Scenes from a campaign

Against great odds, Pell won a bitterly contested Democratic primary race in 1960. I'm writing about it now. Here are a few photos from the summer of 1960, from Pell's personal scrapbook, on loan from Nuala Pell. Pictured here:
-- Claiborne and Nuala taking a break in their car -- don't know where. But this is one of my favorite photos so far.
-- A mandolin player serenades the candidate and his wife.
-- The Pell "bandwagon," a 1940 truck a Coast Guard buddy donated to the cause.
-- The family outside their home in Newport. Left to right: Bertie, Julie, Nuala, Toby, Claiborne and Dallas.


Images courtesy of Nuala Pell.

JOE BIDEN ON THE PHONE

I interviewed the Vice President this Tuesday to get his insights into Claiborne Pell. Biden eulogized Pell at his funeral Jan. 5, but I had hoped for more detail -- and got it, during and interview lasting almost half an hour, after which he told me he was late for a meeting at the Oval Office and had to go. I have long admired Biden and was honored to get the interview -- and amused by his many stories.
Of my many interviews over three decades in journalism, this one has to rank near the top -- up there with Stephen King, Ted Kennedy, Steven Spielberg and the late U.S. House Speaker Tip O'Neill.
This is a photo of Biden greeting Nuala Pell on Jan. 5, 2009, Trinity Church, Newport -- Pell's funeral.
Photo courtesy Bob Breidenbach, Providence Journal.

A PRECIOUS FINDING

While the Pell Archive at the University of Rhode Island is the primary source of Pelliana -- at 2,500 linear feet of boxes, there's a lot there -- not everything is in Kingston. Claiborne's personal scrapbooks remain with Nuala, and on a visit with her yesterday (and also son Toby and longtime aide Jan Demers), we found the CLAIBORNE PELL, VOLUME II scrapbook, which spans the period from 1937 to the late 1940s, a critical period in his life. Since what is contained within (photos, clippings, letters, his father's $300 initiation fee into the Knickerbocker Club in 1910, etc.) were personally selected by Pell, they provide enormous insight.
We couldn't find Volume I, but it is there at Pelican Ledge somewhere, awaiting discovery. Oh -- we also found the scrapbook Pell kept during the 196o primary and general elections. Perfect timing, as this morning I am beginning to write that chapter.
Pictured is the scrapbook on my desk, next to a pile of letters to and from his father circa 1930s that I've been reading through.

Pell Grants Congrats

In 1972, Pell led the fight for Basic Education Opportunity Grants -- what we now know as Pell Grants. It was a bruising battle requiring compromise, but in the end, President Nixon signed Senate 659 into law, on June 23, 1972.
Pell received a lot of support from many people, including the president of Clark University, who wrote to the senator to thank him for "truly landmark legislation in the history of higher education."
Indeed, it was.
Image courtesy of Special Collections, University of Rhode Island Library.

Awards and honors

Pell received dozens of honorary degrees and awards from many groups over his long career. Here he is early in his Senate career receiving a medal from the Sovereign Order of Malta.
Image courtesy of Special Collections, University of Rhode Island Library.

A poignant letter to Mom

Even as her health failed and she neared death, in 1972, Claiborne Pell's mother wrote to her son -- and she to him. This undated letter from Claiborne to Matilda (likely written in about 1970) shows his feelings for her. Pell writes:
"Rarely do I find it easier to write than speak, but this is one time since I get so choked by emotion when I try to say these thoughts... you have been a wonderful mother... I could not respect or love a parent more than I do you."
Image courtesy of Special Collections, University of Rhode Island Library.

Researcher extraordinaire

I am pleased to welcome Linda Henderson, longtime friend and colleague, onto the project. Linda, most recently the Library Director at The Providence Journal, has been an instrumental help in all of my non-fiction books. She will be assuming a major role in A VERY DIFFERENT SENATOR: Claiborne Pell's Senate Foreign Relations Committee accomplishments, notably the period when he was chairman. I could not be happier -- and I recommend Linda to anyone with a need for informed, thorough, accurate and speedy online or offline research. Read her credentials here!

Letters from Mom

Until her death (in 1972), Pell's mother, Matilda (Bigelow Koehler) wrote frequently and proudly to her senator son. This letter is from the summer of 1968, when Pell's opposition to the Vietnam War and other factors fueled talk of Pell as a Vice Presidential candidate -- talk he did nothing to quash.
Image courtesy of Special Collections, University of Rhode Island Library.

'Liberal namby-pamby,' `idiot' and `coward'

Dating back to the Kennedy Administration, during which he toured Southeast Asia and came back with a cautionary tale, Pell was in the forefront of the opposition to the Vietnam War. History, of course, proved him right -- and many of his constituents, and other Americans, backed him during the 1960s and early '70s.
But not everyone, of course.
In this unsigned and undated letter, the first page of which I'm posting here, someone slammed Pell. Don't you love the courage of those who send hate-filled anonymous letters? Real spine and conviction... not to mention getting right. Ah, not.
Image courtesy of Special Collections, University of Rhode Island Library.

Ford, Carter, Nixon

Starting with FDR, a friend of his father, Claiborne Pell knew many presidents. Here he is with Presidents Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter and Richard Nixon, in an undated photo likely taken in the late 1970s, during Carter's term in office.
Image courtesy of Special Collections, University of Rhode Island Library

A Veterans' Day visit

Accompanied by Nuala, I visited Claiborne Pell's grave this morning to see his stone, newly erected. Nuala shared some recollections at the cemetery, and on the drive there and back to Pelican Ledge. I always enjoy her company, and always insightful and often humorous observations and reflections.
It is, of course, Veterans' Day, and Pell was a veteran of World War II and the Coast Guard, which he joined in 1941 -- and in which he remained, on active and then reserve status, until mandatory retirement at the age of 60. He was a captain when he retired, well into his Senate career.
Julie and Bertie, two of the Pells' two children, are buried with Claiborne. And not far away, Nuala's mother, and Claiborne's mother and stepfather, lie in rest.
Pictured here:
-- Claiborne's stone. The second white stone in the distance is that of Nuala's father, Ollie O'Donnell.
-- Facing the church, the back of Claiborne's stone. Julie and Bertie's stones are just beyond.
-- Not far away, the graves of Matilda, Claiborne's mother; Cmdr. Hugo W. Koehler, Matilda's husband and Claiborne's stepfather; and Hugo "Hughie" Koehler, Matilda and the commander's only child, Claiborne's half brother.
On my way back. I stopped by another grave, that of Eileen Slocum, another prominent Newporter and friend of the Pells. Eileen is the central character in my documentary BEHIND THE HEDGEROW.

Biography roots

As early as 1980, when he contacted a literary agent, Pell was interested in a biography -- or autobiography -- of him. Several subsequent attempts fell through. Ironic that the book is finally being written, without him to read it. Family members and former staff all agree that he would have enjoyed reading the story of his life. After all, as we have previously reported on this blog, he wrote what was likely the first draft of his story when he was all of 13 years old.
Note Pell's degree of self-awareness about his quirky side, which co-existed with his pride in achievement: ''My personality and approach are a bit oddball, but nevertheless have survived in this very real and rough world of politics for four Senate terms, the last of which I won by 75 percent of the vote.''
Image courtesy of Special Collections, University of Rhode Island Library.

Yachting with Jackie and JFK

In these undated photographs (most likely 1962 or 1963), Pell is seen with Jackie Kennedy, wife of the late president, and with JFK. Probably Newport Harbor.
Images courtesy of Special Collections, University of Rhode Island Library.

Early writing, precocious child

In this letter from September 1924, Claiborne writes to his mother, who is in New York, from Newport -- where he was probably staying with his maternal grandmother, Mrs. Edward M. Padelford. I say probably because I have read many of Mrs. Padelford's letters, and this is her handwriting on the envelope, postmarked Sept. 18, 1924.
Claiborne at this point was not yet six years old!
Images courtesy of Special Collections, University of Rhode Island Library.

Foreshadowing...

In late December 1939, when he was 21 and in his last year at Princeton, Pell spent a few days in the nation's capital touring and studying. "I really liked Washington a lot and the people also," he wrote to his father, who was in Lisbon. Pictured here: both sides of a postcard of the Library of Congress he also sent Herbert. "Have had an interesting A.M. studying here, Love," he wrote.
Images courtesy of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum, Hyde Park, New York.

Clay Pell's grandfather and great-grandfather

Are shown here, in a 1928 painting by Olive Bigelow Pell, Claiborne's stepmother. This is the ten-year-old Claiborne with his father, Herbert Pell. The painting, along with many other Pell-family paintings, photos and framed documents, hangs on the wall of Clay Pell's house, which I visited yesterday.
I think the painting speaks eloquently to the father-son relationship, in which lie many of the clues to Senator Pell later in life.
By a fire in Clay's library, I learned more about the late senator, the late senator's father -- and Clay's dad, the late Bertie, Claiborne and Nuala's first child, named for Herbert. All in all, a fine and productive Sunday afternoon.
Image courtesy of Clay Pell.

Love story

Among my other accomplishments during my two days at the FDR Presidential Library was bringing to life the story of how Claiborne met Nuala and then they married, all back in 1944, when Pell was recuperating in Newport from a case of undulant fever he contracted while serving in the Coast Guard in Italy. I knew the broad strokes, of course, from Nuala and Pell himself -- but the details, spelled out in letter exchanges with Pell's father, Herbert -- are now clear.
Here is a page from the Sept. 26, 1944, letter from Pell to his father in which he professes (for the first time to Herbert) his love for the young Nuala O'Donnell.
Pell writes:
Now comes a slight cough of introduction. Ha-rumph!!
I am really very much in love and expect to marry Nuala O'Donnell. I have been very sure myself but didn't say anything before since I didn't want to get you excited in case it didn't work out.
It did work out: They married in New York that December.
Image courtesy of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum, Hyde Park, New York.

From the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library...

Comes this wonderful shot of the 14-year-old Claiborne Pell and his young half-brother, Hugo Koehler, in London in the summer of 1933. Pell and Koehler were with their mother, the former Matilda (Bigelow) Pell -- and this photo, according to Pell's notes, was taken with Matilda's new Leica camera.
This was but one of many gems I found today as I research the papers of Claiborne's father, Herbert, whose Hopewell Junction estate, Pellbridge, is not far from the library. FDR was an old friend of Herbert. I'll be back at the library first thing tomorrow for more...
Image courtesy of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum, Hyde Park, New York.

Pelection

In his personal appointment book for September 1960, Pell marked the 28th, date of the primary election, as "Pelection Day." He was right -- he was the runaway winner of a three-way Democratic primary. He would never lose another election. And, yes, the primary that year was on a Wednesday.
Image courtesy of Special Collections, University of Rhode Island Library.

Flying

The young Claiborne Pell had a bit of an artist's eye. He liked to draw boats, a portend perhaps of his ocean- and sea-related legislation -- and also airplanes. Here's a drawing of a monoplane, when Pell was about 12, which would have been mot too long after the excitement of Lindbergh's transatlantic crossing in an aircraft that looked something like this...
Image courtesy of Special Collections, University of Rhode Island Library.

Press releases

As the September 1960 Democratic primary neared, with first-time-for-anything-candidate Pell a supposed underdog in a three-way race with two better-known candidates, Claiborne sent out a flurry of press releases. Here's one of them -- his personally-edited copy and the final version that resulted.
Images courtesy of Special Collections, University of Rhode Island Library.

Trinity Church

Claiborne Pell's funeral was in Newport's historic Trinity Church -- and so was that of his father, Herbert, in July 1961. A plaque is being erected in Claiborne's honor, just as his father was honored with the plaque pictured here, which I photographed yesterday on a visit to the church and a private guided tour by the church's Tom Erb. The father-son relationship is a critical one in my biography, and it's a them i will strike from the opening chapter.

The story of his life... at age 13

With the expert guidance of University of Rhode Island Library archivist Mark Dionne, who has been a tremendous resource, I pored through a box of old materials yesterday that included more letters, drawings photos and more from Claiborne Pell's childhood. This was a great find, as I thought we had already gone through everything that was on file. Here is an autobiography that Claiborne write in the early 1930s. It's not dated, but an educated guess based on the materials around it is that he was 13 at the time.
And check out the young Pell's letter he submitted to the editor of the New York Times endorsing FDR, a friend of Pell's father, Herbert. Pell was 15 years old when he wrote it on March 5, 1934. A nice try, I figured -- but lo and behold, a search of the Times online archives revealed that it was published on May 10 of that year. Politics was in his blood...
Image courtesy of Special Collections, University of Rhode Island Library.

An eccentric stepmother

Yesterday found me in Newport, interviewing Janet Pell, Claiborne's daughter-in-law, and Nuala again. Nuala shared stories of Claiborne's stepmother, the eccentric but gifted artist Olive Bigelow Pell, a distant cousing of Claiborne's ...mother, Matilda Pell. Olive painted a wedding portrait of Nuala and Claiborne, pictured here in the background in a Connie Grosch photo that illustrated my 2005 Projo story about the Pells, "A Remarkable Life."

John Lewis

John Lewis, now in his 90s, was Pell's first campaign manager -- helped steer him to victory in 1960 against huge odds. I interview John this morning, and here is a picture of the Pell watch that he still wears.

JFK and Pell

Claiborne Pell's friendship with John F. Kennedy (and Jackie)began years before JFK became president. Here's a letter from Kennedy to Pell thanking him for Pell's support in his 1958 Senate reelection campaign.
Image courtesy of Special Collections, University of Rhode Island Library.

A letter, a note and a radiogram

Pell finished his Coast Guard service in World War II and went into the Foreign Service, serving in, among other places, Czechoslovakia. But he was already thinking about elective politics. In this Jan. 30, 1947, typewritten letter to Pell, father Herbert outlines some possibilities -- including seeking nomination as R.I. state senator from Newport. Pell was just 28 years old. He would eventually win elective office, in his first try -- to the United States Senate, in 1960.
Herbert dictated most of his letters to a secretary, who typed them -- but occasionally hand-wrote one, such as this New Year's greetings in 1947. Herbert's handwriting was legible, if difficult to read.
Claiborne's handwriting was a bit better, as seen here in a note used to cable his father, who was in London, that his engagement to Nuala O'Donnell would be announced in November 1944.
And here is the radiogram that Herbert sent Claiborne after the son wrote the father of his intention to marry.
These documents are among the thousands I have been reading at the Pell archives at URI. Spent a good part of the day there again on Wednesday.
Images courtesy of Special Collections, University of Rhode Island Library.

TICONDEROGA

A wealth of information awaited me during a weekend visit to Fort Ticonderoga, which has been in Pell family ownership since 1820, when Claiborne's great-great grandfather William Ferris Pell bought it. My host was Robert Pell-deChame, whose knowledge of Pelliana is deep. I learned a lot, and found a great ongoing resource not only in Robert, but with the Thompson-Pell Research Center. Pictured here are Robert with a fort canon donated by John Slocum, husband of the late Eileen Slocum, subject of my Newport documentary film, BEHIND THE HEDGEROW; the front of the Pavillion, the 1820s manor built by William Ferris Pell, Lake Champlain is to the left; and Robert being interviewed by me near the Pavillion. Photographs by Yolanda Gabrielle, who made the trip with me.

Providence Phoenix story

Nice story by Bill Rodriguez in today's Providence Phoenix, noting that I am looking for Claiborne Pell stories for the bio. Thanks, Bill.

1920s Pell family films

Claiborne was intrigued at a young age by movies, and his father, Herbert, apparently was, too -- the family purchased a camera, and shot film. In this clip, from 1920s footage, we see various Pells, including Herbert and Claiborne. Also, a trip to a city -- I'm guessing London -- and bullfighting. At the 6:55 mark, there's the handsome young Claiborne (probably about ten years old) at the tiller of a sailboat. His lifelong fascination with the sea began very early, and here's that fascination documented in film. very cool.
Courtesy of Special Collections, University of Rhode Island Library.

World Traveler

As Senator, Pell chaired the Foreign Relations Committee. His overseas experiences started at a very early age, when he traveled abroad with both his father, Herbert, and his mother, the remarried Matilda Bigelow Koehler (Claiborne's parents divorced when he was eight years old). Here is Claiborne's passport, issued on April 9, 1927, just weeks after his parents divorced. Claiborne was eight.
Also here, a passport for his mother, issued in 1932, when she was 37. This is the first photo of Matilda I have found -- though I am certain to find others.
A significant part of the biography will be the relationship the young Claiborne had with his parents.
Images courtesy of Special Collections, University of Rhode Island Library.

Seeds of Amtrak

Pell was a railroad buff -- and a visionary of high-speed passenger-rail service in the United States, which after the Second World War developed an interstate highway system but allowed passenger rail to suffer. In this clip from the projo, spring of 1962, Pell gets a favorable reaction to his plan for high-speed rail, run by a public entity, to serve the Northeast corridor. Yes, this is the root of today's Acela Amtrak service. Note the map!

School days

In every major profile or book I've written, the child that became the adult has always fascinated me -- the old question of roots. For Pell, the story of the boy who became the man will be a major section of the book. And so, I am immersing myself in old Pell family letters, school records, photos, essays -- searching for clues from a non-digital age to supplement (and confirm/deny) recollections by those who are still alive. I love this process, but haven't gone this deep into the past since writing KING OF HEARTS, about C. Walton Lillehei, the maverick 1950s doctor who made open-heart surgery a reality.
Fortunately, Claiborne and his father were pack rats and saved, it seems, everything. What good luck for me (if a lot of work, no search function here)! Spent several hours today going through personal correspondence, including Pell report cards and writings from his high school years, the 1930s at St. George's School in Middletown, R.I. Pictured here is Pell's sophomore-year report card.
Also pictured here is a Halloween poem he wrote in the fall of 1927, when he was nine years old.
As always, more can be found at the Facebook Claiborne Pell biography page.
Images courtesy of Special Collections, University of Rhode Island Library.

COLD WAR CAMPAIGN

Pell was once famously called a "creampuff" by a political foe, but he was in reality a smart campaigner who was willing to try new media and new ideas. In this video from a TV ad from his successful 1966 reelection bid, he very effectively plays on Cold War fears. Creampuff? Not hardly...
Images courtesy of Special Collections, University of Rhode Island Library.

NEWPORT HISTORY

Spent a while in Newport today, interviewing Nuala Pell, Claiborne's widow, at her house -- the same modest house that Pell himself designed and built, on beautiful waterfront property near Bailey's Beach. Nuala holds the key to much of the Pell Puzzle, as it might be called: how this man who could have spent his life at the cabana instead developed a strong connection to working-class Rhode Islanders that lasted 36 years (six Senate general elections) and made lasting contributions in areas where he himself has no need (Pell grants, for example, for students unable to afford college).
Nuala and I passed an enjoyable and wide-ranging hour, with her sharing memories of Kennedys (Jack and Ted), 1960s campaigning, Nuala's mother, and Claiborne's father, Herbert Claiborne Pell: former ambassador to Hungary and Portugal, one-term Congressman from Manhattan's Silk Stocking district, and an enormous influence on his son (late into life, Claiborne still wore his father's belt).
After my visit with Nuala (pictured here at the Pell Georgetown residence in 1962), I drove by the house on Bellevue Avenue (bottom photo) that Pell's father owned while his son, only child and future senator, was a youngster. Pell passed much of his boyhood there.
On my way back, I stopped and photographed Newport's historic Trinity Church, built in 1726, where the Pells worshiped and where Claiborne's funeral was held on Jan. 5 of this year (middle photo).
More photos, including one of Nuala with Jackie Kennedy in May 1960, on the Facebook Pell Biography page.