentences underneath “College” give further details on what appears on the tape between 02:05 and 04:40.
The abstract is designed to provide only a brief outline of the content of the tapes and cannot serve as a substitute for listening to them. However, the abstract when used with the index will help the researcher easily locate distinct topics and discussions among the many minutes of commentary.
Index
There is a master index for most of the TWUA Oral History Project interviews in the collection-level finding aid.
