Curtis Bill Pepper
Encyclopedia
Curtis Bill Pepper an American journalist and author, was Newsweek
’s Mediterranean bureau chief in Rome from 1957 to 1969. He also worked for Edward R. Murrow at the Rome bureau of CBS
, covered the Vatican for United Press
, and wrote seven books. The latest work, Leonardo – a biographical novel of Leonardo da Vinci – was conceived in the years following his studies of the Italian Renaissance at the University of Florence
.
. After a boyhood in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Champagne, Illinois, he entered the University of Illinois, majoring in art and architecture while writing for the student newspaper, The Daily Illini. During the summer vacation of his second year, he handled the city-desk phones for the New York Post
, followed by front-page reports to the New York World -Telegram
while cycling through Europe. Upon his return, he worked for the paper’s cultural desk, interviewing stage and screen celebrities, until leaving to edit the Palm Springs News in California.
During World War II, he joined MIS-X, a specialized branch of military intelligence dealing with combat deception, escape and evasion, and edited the MIS-X manual for the U.S. Army, while also lecturing on this subject at military and air corps bases throughout the U.S.
Assigned to the Italian theater, he joined A-Force, a field unit of MIS-X on the 5th Army front – covertly setting up “rat lines” behind the German lines to bring back downed pilots and escaped prisoners of war. From there, he was assigned to MI-9, an escape and evasion command in the British 8th Army, where he was twice cited in dispatches. From the U.S. Army, he received a Bronze Star for wartime services.
After V-E Day, he remained in Italy to command a field unit investigating 143 alleged war crimes against U.S. Army and Air Corps personnel. Eventually retiring with rank of a major, he returned to Italy to study the Italian Renaissance at the University of Florence, and write a first, unpublished novel. At the same time, he free-lanced magazine articles and film scripts.
In 1951, he joined the Rome bureau of the United Press, and three years later moved to CBS with special reporting for Edward R. Murrow. In 1956, as chief of bureau for Newsweek he produced cover stories on Italy’s political leaders, film stars and directors, the death and election of three popes, the theology of Vatican Council II, profiles of kings, presidents and dictators in Jordan, Greece, Israel, Egypt, Tunisia, Spain and Yugoslavia.
Following the success of his first book, The Pope’s Backyard, (Farrar Strauss, 1966), he left Newsweek to write his second work, An Artist and the Pope -- (Grosset & Dunlap, 1968) -- the story of a remarkable friendship between Pope John XXIII
and the Marxist sculptor, Giacomo Manzu
’. After sculpting new doors for St. Peter’s Basilica, Manzu’ did a bronze portrait of Pope John and, eventually, the death mask of his beloved friend, with a cast of the hands that had written Pacem in Terris. A Book of the Month and Catholic Book Club choice, it was condensed with a double cover in Life
, and published in seven foreign editions.
The third book, Christiaan Barnard: One Life (Macmillan, 1969) – his a scripted autobiography of the South African surgeon, culminating in the first human-to-human heart transplant, was a main selection of the Literary Guild and the Reader’s Digest Book Club with ten foreign editions. The novel Marco (Rawson Associates, 1977) prefigured the Karen Quinlan-Terry Schiavano cases, was a Book of the Month Club Alternate. A fifth work, Kidnapped! (Harmony Books, 1978), focused on the kidnapping industry in Italy through seventeen days of terror experienced by Paolo Lazzaroni, millionaire son of Italy’s “Biscuit King.”
A sixth book, We The Victors (Doubleday, 1984) emerged from a four-year study of 100 people who survived cancer, the critical survival factors, and how this altered their lives. Serialized in the U.S. and abroad, the book was initially featured on the cover of the New York Times Sunday Magazine.
His recent biographical novel, Leonardo (Alan C. Hood & Co., 2012), explores the life and work of Leonardo da Vinci
, the formation of his universal mind, and development of his art as he the emerged from a traumatic childhood – bastard son of a Circassian slave unwanted by his father, yet nurtured by the love of Albi his young stepmother who appears in his evolving portrayals of the Virgin Mary, culminating in a pregnant Mona Lisa
.
Pepper is married to Beverly Pepper
, the sculptor. They have two children: Jorie Graham
, the poet, and John Pepper, photographer and director of theater and film.He divides his time between Umbria in Italy and New York City.
Newsweek
Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...
’s Mediterranean bureau chief in Rome from 1957 to 1969. He also worked for Edward R. Murrow at the Rome bureau of CBS
CBS News
CBS News is the news division of American television and radio network CBS. The current chairman is Jeff Fager who is also the executive producer of 60 Minutes, while the current president of CBS News is David Rhodes. CBS News' flagship program is the CBS Evening News, hosted by the network's main...
, covered the Vatican for United Press
United Press International
United Press International is a once-major international news agency, whose newswires, photo, news film and audio services provided news material to thousands of newspapers, magazines and radio and television stations for most of the twentieth century...
, and wrote seven books. The latest work, Leonardo – a biographical novel of Leonardo da Vinci – was conceived in the years following his studies of the Italian Renaissance at the University of Florence
University of Florence
The University of Florence is a higher study institute in Florence, central Italy. One of the largest and oldest universities in the country, it consists of 12 faculties...
.
Biography
Pepper was born Curtis G. Pepper II (aka Curtis Bill Pepper) in Huntington, West VirginiaHuntington, West Virginia
Huntington is a city in Cabell and Wayne counties in the U.S. state of West Virginia, along the Ohio River. Most of the city is in Cabell County, for which it is the county seat. A small portion of the city, mainly the neighborhood of Westmoreland, is in Wayne County. Its population was 49,138 at...
. After a boyhood in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Champagne, Illinois, he entered the University of Illinois, majoring in art and architecture while writing for the student newspaper, The Daily Illini. During the summer vacation of his second year, he handled the city-desk phones for the New York Post
New York Post
The New York Post is the 13th-oldest newspaper published in the United States and is generally acknowledged as the oldest to have been published continuously as a daily, although – as is the case with most other papers – its publication has been periodically interrupted by labor actions...
, followed by front-page reports to the New York World -Telegram
New York World-Telegram
The New York World-Telegram, later known as the New York World-Telegram and Sun, was a New York City newspaper from 1931 to 1966.-History:...
while cycling through Europe. Upon his return, he worked for the paper’s cultural desk, interviewing stage and screen celebrities, until leaving to edit the Palm Springs News in California.
During World War II, he joined MIS-X, a specialized branch of military intelligence dealing with combat deception, escape and evasion, and edited the MIS-X manual for the U.S. Army, while also lecturing on this subject at military and air corps bases throughout the U.S.
Assigned to the Italian theater, he joined A-Force, a field unit of MIS-X on the 5th Army front – covertly setting up “rat lines” behind the German lines to bring back downed pilots and escaped prisoners of war. From there, he was assigned to MI-9, an escape and evasion command in the British 8th Army, where he was twice cited in dispatches. From the U.S. Army, he received a Bronze Star for wartime services.
After V-E Day, he remained in Italy to command a field unit investigating 143 alleged war crimes against U.S. Army and Air Corps personnel. Eventually retiring with rank of a major, he returned to Italy to study the Italian Renaissance at the University of Florence, and write a first, unpublished novel. At the same time, he free-lanced magazine articles and film scripts.
In 1951, he joined the Rome bureau of the United Press, and three years later moved to CBS with special reporting for Edward R. Murrow. In 1956, as chief of bureau for Newsweek he produced cover stories on Italy’s political leaders, film stars and directors, the death and election of three popes, the theology of Vatican Council II, profiles of kings, presidents and dictators in Jordan, Greece, Israel, Egypt, Tunisia, Spain and Yugoslavia.
Following the success of his first book, The Pope’s Backyard, (Farrar Strauss, 1966), he left Newsweek to write his second work, An Artist and the Pope -- (Grosset & Dunlap, 1968) -- the story of a remarkable friendship between Pope John XXIII
Pope John XXIII
-Papal election:Following the death of Pope Pius XII in 1958, Roncalli was elected Pope, to his great surprise. He had even arrived in the Vatican with a return train ticket to Venice. Many had considered Giovanni Battista Montini, Archbishop of Milan, a possible candidate, but, although archbishop...
and the Marxist sculptor, Giacomo Manzu
Giacomo Manzù
Giacomo Manzù, pseudonym of Giacomo Manzoni , was an Italian sculptor, communist, and Roman Catholic.-Biography:...
’. After sculpting new doors for St. Peter’s Basilica, Manzu’ did a bronze portrait of Pope John and, eventually, the death mask of his beloved friend, with a cast of the hands that had written Pacem in Terris. A Book of the Month and Catholic Book Club choice, it was condensed with a double cover in Life
Life (magazine)
Life generally refers to three American magazines:*A humor and general interest magazine published from 1883 to 1936. Time founder Henry Luce bought the magazine in 1936 solely so that he could acquire the rights to its name....
, and published in seven foreign editions.
The third book, Christiaan Barnard: One Life (Macmillan, 1969) – his a scripted autobiography of the South African surgeon, culminating in the first human-to-human heart transplant, was a main selection of the Literary Guild and the Reader’s Digest Book Club with ten foreign editions. The novel Marco (Rawson Associates, 1977) prefigured the Karen Quinlan-Terry Schiavano cases, was a Book of the Month Club Alternate. A fifth work, Kidnapped! (Harmony Books, 1978), focused on the kidnapping industry in Italy through seventeen days of terror experienced by Paolo Lazzaroni, millionaire son of Italy’s “Biscuit King.”
A sixth book, We The Victors (Doubleday, 1984) emerged from a four-year study of 100 people who survived cancer, the critical survival factors, and how this altered their lives. Serialized in the U.S. and abroad, the book was initially featured on the cover of the New York Times Sunday Magazine.
His recent biographical novel, Leonardo (Alan C. Hood & Co., 2012), explores the life and work of Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was an Italian Renaissance polymath: painter, sculptor, architect, musician, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist and writer whose genius, perhaps more than that of any other figure, epitomized the Renaissance...
, the formation of his universal mind, and development of his art as he the emerged from a traumatic childhood – bastard son of a Circassian slave unwanted by his father, yet nurtured by the love of Albi his young stepmother who appears in his evolving portrayals of the Virgin Mary, culminating in a pregnant Mona Lisa
Mona Lisa
Mona Lisa is a portrait by the Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci. It is a painting in oil on a poplar panel, completed circa 1503–1519...
.
Pepper is married to Beverly Pepper
Beverly Pepper
Beverly Pepper is a pioneering sculptor known for her monumental works,site specific and land art. She remains independent from any particular art movement.- Early Life and Education :...
, the sculptor. They have two children: Jorie Graham
Jorie Graham
Jorie Graham is an American poet. The U.S. Poetry Foundation suggests "She is perhaps the most celebrated poet of the American post-war generation". She replaced poet Seamus Heaney as Boylston Professor at Harvard, becoming the first woman to be appointed to this position...
, the poet, and John Pepper, photographer and director of theater and film.He divides his time between Umbria in Italy and New York City.
Books
- The Popes Backyard—Farrar Strauss & Giroux, 1966 (LCC 66-14151)
- An Artist and the Pope—Grosset & Dunlap, 1968 (LCC 68-29308)
- Christiaan Barnard: One Life—George G. Harrap, 1970, (SBN 245 59952 5)
- Marco – Rawson Associates, 1977, (ISBN 0-89256-027-4)
- We the Victors – Doubleday, 1984 (ISBN 0-385-19122-7)
- Leonardo – Alan C. Hood, 2012 (ISBN 978-0-911469-36-3)