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.