Bynum Shaw Papers
Bynum Shaw was a Wake Forest professor of journalism and an alumnus of the institution. Before becoming a professor, he was a journalist for The Baltimore Sun and worked in Germany, reporting on life in Soviet Russia. This collection includes drafts and final copies of many of his articles, books, and screenplays, as well as some of his personal and professional correspondence.
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Summary Information
- Repository
- Z. Smith Reynolds Library Special Collections and Archives
- Title
- Bynum Shaw Papers
- Date
- 1944-2000, undated (inclusive)
- Extent
- 12.08 linear feet / 23 document boxes, 1 pamphlet box, 1 oversize box
- ID
- MS397
Biographical and Historical Note
Bynum Shaw, a North Carolina native, was an alumnus of Wake Forest College (class of 1948). He began school in 1940, but left during World War II to enlist in the Merchant Marine.
Upon graduation, he began his career as a journalist at The Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk, VA, where he remained until 1951, at which point he moved to Maryland and began a 15 year long career at The Baltimore Sun. While his early reporting at the Sun primarily covered domestic political issues, he later served as a foreign correspondent at the paper's bureau in Bonn, Germany in the early 1960s, frequently crossing into Eastern Europe and providing some of the earliest reports on life in the Soviet Union.
In 1965, Shaw returned to Wake Forest as a lecturer in journalism and later became a professor. While at Wake Forest, he continued his work as a journalist, publishing editorials in The Baltimore Sun and longer articles in publications such as Esquire.
Over the course of his life, Shaw also authored eight books. Two of his novels, The Sound of Small Hammers (1962) and The Nazi Hunter (1968), were set in Germany and were strongly influenced by his time spent abroad. His third novel, Days of Power, Nights of Fear (1980), set in McCarthy-era D.C. was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. Shaw also wrote two other novels, O, Promised Land (1992) and The Junkman Cometh (1995).
In addition to his work as a novelist, Shaw also published three historical works, including the fourth volume of The History of Wake Forest College, 1943-1967 (1988) and Divided We Stand: The Baptists in American Life (1974). He also co-authored W.W. Holden: a Political Biography (1982) with E.E. Folk, his mentor and his predecessor as the head of Wake Forest's journalism program.
Sources: Ancestry.com board. "Bynum Gillette Shaw." 2001 August 30, https://www.ancestry.com/boards/localities.northam.usa.states.northcarolina.counties.forsyth/1691/mb.ashx.
Haner, Jim. "Bynum G. Shaw, 78, writer, newsman and professor." The Baltimore Sun 2001 2 September. http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2001-09-02/news/0109020029_1_shaw-sun-forest-university
Meyer, Martin. "Cold War Germany in Bynum Shaw's Novels." Explorations and Extrapolations: Applying English and American Studies. Ed. Uwe Küchler. Berlin: LIT Verlag Münster, 2011. 137-156.
Collection Overview
This collection primarily consists of various drafts and final copies of Shaw's writings, including newspaper and magazine articles, editorials, novels, and screenplays, as well as some personal and professional correspondence. The collection also includes reports on the history of different departments and offices at Wake Forest, written by professors from that department or persons serving in that office, which Shaw compiled and edited for the fourth volume of The History of Wake Forest College (1943-1967), which he published in 1988.
Collection Arrangement
This collection has been minimally arranged and described.
Administrative Information
- Publication Information
- Finding aid prepared by Processed by Faith Geraghty, 2018 January
- Access Restrictions
- Collection is open for researchers.
- Copyright Notice
- The nature of the WFU Z. Smith Reynolds Library Special Collections and Archives means that copyright or other information about restrictions may be difficult or even impossible to determine despite reasonable efforts. The Archives and Special Collections of ZSR Library claims only physical ownership of most materials. The materials from our collections are made available for use in research, teaching, and private study, pursuant to the U.S. Copyright Law. The user must assume full responsibility for any use of the materials, including but not limited to, infringement of copyright and publication rights of reproduced materials. Any materials used for academic research or otherwise should be fully credited with the source.
- Preferred Citation
- Bynum Shaw Papers (MS397), Z. Smith Reynolds Library Special Collections and Archives, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC, USA.