Scope and Content Note
The papers of Rowland Evans (1921-2001) span the years 1924-2001, with the bulk of the material dating from 1940 to 2001. The collection contains correspondence, reporter’s notebooks, drafts, research and reference material, and other publishing material relating to Evans’s career as a journalist and author. Best known for his longtime partnership with Robert D. Novak, Evans joined with the former congressional correspondent for the Wall Street Journal in 1963 to write Inside Report, a nationally syndicated political column that from 1966 was published by the Chicago Sun Times. In addition to their newspaper column, Evans and Novak also hosted their own program of political commentary on Cable News Network and were frequent guests on other radio and television programs as well. The papers include drafts and copies of articles, transcripts and typescript notes of interviews, and television transcripts reflecting the mixed media outlets within which the journalists operated and the access to sources which made it possible. The collection is organized in the following series: Part I: Notebooks , Part I: Journalism File , Part I: Book File , Part I: Middle East File , Part I: Classified , Part II: Journalism File , Part II: Notebooks , Part II: Personal File , and Part II: Oversize.
The Part I: Notebooks and Part II: Notebooks contain the primary sources of Evans’s journalism, and he kept them continuously throughout his career. They include handwritten notes of conversations and personal interviews with a variety of public figures and administration officials and record Evans’s impressions of events that he either participated in or witnessed. Most of the notebooks are dated on the front cover and include short references to their contents.
The Part I: Journalism File includes correspondence, drafts, photocopies of articles, research material, and transcripts relating to Evans and Novak’s print journalism and television commentary, in particular their work as contributing editors for Part I: Reader’s Digest. Although Evans and Novak shared reportorial duties, Evans specialized in reporting on American foreign policy issues and national security affairs, and the articles submitted to Part I: Reader’s Digest reflect this division of interest. The series also includes photocopies of articles the team wrote for Inside Report, the widely syndicated newspaper column that first brought them to prominence, and contract documentation with various syndicators regarding the column’s publication. The guest lists for Inside Report’s twenty-fifth anniversary includes the names of notable politicians, journalists, and other public figures who represented a cross section of established Washington society within which the two reporters circulated.
The Part I: Journalism File includes transcripts from telecasts of “Evans-Novak Report,” a Metromedia-WTTG television program that includes interviews with many prominent political and international personalities, and a small file of material celebrating the fifteenth anniversary of their political discussion program, “Evans and Novak,” on CNN television. The series also contains correspondence, memoranda, legal briefs and records, and printed matter regarding the libel case against Evans and Novak brought by Bertell Ollman, who claimed to have been denied the chairmanship of the Department of Politics and Government at the University of Maryland at College Park as a result of their column alleging his intentions to promote Marxism in the classroom.
In addition to his published newspaper columns and television programs, Evans also co-authored several books of contemporary presidential analysis with Novak. The Part I: Book File contains correspondence, drafts, notes, and research material relating to the research and writing of Lyndon B. Johnson: The Exercise of Power, Nixon in the White House: The Frustration of Power, and The Reagan Revolution. The series also includes research for a proposed, but unpublished, book on Jimmy Carter’s presidency. Material of interest includes transcripts and handwritten and typescript notes of personal interviews conducted by Evans and Novak with a variety of administration officials that serve as source material for the study of late twentieth- century American politics as viewed through the office of the United States presidency. In addition to their access to inside sources, Evans and Novak also used official public documents and other printed matter for sources of information, as the research material collected by them in the series demonstrates.
The Part I: Middle East File was gathered and maintained by Evans as a reference and research file on Middle East and Israeli geopolitical issues and contains correspondence, memoranda, notes, statements and testimony, and printed matter. Reflective of the passions stirred by the many newspaper columns written by Evans and Novak on Middle East affairs are letters from the public, both pro and con, sent to the columnists in response to their articles. Among the topics represented in the series are extensive files surrounding the controversy over the Israeli air and sea attack in 1967 on the American intelligence ship Liberty during the Arab-Israeli Six-Day War and the subsequent diplomatic and press reactions to Israel’s official claim of mistaken identity. The Liberty files contain correspondence, reports, printed matter, and other items relating to the attack and its aftermath, including background material on the book Assault on the Liberty by James M. Ennes, a junior officer onboard the ship during the attack and a leading critic of the United States government’s official diplomatic response. The files include letters from survivors providing eyewitness accounts of the assault and in support of a full congressional investigation into the incident.
The Part II: Journalism File contains correspondence, drafts of writings, newspaper clippings, research material, and travel files from Evans’s time as a journalist with the New York Herald Tribune and as a columnist with Robert Novak. As an expert in American foreign policy, Evans traveled overseas frequently, visiting Vietnam and other Southeast Asian countries during the Vietnam War, the Soviet Union during the Cold War, and the Middle East. His travel files include itineraries, interviews, notes, and correspondence. Also included in this series are files relating to professional coverage and interactions with President John F. Kennedy, including notes, interviews, and speeches collected from Kennedy’s 1960 presidential campaign. Other material in this series includes newspaper clippings of Evans’s New York Herald Tribune column, drafts of articles, and research conducted by Evans on various topics.
The Part II: Personal File contains primarily correspondence collected by Evans. These include personal letters from family, friends, and notable political figures, as well as various letters of praise and criticism of Evans's reporting. Most notable of the political figures is John F. Kennedy and his family, whom Evans befriended while reporting on the Senate and later the 1960 presidential election. Included in Evans's files are letters and personal notes from John F. and Robert F. Kennedy, including a note from John on the eve of his election stating “I must say if I lose I will have no feeling that I could have done more.” Other items include details of a dinner party hosted with John F. Kennedy soon after his inauguration, and thank-you letters from the Kennedy family following John and Robert’s assassination. Other material in Part II: Personal File includes drafts of Evans’s memoir and travel files from speaking engagements.