Mondays at Beinecke: John Hersey’s Hiroshima with Lesley M. M. Blume

Zoom webinar registration: https://bit.ly/2UV7Hhf
Lesley M. M. Blume, Los Angeles-based journalist and historian, is the author of Fallout: The Hiroshima Cover-up and the Reporter Who Revealed It to the World (Simon & Schuster, Aug 2020). Blume worked extensively with archivists at the Beinecke Library while researching the book. The reporter in question is John Hersey, whose 30,000 word article “Hiroshima” was released 75 years ago, in the August 31, 1946 issue of the New Yorker magazine, and revealed for the first time the true radioactive aftermath of the Japan bombings. Hersey’s article-turned-book is still often cited as the most important and influential work of longform investigative journalism ever created.
August 31 will mark the 75th anniversary of the release of “Hiroshima,” whose first draft was gifted to Yale by Hersey shortly after the article’s publication. He later donated all of his papers, including his on-the-ground reporting materials and other research materials for “Hiroshima.” More about the Hersey Papers, YCAL MSS 707, at the Beinecke Library website: https://beinecke.library.yale.edu/collections/highlights/john-hersey-papers