Harold T. P. Hayes Papers

MS596

Harold Hayes, a 1948 graduate of Wake Forest College, is perhaps best known for his role as editor of Esquire magazine (1963 to 1973). He later authored two books on ecological issues and worked on several television projects. In 1987, Hayes wrote an article on Dian Fossey for Life magazine, which was the basis for the 1988 film  Gorillas in the Mist. He had nearly completed an expanded version of the article when he died of cancer at age 62. This collection consists of Harold Hayes's personal papers and other materials dating from his high school and college years through the posthumous publication of his last book. There is considerable material on Hayes's work at  Esquiremagazine, both in the  Esquire series and in the personal correspondence. Post- Esqire projects are also well-documented, particulary Hayes's book projects, his editorship of  California magazine, and his brief tenure with the CBS news program 20/20. The Dian Fossey series contains extensive material on Fossey's life and work, including many interviews with her friends and associates.

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Biographical and Historical Note

Harold Thomas Pace Hayes was born April 18, 1926 in Elkin, North Carolina. He was the second of three children of the Rev. James Madison Hayes, Sr., a Baptist minister, and his wife Aline Pace Hayes. The family lived in Beckley, West Virginia for much of Harold's childhood, then moved to Winston-Salem, North Carolina when he was 11 years old. Hayes graduated from Reynolds High School in Winston-Salem and went on to what was then Wake Forest College. He received a B.A. from Wake Forest in 1948 and then attended Wake Forest's law school for an additional year, mostly so that he could continue to edit the college's student literary magazine, The Student.

Hayes worked briefly for the Atlanta bureau of the United Press, then enlisted in the Marines in 1950. He did not see active duty, and after his discharge Hayes went to New York to pursue a career in journalism. Arnold Gingrich, publisher of Esquire, hired Hayes as his assistant in 1956. He was promoted to managing editor in 1960, and to editor in 1963.

During Hayes's editorshipEsquire magazine was on the forefront of the 1960s New Journalism. Contributors like Tom Wolfe, Gay Talese, Susan Sontag, Norman Mailer, Gore Vidal, Nora Ephron, and many others captured the essence of the turbulent decade in the magazine's pages. Hayes's frequent collaborations with George Lois made  Esquire's design as cutting-edge as its content.

Hayes left Esquire in 1974 after a dispute with the publishers. He worked as a freelance consultant and writer and pursued his growing interest in ecology and African conservation. He authored two books on ecological issues, worked on several television projects, and served as editor of  California magazine. In 1987 Hayes wrote an article on Dian Fossey for  Life magazine, which was the basis for the 1988 film  Gorillas in the Mist. He had nearly completed an expanded version of the article when he died of cancer at age 62.  The Dark Romance of Dian Fossey was published shortly after Hayes's death in 1989. He was survived by his second wife, Judy Kessler, and two children, Thomas and Carrie, from his first marriage to Susan Meredith Hayes.

Collection Overview

The collection consists of Harold Hayes's personal papers and other materials dating from his high school and college years through the posthumous publication of his last book. There is considerable material on Hayes's work at Esquiremagazine, both in the  Esquire series and in the personal correspondence. Post- Esqire projects are also well-documented, particulary Hayes's book projects, his editorship of  California magazine, and his brief tenure with the CBS news program 20/20. The Dian Fossey series contains extensive material on Fossey's life and work, including many interviews with her friends and associates. The collection also includes various forms of multimedia such as VHS tapes and audiocassettes, as well as photographs of Hayes, his family, and his travels.

Collection Arrangement

The collection is divided into 26 series. The first contains general biographical information about Hayes, and the next 4 relate to aspects of his personal life, such as his education, his early career, and his family. The next series, Personal correspondence, is arranged chronologically by year and contains letters written to and from Hayes. The following 12 series contain materials related to various facets of Hayes's career, including his involvement with editing, television, and writing. The next series deals with Hayes's work on the Dian Fossey project, including research materials, interviews, and drafts. The following three series consist of different formats (as opposed to written materials): Photographs, Notebooks and diaries, and Audio and video. The WFU Harold Hayes Event series contains materials regarding an event celebrating Hayes's life and the donation of his papers to ZSR Library, held at Wake Forest's campus in 1994. Finally, Uncategorized Printed Materials consists of any items that do not neatly fit into the above series, and oversize materials are housed in an oversize box.

Controlled Access Headings

Personal Names

Subjects

Administrative Information

Publication Information
Processed by Megan Mulder, 2012
Revision Description
Updated by Kristin Weisse, Stephanie Bennett, 2014, 2023
Access Restrictions
This collection is open for use. 
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
Harold T. P. Hayes Papers (MS596), Z. Smith Reynolds Library Special Collections and Archives, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC, USA. 

Collection Inventory

  • Personal
  • Education and early career (1926-1960)
    • Wake Forest College, Wake Forest, N.C. (1943-1949)
      • The Student- The Wake Forest College Magazine  (April 1947- February 1948) Box 81
  • Early writings (1946-1960)
  • U.S. Marine Corps Service (1949-1982)
  • Hayes Family (1930-1987)
    • Hayes, James M., Sr. (HH's father) Box 2 Folder 11
  • Personal correspondence (1942-1989)
    • 1943
    • 1946
    • 1947
    • 1948
    • 1949
    • 1950
    • 1951
    • 1953
    • 1954
    • 1957
    • 1958
    • 1959 Box 2
    • 1960
    • 1961
    • 1962
    • 1963
    • 1964
    • 1965
    • 1966
    • 1967
    • 1968
    • 1969
    • 1970
    • 1971
    • 1972
    • 1973
    • 1974
    • 1975
    • 1976
    • 1977
    • 1978
    • 1979
    • 1980
    • 1981
    • 1982
    • 1983
    • 1984
    • 1985
    • 1986
    • 1987
    • 1988
    • 1989
    • Undated letters (1940-1959)
  • Esquire Magazine (1957-1973)
    • Correspondence and individual files
    • Esquire special issues
    • Harold Hayes
    • Buckley v. Esquire legal proceedings (1969-1974) Box 5
  • "Making of a Modern Magazine" materials (1966-1983)The files include contracts, proposals and outlines, correspondence with Joseph Fox and others, drafts of various sections and chapters, and other materials, much of it culled from Hayes's Esquire files.
  • Speeches (circa 1960-1980)
  • Consulting (circa 1960 - 1984)
  • Articles (1971-1983)
    • Rejected articles
      • The Invisible Ear (Beethoven's deafness) (1983)
    • Unpublished articles  (1973-1975)
  • Editorships (post-Esquire)
  • Book and magazine proposals
    • Ark Magazine (1980-1981)
  • Television proposals (1965-1980)
    • 1968 [The Late Great 1968] (1973-1975)Described in proposal as "A non-fiction entertainment on the humors and disasters of the most important year in the second half of the twentieth century," this 100-minute film was to be narrated by George Carlin and to feature many Esquire stalwarts as commentators. Hayes contracted with ABC to air the film as a 90-minute special titled  This is the Year 1968. It eventually aired as "The Late Great 1968" with narrator Henry Gibson in 1976(?).
    • The Last Hour of the Billionth Year: A Television Series of seven one-hour programs on environment (1976-1980)
  • The Last Place on Earth (book) (1973-1981)Expanded version of Hayes's 1976 New Yorker article; published by Stein and Day in 1977 and reprinted in 1980.
  • Last Place on Earth research filesResearch materials for the New Yorker article and expanded book version. Subject files preserve Hayes's original arrangement and folder titles.
  • "Round Table" television program materials (1974-1975)
    • Episodes on VHS and DVD Roundtable DVDs have been digitized and are available for research purposes upon request.
  • "20/20" television program materials (1978)
    • Watley's World: A Musical Farce (1978-1979)Notes and draft of a script apparently based on Hayes's experiences with 20/20 at ABC.
  • California Magazine (1983-1988)
    • Alan Bennett memos and correspondence Box 12
    • Budget
  • Three Levels of Time book materials (1981)
  • Dian Fossey projects
    • Dian Fossey research materialsNo Subnote Content
      • Biographical filesIncludes Hayes's notes, clippings, and photocopies of Dian Fossey's personal correspondence with a variety of people (including Alan and Joan Root and Louis Leakey); arranged chronologically. The file structure preserves Hayes's original arrangement.
      • InterviewsThese files contain materials relating to interviews conducted by Hayes during his research process, mostly in 1986 and 1987. Unless otherwise indicated, the files contain Hayes's notes and/or transcripts of the interviews. Some files also contain photocopies of correspondence, articles and clippings, and other materials relating to the interview subjects. Some of the interviews correspond to cassette tapes in the Audio series.
      • Notebooks Box 1816 numbered, bound notebooks with chronologies, notes, and drafts of Dian Fossey book. Item titles are first lines of Hayes's cover labels.
      • Correspondence (1986-1989) Box 19Mostly correspondence between Hayes and various interview subjects.
      • Magazines
      • Other research materials
      • Declassified State Department documents  (1971-1988)
    • Life magazine articleHayes wrote an article forLife magazine (November 1986) titled  'The Dark Romance of Dian Fossey: Caring for Gorillas More than People was Fatal.' This article was the basis for the movie  Gorillas in the Mist and was expanded by Hayes into the book version of T he Dark Romance of Dian Fossey.
    • "Gorillas in the Mist" (film)
    • Dark Romance of Dian Fossey (book) Box 53 Folder 8
      • Notes and drafts
  • Photographs
    • Childhood, Family, and Friends Box 78 Folder 1
    • Harold Hayes Box 81 Folder 2
    • Dian Fossey
    • Photo Slides
    • Other
  • Notebooks and diaries
  • Audio and video
    • Dian Fossey interview cassette tapesCassette tapes, listed individually. Titles and dates are from Hayes's labels. Some tapes correspond to transcriptions in Dian Fossey series.
    • Other cassette tapes
    • Videotapes (VHS)
    • Other Dian Fossey cassette tapes  (1973-1989)Cassette tapes relating to Dian Fossey research. Includes interviews with Fossey from other sources, academic conferences and symposia, and Fossey's memorial service.
    • Recording Tapes, DVD's, Records
  • WFU event, "A Celebration of the Life and Works of Harold T.P. Hayes," materials (1991-1992)
  • Oversize Materials