April 4 Talk at Pendleton Library

On April 4, 1968, Robert F. Kennedy arrived in Indiana to campaign in the state's Democratic presidential primary. As Kennedy prepared to fly from an appearance in Muncie to Indianapolis, he learned that civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., had been shot outside his hotel in Memphis, Tennessee. 

Before his plane landed in Indianapolis, Kennedy heard the news that King had died. Despite warnings from Indianapolis police that they could not guarantee his safety, and brushing off concerns from his own staff, Kennedy decided to proceed with plans to address an outdoor rally to be held in the heart of the city's African American community. On that cold and windy evening, Kennedy broke the news of King's death in an impassioned, extemporaneous speech on the need for compassion in the face of violence. It has proven to be one of the great speeches in American political history.

At 1 p.m. Saturday, April 4, at the Pendleton Community Public Library, 595 East Water Street, Pendleton, Indiana, I will give a talk explaining what brought the politician to Indiana that day, and explore the characters and events of the 1968 Indiana Democratic presidential primary in which Kennedy, who was an underdog, had a decisive victory. 

For more information, contact the library at (765) 777-7527. The talk will be free and open to the public and will be in the library's Community Room. In addition, copies of my book, Robert F. Kennedy and the 1968 Indiana Primary, will be available for sale.

John Bartlow Martin Biography Published

During the 1940s and 1950s one name, John Bartlow Martin, dominated the pages of the "big slicks," mass-circulation magazines such as the Saturday Evening Post. A former reporter for the Indianapolis Times who survived an often unsettling life in Indianapolis, Martin was one of but a few freelance writers in the country able to support himself from his work. His peers lauded him as "the best living reporter" and the "ablest crime reporter in America."

Martin's life as a freelance writer, plus his time as a speechwriter with every Democratic presidential candidate from Adlai Stevenson in 1952 to George McGovern in 1972, in explored in my new biography John Bartlow Martin: A Voice for the Underdog, recently published by Indiana University Press.

What set Martin apart from his journalist contemporaries was his deep and abiding concern for the common man in twentieth-century America. "Most journalists," he noted, "make a living by interviewing the great. I made mine by interviewing the humble--what the Spaniards call los de abajo, those from below."

During his career Martin, posthumously inducted into the Indiana Journalism Hall of Fame in 1999, also produced a number of books based upon his magazine work, including a history of the Hoosier State (Indiana: An Interpretation, 1947) that historian Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. called the "best book on Indiana." Martin made his mark on American history not just with his writing skills, but also his political acumen. He served as a key speechwriter and adviser for the presidential campaigns of the prominent Democrats of the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s--Adlai Stevenson, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Robert F. Kennedy, Hubert H. Humphrey, and George McGovern.

As a result of his efforts on John Kennedy's behalf in the 1960 presidential contest, Martin received an appointment from the president as the U.S. ambassador to the Dominican Republic, a country Martin had visited as a young man. He worked tirelessly to support the Republic's first democratically elected government, but saw his hopes dashed by a military coup. Before his diplomatic service, Martin had earned a small measure of fame by helping write a speech for Newt Minow, the new Federal Communications Commission chairman, for a speech before the National Association of Broadcasters that introduced the phrase describing television--"a vast wasteland"--into the nation's consciousness.

The hardback, approximately 400-page book is available directly from IU Press or from Amazon and IndieBound.

Podcast for John Bartlow Martin Biography

On March 19 Indiana University Press will publish my book John Bartlow Martin: A Voice for the Underdog. You can learn more about the book and Martin's life and career by listening to a podcast I did with IU Press staff member Laura Baich.

In addition, Dan Carpenter, former columnist with the Indianapolis Star, did a story about the book for Sky Blue Window, an online magazine.

World War II Talks in Warsaw, Columbia City

Two of Indiana's most notable heroes of World War II--U.S. Navy ace Alex Vraciu and beloved war correspondent Ernie Pyle--will be the subjects of talks I'll be giving at two libraries in northeastern Indiana in early November. Both programs are free and open to the public. 

At 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday, November 4, I will be at the Warsaw Community Public Library, 310 East Main Street, Warsaw, to talk about Vraciu's career as a fighter pilot in the Pacific during World War II. A graduate of DePauw University, Vraciu learned to fly during his college years through a government program and joined the navy before America was thrust into the war following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.

Possessed with keen eyesight, quick reflexes, excellent shooting instincts, and a knack for finding his opponent's weak spot, Vraciu became skilled in the deadly game of destroying the enemy in the skies over the Pacific Ocean. For a period of four months in 1944, Vraciu stood as the leading ace in the U.S. Navy. He shot down nineteen Japanese planes in the air and destroyed an additional twenty-one on the ground.

At 6:00 p.m. on Wednesday, November 5, I will be at the Peabody Public Library, 1160 East Highway 205, Columbia City, to talk about the life and death of Pyle, who wrote so well about the average GI for those back on the home front during the war. In his columns Pyle offered a foxhole view of the struggle as he reported on the life and death of the average soldier. When in died in 1945, Pyle's popularity and readership was worldwide, with his column appearing in 400 daily and 300 weekly newspapers.

For information on the Vraciu talk in Warsaw, call the library at (574) 267-6011. For information on the Pyle talk, call the library at (260) 244-5541.

Gus Grissom Program June 25 in Columbia City

On January 27, 1967, American astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee entered the Apollo Command Module on Kennedy's Space Center Pad 34 to conduct a test of the new spacecraft as part of NASA's effort to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade--they never made it out alive. What happened that day will be explored in my talk "Tragedy at Pad 34: Gus Grissom and the Apollo 1 Fire" at 6 p.m. Wednesday, June 25, at the Peabody Public Library in Columbia City, Indiana.

The talk, based on my biography of Grissom, examines the career of the Mitchell, Indiana, native, including his selection as one of the Original 7 Mercury astronauts, his ill-fated Liberty Bell 7 mission, his contributions to the Gemini program, and his final mission on Apollo 1.

For more information on the talk, contact the library by calling (260) 244-5541.

Ernie Pyle Program in Pendleton

To the millions of Americans on the home front during World War II, Ernie Pyle’s columns in newspapers across the country offered a foxhole view of the struggle as he reported on the life and death of the average soldier. When he died, Pyle’s popularity and readership was worldwide, with his column appearing in 400 daily and 300 weekly newspapers.


At 10 a.m. on Saturday, May 24, I will be at the Pendleton Community Library, 595 East Water Street, Pendleton, Indiana, to talk about Pyle's career, from his birth in the small Hoosier community of Dana, his days at Indiana University in Bloomington, his career as a reporter, and his coverage of American troops overseas during World War II. The talk is based upon my biography of Pyle, The Soldier's Friend: A Life of Ernie Pyle. Copies of the book will be available at the talk.

For more information, call the library at (765) 778-7527.

Jontz Biography Review

The March 2014 issue of the Indiana Magazine of History featured a review of my biography of the late Indiana congressman Jim Jontz. The reviewer, Nancy Gabin, praises the book, calling it an "engaging biography" that captures the life of the dedicated public servant and environmentalist. "Well-researched and drawing on interviews with family and friends, staff members and political associates, political observers and journalists, the biography is an important addition to recent Indiana history and a welcome contribution to modern political history and the history of environmentalism."