Processed
by
Chris Harter
15 May 1998
Updated
Manuscript and Visual Collections Department
William Henry Smith Memorial
Indiana Historical Society
Indianapolis, IN
VOLUME OF COLLECTION: 1 item
COLLECTION DATES:
PROVENANCE: James Loren Sisson,
RESTRICTIONS: None
REPRODUCTION RIGHTS: Permission to reproduce or publish material in this collection must be obtained in writing from the Indiana Historical Society.
ALTERNATE FORMATS: None
OTHER FINDING AIDS: None
RELATED HOLDINGS: See card catalog under: Pyle, Ernie.
ACCESSION NUMBERS: 1998.0393
NOTES:
Ernest "Ernie" Taylor Pyle (1900-1945), the son of William C. and Marcia (Taylor) Pyle, was born on a farm near Dana, Vermillion County, Indiana. He attended Indiana University for 3 ½ years, but quit without graduating. Pyle's career in the newspaper business began at the Laporte (Ind.) Herald, where he was a cub reporter. He moved to Washington, D.C. and worked as a reporter and desk man at the Washington Daily News from 1923 to 1926. He married Geraldine Siebold in 1925. After Pyle left the Daily News, he and his wife drove around the rim of the United States. Their trip ended in New York, where Pyle became a desk man at the New York Evening World and the New York Evening Post. He returned to the Daily News as telegraph editor, and was made managing editor in 1932.
The editor-in-chief of Scripps-Howard Newspaper Alliance, the company that owned the Daily News, gave Pyle a position as roving correspondent. His first column appeared on 8 August 1935. Pyle's columns were about the people, places and events he encountered while traveling with his wife. The Pyles' travels covered the United States and Canada and took them to Europe, Mexico, Central America, and South America. The articles ran regularly in the Daily News, and were picked up by other Scripps-Howard papers. The United Feature Syndicate syndicated Pyle's columns in other papers, as well.
Pyle served as a war correspondent during World War II. His reports from Europe, Africa and the Pacific appeared in over 300 newspapers. Pyle returned to the U.S. for a short time in 1944, but departed for the Pacific in early 1945. He was killed 18 April 1945 on Ie, an island off Okinawa.
Pyle was awarded the 1944 Pulitzer Prize for distinguished correspondence. His dispatches were gathered in book form under the titles Ernie Pyle in England (1941), Here Is Your War (1943), and Brave Men (1944).
Sources: Indiana Biography Series. Vol. 28, p. 40-41; Vol. 29, p.
44-46.
Who Was Who in America.
Vol. 2, p. 435.
This collection contains one typed letter, dated
For additional information on this collection, including a list of subject headings that may lead you to related materials:
1. Go to the Indiana Historical Society's online catalog: http://opac.indianahistory.org/
2. Click on the "Basic Search" icon.
3. Select "Call Number" from the "Search In:" box.
4. Search for the collection by its basic call number (in this case, SC 0974).
5. When you find the collection, go to the "Full Record" screen for a list of headings that can be searched for related materials.