The following story originally appeared on the W&M Libraries website. – Ed.

Former Washington Post journalist Paul Hendrickson has donated his professional papers to W&M Libraries. His collection chronicles his career as an award-winning author of eight books.

This summer, 36 boxes arrived from Haverford, Pennsylvania to William & Mary’s Special Collections Research Center, containing journals, files, interviews, and other materials from research Hendrickson conducted as a journalist and author. 

“In his papers, you can read the extensive research he did for his books,” said Jay Gaidmore, director of Special Collections. “His work covers so many topics, from Frank Lloyd Wright, Robert McNamara and Ernest Hemingway to race relations, Vietnam and Catholic seminary. It’s a rich collection and will be useful to both researchers and students.”

Among his eight books is the 2011 New York Times best seller and National Book Critics Circle Award finalist “Hemingway’s Boat: Everything He Loved in Life, and Lost.” In 2003, he won the National Book Critics Circle Award for “Sons of Mississippi: A Story of Race and Its Legacy.” His most recent book, “Fighting the Night,” was published in May 2024, and is an account of his father flying Black Widow night fighters in World War II.

He recently retired as a senior lecturer in the English department at the University of Pennsylvania.

While his books cover a wide range of topics, the thread that ties them together is the idea of legacy or what we pass down to the next generation. Now he’s reflecting on how he will pass down his own legacy.

He was searching for a place to house his archive of research. Henry Hart, Mildred and J.B. Hickman Professor of English & Humanities at William & Mary, introduced him to Gaidmore. Shortly thereafter, Gaidmore visited Hendrickson at his home in Haverford, Pennsylvania, to see his collection.

Hendrickson did not have a previous relationship with William & Mary, but Gaidmore convinced him that his papers belonged at the university.

“It comes down to the people, the people, the people,” Hendrickson said about his decision to donate his papers to William & Mary. “I met other people from other institutions, but (Jay Gaidmore) and I just had a connection.”

Recently, Hendrickson and his son, Matt, visited Swem Library and toured Special Collections. Gaidmore showed them where the papers would live in the closed stacks. They talked about the possible ways in which his papers would take on a life of their own over time.

“It warms my heart that my research might be a seedbed for future researchers to do deeper and better work,” Hendrickson said.

In the spring, Hendrickson will continue providing insights for students at William & Mary by collaborating with Assistant Teaching Professor of English Caitlin McGill in her creative writing course CRWR 372: Nonfiction.