Guide to the James E. Bassett Jr. Papers, 1929-1977, undated
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Digital surrogate of Bassett's Bowdoin College student scrapbook (M213.5 vol 3 folio) is available and linked in the collection inventory.
James E. Bassett, Jr., Papers, George J. Mitchell Department of Special Collections & Archives, Bowdoin College Library, brunswick, Maine
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James E. Bassett Jr. (1912-78) graduated from Bowdoin Phi Beta Kappa in 1934. After graduation, Bassett worked on the Los Angeles Times, serving as a reporter from 1934-37; aviation editor from 1937-41; science editor from 1947-48; political editor in 1961; director of the editorial pages from 1963-71; and associate editor from 1971-77. He retired in 1977. Bassett also worked for the Los Angeles Mirror serving as political editor in 1948; city editor in 1954; and assistant managing editor in 1957.
In 1941, Bassett entered the Navy as a lieutenant junior grade and became public relations officer for Fleet Admiral William F. Halsey and the Third Fleet. He served in that capacity until 1945. Bassett received the Bronze Star and retired from the Naval Reserve as a Captain.
Bassett served as press secretary for vice president Richard Nixon's campaign in 1952, as public relations director of the Republican National Committee in 1954, as campaign director for the Nixon vice presidential campaign in 1956, and as planning director of the Nixon presidential campaign in 1960. In 1962, Bassett published Harm's Way based on his wartime experience; the novel was made into a movie. Bassett also published The Sky Suspended in 1961 and Commander Prince, USN in 1971.
Bassett married Wilma Moreland in 1936 and the couple had one daughter.
The collection contains Bassett's letters (1940-63) from Pearl Harbor and the Pacific Theater, and from the Nixon campaigns; literary drafts of published and unpublished books, short stories, and plays; photographs; records of his naval service, including documents, orders and letters (1941-56); and Mamaroneck [N.Y.] High School, Bowdoin College (including a 1930-34 scrapbook), and U.S. Navy memorabilia. The collection also includes a retirement book from his work on the Los Angeles Times, and a bound copy of The Life and Times of Los Angeles, a history of the first 100 years of the Los Angeles Times.
Contains Bassett's letters from various posts during WWII and during the Nixon campaigns of 1952, 1956 and 1960. The correspondence is primarily addressed to Bassett's wife.
Arranged chronologically.
1940
4 Apr 1942 - 31 Jul 1942 (Pacific Fleet)
3 Aug 1942 - 9 Dec 1942 (Pacific Fleet)
8 Jan 1943 - 10 Aug 1944 (Pacific Fleet)
5 Jan 1945 - 27 Oct 1946 (Pacific Fleet)
9 Jul 1952 - 15 Nov 1954, n.d. (Campaign letters)
16 May 1960 - 15 Oct 1963 (Campaign letters)
Contains the typed manuscripts of Bassett's books "Favorite Son" and "Ugly Year, Lonely Man: A Political Journal of 1956." Also included are manuscripts of his short stories and plays.
Arranged chronologically.
Biography
Book Review - "Harm's Way"
"Favorite Son" Chapter 1
"Favorite Son" Chapter 2
"Favorite Son" Chapter 2
"Favorite Son" Chapter 3
"Favorite Son" Chapter 4
"Favorite Son" Chapter 5
"Favorite Son" Chapter 6
"Favorite Son" Chapter 6
"Favorite Son" Chapter 7
"Favorite Son" Chapter 7
"Favorite Son" Chapter 8
"Favorite Son" Chapter 8
"Favorite Son" Chapter 9
"Favorite Son" Chapter 9
"Favorite Son" Chapter 10
"Favorite Son" Chapter 10
"Favorite Son" Chapter 11
"Favorite Son" Chapter 11
"Favorite Son" Chapter 12
"Favorite Son" Chapter 12
"Favorite Son" Chapter 13
"Favorite Son" Chapter 13
"Favorite Son" Chapter 14
"Favorite Son" Chapter 14
"Favorite Son" Chapter 15
"Favorite Son" Chapter 15
"Favorite Son" Chapter 16
"Favorite Son" Chapter 16
"Favorite Son" Chapter 17
"Favorite Son" Chapter 17
"Favorite Son" Chapter 18
Short stories and plays - "Chasing the Wild Goose" and "?"
Short stories and plays - "Justice is a Peeping Tom," "John Randall and the Public Life"
Short stories and plays - "Miracle at Five-Mile Rock"
Short stories and plays - "My Sister, Death," "Death Faces the Music"
Short stories and plays - "Decline and Fall," "Occupation Dreamer," "This Side Sanity"
"Ugly Year, Lonely Man" (drafts)
"Ugly Year, Lonely Man" (prologue)
"Ugly Year, Lonely Man" (prologue)
"Ugly Year, Lonely Man" (February)
"Ugly Year, Lonely Man" (March)
"Ugly Year, Lonely Man" (April)
"Ugly Year, Lonely Man" (May)
"Ugly Year, Lonely Man" (June)
"Ugly Year, Lonely Man" (July)
"Ugly Year, Lonely Man" (February & March)
"Ugly Year, Lonely Man" (April & May)
"Ugly Year, Lonely Man" (June & July)
"Ugly Year, Lonely Man" (August & September)
"Ugly Year, Lonely Man" (October & November)
"Ugly Year, Lonely Man" (epilogue & appendices)
"The life and times of Los Angeles: candid history of a newspaper's first 100 years...," 1977
Contains naval records from Bassett's service during WWII. Also included are scrapbook items.
Arranged chronologically.
Naval Documents 27 Jan 1941 - 18 Nov 1943
Naval Documents 4 Jan 1944 - 15 Aug 1956
Contains photographs from Bassett's time in the Navy as well as when he worked on the Nixon Campaign. This series also contains a scrapbook of a Naval trip to Hawaii.
Alphabetical by subject.
Bassett being decorated
Bassett - Navy portrait
Bassett - portrait
Bassett - portrait
Bassett - portrait (1950s)
Bassett - portrait reading
Bassett receiving award
Bassett w/Admiral Halsey
Bassett w/Admiral Halsey
Bassett w/B. Jones
Bassett w/Bill Henry, Waldo Drake & Walter Claussen (1942)
Bassett w/Buster Keaton (27 Jun 1956)
Bassett w/Commanding Officer and others
Bassett w/co-pilots
Bassett w/crew
Bassett w/James Roosevelt(?)
Bassett w/Richard Nixon (18 Feb 1959)
Bassett w/Richard & Pat Nixon & Group
Bassett w/shipmates (formal uniform)
Battleships at sea
Bosworth (Lt. Cmdr.) w/Bassett
Boyington, Gregory (Major) (29 Dec 1943)
Boyington, Gregory (Major) with airplane
Drake, W.W. - Navy portrait
Eisenhower, Dwight (1952) - autographed
Halsey, W. F. (Admiral) - autographed
Halsey, W. F. (Admiral) decorating Marine
Halsey, W. F. (Admiral)
Halsey, W. F. (Admiral) w/group
Halsey, W. F. (Admiral) in receiving line; Admrl. Carnly deboarding
Instrument of surrender (1/2)
Instrument of surrender (2/2)
Knox, Frank, w/C. W. Nimitz
MacArthur Signing the Instruments of Surrender
Moyer, A. J. (Capt.) w/Bougainville natives
Navigation officer of heavy cruiser 11 Dec 1943
Naval officers at event
Nixon, Richard and Pat, w/group
Nixon, Richard and Pat, w/group
O'Hare (Lieutenant) in Airplane
Parade (w/Admiral Halsey?)
Pearl Harbor - Admiral on boat
Pearl Harbor - Admiral on boat
Pearl Harbor - Airplane
Pearl Harbor - Airplane
Pearl Harbor - Airfield
Pearl Harbor - Airplane wreckage
Pearl Harbor - Battleship
Pearl Harbor - Battleship
Pearl Harbor - Battleship
Pearl Harbor - Battleship w/crew
Pearl Harbor - Battleships
Pearl Harbor - Battleships
Pearl Harbor - Battleships
Pearl Harbor - Bow of Ship w/Aircraft Carrier in Background
Pearl Harbor - Crew
Pearl Harbor - Japanese plane
Pearl Harbor - Japanese plane on boat
Pearl Harbor - Japanese submarine HA 19
Pearl Harbor - Japanese submarine HA 19
Pearl Harbor - Japanese submarine HA 19
Pearl Harbor - Ship at dock
Pearl Harbor - Ships
Pearl Harbor - Ships and Airplane
Pearl Harbor - USS Arizona
Pearl Harbor - USS Downes
Pearl Harbor - USS Oklahoma
Pearl Harbor - USS Oklahoma
Pearl Harbor - USS Oklahoma w/USS Maryland
Pearl Harbor - USS Pennsylvania, Destroyers Cassin & Downes.
Pearl Harbor - USS West Virginia
Pearl Harbor - USS West Virginia
Pearl Harbor - USS West Virgina w/USS Tennessee
Pearl Harbor - View of sky w/airplane
S. Pacific Force Commander w/Bassett & group; Senators Plane
Shea, D.F.J. (Lt. Cmdr.) w/Cmdr. Leland P. Lovette
Shea, D.F.J. (Lt. Cmdr.) w/Cmdr. Leland P. Lovette
Silver Foxes Poster - autographed
Supply ships arriving at Bougainville 22 Nov 1943
Unidentified
USS Kidd, destroyer 11 Dec 1943
View of Seabee's 24th Construction Battalion Camp
Wounded Marine 11 Nov 1943
Album of Naval trip to Hawaii, 1967
Series includes scrapbooks documenting Bassett's time as a student at Bowdoin (1930-34) and a naval officer in the Pacific during World War II (1945), as well as Bassett's travels to the Indies (1940) and participation in the "Trans World Airlines Super G Constellation California to Europe Preview Flight" (1955).
Certificate of Commendation from Los Angeles, California, 1963
Diary 1929
Inaugural materials (Eisenhower)
Los Angeles Times (27 Aug 1945)
Mamaroneck High School annual 1930
Map of anchorages in the Solomon Islands
Scrapbook "Bowdoin Quill," 1932-1934
Scrapbook of Bowdoin College, "collected and Owned by James Basset, Jr.," 1930-1934
"The Bowdoin Bugle, 1935; published in Junior Year by the Class of 1935"
Scrapbook of WWII in the Pacific Theater, 1945
Scrapbook, 1977
Scrapbook: "To the Indies," August 10 - September 19, 1940
Scrapbook: "Trans World Airlines Super-G Constellation California to Europe Preview Flight, Oct 23 - Nov 3, 1955"