James D. Squires Papers

Collection

Identifier: MSS.0588

Staff Only

Scope and Content Note

The collection contains six series, encompassing James Squires’ careers as a journalist and editor, political adviser, author and university professor, and was donated to Vanderbilt University by Squires in 2005.

The materials in the collection include correspondence, newspaper clippings, photographs, videocassettes, audiocassettes and signed original political cartoons. Several books, including copies of Squires’ published works, were part of the original collection but have been removed and shelved with the Sevier and Southern Civilization collections. Roughly half the journalism correspondence is made up of letters to the editor. These are arranged chronologically rather than alphabetically because of the topical nature of the letters. Additionally, many newspaper articles and faxes have been photocopied for preservation; the originals are located at the end of the appropriate series or subseries and are arranged chronologically. Any photographs included with correspondence have also been photocopied and the originals placed with the other photographs in each series or subseries.

The 63 boxes of the collection have been arranged in the following six series: journalism career, Ross Perot campaign, books, university courses, biographical material with miscellaneous correspondence and writings, and multimedia and oversized material.

Dates

Inclusive: 1955-2004; Bulk: 1981-2002
Majority of material found within 1981 - 2002

Conditions Governing Use

Material related to Ross Perot’s 1992 political campaign, for which Squires served as media adviser, is restricted until a biography is authorized by Perot.

Biographical Note

Born in Tennessee on April 3, 1943, James D. Squires rose from mill worker’s son to editor and executive vice president of one of the country’s most influential newspapers, the Chicago Tribune. Squires is the grandson of Dave White, a member of Garner Robinson’s “Old Hickory Gang” of freewheeling Nashville politicians in the mid-twentieth century, about whom Squires wrote The Secrets of the Hopewell Box in 1996. A 1966 Peabody College graduate, Squires began his journalism career at the Tennessean in 1962, where he worked as a reporter, Washington correspondent and night city desk editor before moving to the Tribune in 1972. The 1970-71 Harvard Nieman Foundation for Journalism fellow worked in the Washington bureau until 1977, becoming the bureau chief in 1974. While at the Tribune, Squires covered Watergate, presidential elections and accompanied former President Gerald Ford on a 1975 state visit to China.

Squires moved from the Tribune to Tribune Company’s Orlando Sentinel-Star (later the Orlando Sentinel) in 1977, where he was editor until returning to Chicago as editor of the Tribune in 1981. Eight-and-a-half years and seven Pulitzers for the Tribune later, Squires resigned. He and his wife Mary Anne moved to a horse farm in Kentucky, where he bred 2001 Kentucky Derby winner Monarchos. He was an adjunct professor at Harvard University in 1990 and Middle Tennessee State University in 1992. Squires was Ross Perot’s media adviser in 1992.

He has written three books, contributed to one and edited another. Squires has two adult children.

Books:

A Search for Justice with John Seigenthaler (1971)

The American Millstone (edited) by Chicago Tribune staff (1986)

Read All About It! The Corporate Takeover of America’s Newspapers (1993)

The Secrets of the Hopewell Box: Stolen Elections, Southern Politics, and a City’s Coming of Age (1996)

Horse of a Different Color: A Tale of Breeding Geniuses, Dominant Females, and the Fastest Derby Winner Since Secretariat (2002)

Extent

31.1 Linear Feet (63 boxes)

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Abstract

The James D. Squires (1943-) papers were donated to Vanderbilt University in 2005 and encompass his careers as a journalist and editor, as a political adviser, and as an author. The Nashville native graduated from Peabody College in 1966 and started his journalism career at the Tennessean.

Physical Location

Offsite Storage, Special Collections & Archives

Materials Removed

Books 1. Chicago Tribune. The American Millstone. Edited by James Squires. Chicago: Contemporary Books, 1986. 2. Gross, Ken. Ross Perot: The Man Behind the Myth. New York: Random House, 1992. 3. Hollander, Richard. Video Democracy: The Vote-From-Home Revolution. Mt. Airy, MD: Lomond Publications, 1985. 4. Squires, James D. ¡Chantaje a la Prensa! La Comunicación en Manos de las Grandes Multinacionales. (English title: Read All About It! The Corporate Takeover of American Newspapers.) Barcelona: Editorial Prensa Ibérica, 1994. 5. Squires, James D. Horse of a Different Color. Advance reading copy. New York: Public Affairs, 2002. 6. Squires, James D. Horse of a Different Color. New York: Public Affairs, 2002. 7. Squires, James D. Horse of a Different Color. UK edition. London: Little, Brown, 2002. 8. Squires, James D. Read All About It! The Corporate Takeover of America’s Newspapers. Advance reading proofs. New York: Times Books, 1993. 9. Squires, James D. Read All About It! The Corporate Takeover of America’s Newspapers. Hardcover first edition. New York: Times Books, 1993. 10. Squires, James D. Read All About It! The Corporate Takeover of America’s Newspapers. First paperback edition. New York: Times Books, 1993.