Pyle was ‘the most famous student’

Before coming to Bloomington in September 1919, Ernie Pyle had never been outside Indiana and Illinois.

Four years later, he had become a world traveler during his time at IU.

“Pyle blossomed as an individual while at IU,” said Ernie Pyle historian Owen Johnson, associate professor of journalism. “His perspectives from Dana (Ind.) were limited. IU opened his eyes to the world, bigger ideas and ways of getting along with people.”

Johnson’s collection of unpublished letters, written by Pyle during his college days at IU, was published in the September issue of the Indiana Magazine of History.

The collection, titled “‘It’s In The Air’ Ernie Pyle’s IU Letters,’” provides insight into college life in Bloomington in the early 20th century.

“The letters give a wonderful taste of his life here,” Johnson said. “IU became a university that is much broader in outlook. For me, these letters wrap up how great an experience this was for him.”

The letters come from two collections from the Lilly Library and the Indiana State Museum in Dana, Ind.

Pyle writes about coming to IU, joining a fraternity, attending campus events and working for the Indiana Daily Student.

“The second semester starts on Monday,” Pyle said in a letter to his aunt on Jan. 6, 1922. “I haven’t been able to get much news for the ‘(Indiana Daily) Student’ this week as campus activities have not yet gotten back into full swing. From now on though, I expect news will be more abundant. I am working in my spare time on a bulletin, which the fraternity is putting out the first of February.” 

While the publication of the letters in the Indiana Magazine of History happened in the same month as the IU School of Journalism’s Centennial Celebration, Johnson said it was purely coincidental, as he sent the letters over a year ago.

“The brief description identifies Pyle as the most famous student, and because the letters are of his days at IU, it couldn’t be more timely,” Johnson said.

The letters appeal to all IU students and alumni, Johnson said.

“It does tell us what it was like to be a student at the time, and today’s students and living alumni can see what is the same and what has changed at IU,” he said.

In addition to being an influential student in his own right, Pyle was a classmate of former IU President Herman B Wells.

The publication of this collection sheds light on the University as a whole during the early part of the century, said James Capshew, associate professor in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science, who has studied the University for a biography of Wells he wrote.

“He was around with Herman so they shared some of the same undergraduate experiences,” he said. “It is a great thing to have more information. Pyle was a very well-known journalist. Wells gave him an honorary degree in 1944, a year before Pyle died.”

At a dinner before the world premiere of the movie “The Story of G.I. Joe,” Wells said IU helped ready Pyle for his career as a journalist.

“We feel that his years at Indiana prepared him for his active newspaper career, which reached climax of acclaim and of tragedy,” he said.

In his editorial, titled “It’s in the Air” and published in the IDS in 1922, Pyle writes about the beauty of IU.

“Nearly everyone who has ever attended Indiana University will tell you there is no place in the world like Indiana,” Pyle said. “They sometimes attempt to explain that statement but they cannot ... Ex-students recognize the value of all these things, recognize their argumentative value ... These are the feelings of those who have been here and have left. Perhaps it is foolish and sentimental, but they will affirm it is the truth.”