Finding aid for the Vance H. Trimble papers on E. W. Scripps Biography

Biography of Vance H. Trimble

Vance H. Trimble was a newspaper reporter and author. After working for many papers throughout Oklahoma and Texas, Trimble joined the Houston Press, part of the Scripps Howard chain, as a copy editor in 1939. Within six months he was promoted to city editor and in 1950, he was appointed managing editor of the Press. In 1955, he was transferred to the Scripps Howard Washington bureau as news editor. Here he undertook an investigation of nepotism and payroll abuses in Congress. His six-month series of stories triggered public indignation that prompted the Senate to open its payroll records for the first time in 34 years, and won for Trimble in 1960 a journalism "triple crown": the Pulitzer Prize for national reporting, the Sigma Delta Chi award for distinguished Washington correspondence, and the Raymond Clapper Award for the year's best Washington reporting. In 1963, he was appointed editor of the Kentucky Post in Covington, Kentucky, from which position he retired in 1979.

Besides hi 1992 biography of E.W. Scripps The Astonishing Mr. Scripps: The Turbulent Life of America's Penny Press Lord, Trimble published several other biographies.

Scope and Content

The Vance H. Trimble papers on E. W. Scripps biography contain materials related to Trimble's biography of E. W. Scripps, the journalistic pioneer who founded the Scripps Howard newspaper chain. The collection is arranged in two series: Series I: Original Material Generated in the Preparation of the Scripps Biography; and Series II: Working Files and Collected Material.

Series I contains the original manuscript and Trimble's typed research notes. Series II contains primary and secondary materials related to the Scripps family and firm. Some of these materials are compiled in dated working files. The materials include photocopied correspondence, diary entries, chronologies, books, reviews, newspaper clippings, and third party remembrances which span the period from 1889 to 1926.

Statement of Arrangement

Subject Terms

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Preferred Citation

Researchers are requested to cite collection name, collection number, and Ohio University, Athens, Ohio in all footnotes and bibliographical references.

Other Finding Aid

A paper copy of the folder list is available.