When famed historian William Manchester passed away 10 months ago, he left his entire literary collection to Wesleyan, including notes for his manuscripts and correspondence with his editors. The logistics of storing the collection, however, are still under discussion.
Manchester’s time at Wesleyan began in 1955 when he was hired as an editor for American Education Publications, which was then owned by the University. He later became an Adjunct Professor of History and a writer-in-residence. He lived in a house he built on Pine Street until his death on June 1 of last year.
“It’s a wonderful collection, full of information of all kinds: primary sources of [Manchester’s] work about the assassination of President Kennedy, as well as his other books,” said Suzy Taraba, Archivist and head of Special Collections. “It’ll be a fabulous resource for our Wesleyan undergraduates, the kind of thing most undergraduate institutions don’t have.”
Taraba anticipates that the documents will be housed in Wesleyan’s Archives and Special Collections section at Olin Library. Because of the size of the collection, however, it will take some time for the collection to be ready for students to use.
The extensive body of work left to the University is worth about $550,000, according to the Hartford Courant. People close to Manchester described him as a meticulous researcher who kept detailed notes of his work. He also maintained records of personal correspondences.
According to Jesse Nasta ’07, who interns with the Middlesex County Historical Society, these manuscripts are valuable in providing insight into local history, and into the individual’s editorial and creative experience.
“Seeing a document as a process rather than as an event has the potential to give students a richer understanding of history,” Nasta said. “These manuscripts represent a valuable opportunity by documenting the creative process.”
“He kept all of the fan mail that people sent him, and he replied to every single piece of mail,” his daughter Laurie Manchester told the Courant.
Two of Manchester’s most famous works, “Goodbye Darkness: A Memoir of the Pacific War” and a biography of Douglas MacArthur called “American Caesar,” garnered Manchester nominations for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, respectively. At the time of his death, he was working on the third of a trilogy on Winston Churchill, which was to be called “The Last Lion, Volume III.”
Several of Manchester’s works concern his time spent in the Marine Corps during World War II. He was sent to Guadalcanal after the Japanese were defeated there, and took part in the last major battle of the Pacific in Okinawa. For his efforts and injuries, Manchester was awarded the Navy Cross and two Purple Hearts.
Manchester’s work was not without controversy. In 1964, Jacqueline Kennedy commissioned the author to produce an account of President Kennedy’s assassination. She chose Manchester on the merit of a previous work, “Portrait of a President,” an account of Kennedy’s first year and a half in office, which was published in 1962 to many adoring reviews. One stipulation of the commission was that Mrs. Kennedy be allowed to review the work before publication.
The book, titled “Death of a President” was completed in 1966. Upon review, however, Mrs. Kennedy balked at the contents of the book, and sued to block publication. It is widely speculated that Mrs. Kennedy was concerned with certain unsavory details about Lyndon B. Johnson, which would put his relationship with her brother Robert Kennedy at stake. Manchester agreed to delete certain passages, and the book was published in 1967.
“Publications have lives of their own,” Nasta said. “This documents both the life of William Manchester and his book, and I think that in essence, in preserving this manuscript Wesleyan will immortalize William Manchester as both an author and a human being.”
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