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.

Spent part of a fine late-summer afternoon visiting Senator Jack Reed at his Jamestown home listening to his recollections of Claiborne Pell, whose seat Jack won when Claiborne retired. Much good material and excellent insights into a man who, as Jack rightfully observed, did not come across as the consummate politician -- but who was, in fact, in his low-key way, "a very, very adroit politician," as Jack described him. Jack had some good Pell stories, and also gave me a better understanding of how this man from Ivy League privilege (a Princeton grad) had the desire to create what came to be known as the Pell Grant program, which has allowed millions of non-wealthy Americans to get their college degrees. And Jack had more, much more, which will help enhance the book.
We sat on Jack's deck for the interview. This photo of me with Jack was taken when I visited him in Washington last year.

CAMELOT, BERLIN, BAY OF PIGS

Spent another morning, eyes increasingly strained, in front of a microfilm reader checking every story The Providence Journal and (now-defunct) Evening Bulletin published about Pell in 1961, his first year in the Senate. Got through 1960 last week and I will eventually get through the entire record, though it will be many hours until that is done. No computer data bases or Google for this... This is research the old-fashioned way, a skill I learned in the early 1970s when I took my last semester of senior year in high school off to intern with a Boston professor who assigned me projects in Harvard Med School's Countway Library. But I digress....
This is a fascinating walk back into time, to a pivotal period in American history -- when JFK and Jackie, good friends of Claiborne and wife Nuala Pell, were creating Camelot. 1961 was the year of the Berlin Crisis, the establishment of the Peace Corps, the Bay of Pigs, and much more. Pell was in the thick of it, from the start. His long experience in the Foreign Service gave him an immediate stature.
And he took care of his constituents, too -- hiring a large staff, returning often to Rhode Island, and making himself available to people and the press.
An astute piece the projo published on Nov. 13, as Pell's first year in Washington drew to a close, was headlined: "The Pell Enigma." That line could, in many respects, serve as a tag for much of his life.
In winning the 1960 primary election on his first-ever try for office -- unendorsed against two entrenched and popular members of the Rhode Island Democratic machine -- and then clobbering his GOP opponent, a WW2 war hero, in the 1960 general election -- Pell defied all expectations (even his own).
"Mr. Pell did the things the Rhode Island political handbook said a candidate could not do and win," projo staffer Paul A. Kelly wrote in that long-ago 'enigma' piece. "Unless he wants to run for president some time, Mr. Pell has no place else to go politically but where he is already. All he has to do is run again for the Senate every six years and keep on winning. He is a young man, and his chances for keeping up his performance at the polls, on the basis of his performance at the last election, seem good for a long time to come."
How prophetic those words were! When he finally retired, after six terms, in January 1997, Pell has served 36 years -- longest of any senator ever from Rhode Island. Indeed, as of last month, according to the U.S. Senate Historical Office, Pell was the 16th longest serving senator of all senators since the founding of the republic, ranking behind only such figures as his friends Tedd Kennedy and Joe Biden, two of the people who eulogized him this January at his funeral. I covered that service for the projo.

RESOURCES

In this initial stage, one of my primary jobs is determining the best sources of credible information about Pell. His archives at the University of Rhode Island Library are an obvious major source, and I spent part of yesterday there beginning to familiarize myself with the collection, which occupies 2,500 linear feet of documents, photographs, movies, etc. While at URI, I interviewed a longtime friend of Pell, former governor Bruce Sundlun.
Today, I lunched with former Providence Journal political reporter and columnist M. Charles Bakst, pictured here, a friend for many years and without doubt one of the best political writers ever. We dined outside on providence's Federal Hill at Venda Ravioli, where Charlie had the steamed mussels and baked trout, and I had the Petto di Pollo, with chocolate gelato, all scrumptiously prepared (those who know Charlie, or his columns, will understand the importance of mentioning the food). Charlie, as expected, was great -- good insights and many leads.
This being Rhode Island, we of course ran into other people we knew: Hasbro Chairman Al Verrecchia and his wife, Gerrie (Al was one of the principal characters in my book about the toy industry TOY WARS) and Fr. Marcel Taillon, one of the wonderful priests I met while writing AN AMERICAN BISHOP, about Bishop Thomas Tobin of Providence.

WORKING

Spent several hours today going through microfilmed newspaper accounts of Pell's decision in 1960 to run for the U.S. Senate. He had never sought any political office, and he found himself in a bruising primary against two established R.I. pols. A fascinating year for him. Unconventionally colorful campaign tactics and a smear campaign against him, the "millionaire." hard on the eyes, I must say, these dusty old microfilms.
So I was working.
Working is also the title of the book, A VERY DIFFERENT SENATOR -- it's the working title for now, but I must say I do like it.