Reporting from the Devil's Cauldron : the wartime Associated Press dispatches of Don Whitehead

This thesis examines the work of Donald Ford Whitehead, an Associated Press correspondent who won two Pulitzer Prizes for reporting during the Korean War. The thesis presents 21 selected articles written during World War II and the Korean War. These articles are considered by the author to be among the best examples of Whitehead's wartime writings. Furthermore, the thesis presents a biography of Whitehead and examines his influence on literary journalism. It is argued that Whitehead and other war-era journalists paved the way for the later New Journalists by providing them with examples of how to incorporate fiction-writing techniques with traditional news reporting. Much of the source material for this thesis was drawn from Whitehead's papers which were donated to the University of Tennessee Special Collections Library. Other sources included articles by Whitehead and interviews with those who knew him.