Lamont, Lansing Papers

Author, Day of Trinity

The papers of Lansing Lamont consist of correspondence, drafts with handwritten notes, interview notes and transcripts, memos, newspaper clippings, photographs, press releases, printed materials, reports, and sound recordings related to his book about the dropping of the atomic bomb, entitled Day of Trinity.

Size: 1 linear feet, 9 linear inches.
Access: Open.
Copyright: Records created by employees of the U.S. Government as part of their official duties are in the public domain.
Processed by: Harry Clark (1969); David Clark (2023).

[ Top of the page | Administrative Information | Biographical Note | Collection Description | Series Descriptions | Folder Title List ]

Lansing Lamont was born on March 13, 1930, in New York City. He graduated from Milton Academy in 1948, from Harvard College (A.B.) in 1952, and from the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism (M.S.) in 1958. Lamont served in U.S. Army Infantry. He was a reporter for the Washington Star (1958-1959), a Congressional correspondent for the Worcester Evening Gazette (1959-1960), and a Washington and foreign correspondent for Time magazine (1961-1975). He was the author of Day of Trinity (1965), the best-selling narrative history of the first atomic bomb test. Lamont died on September 3, 2013, in New York City.

[ Top of the page | Administrative Information | Biographical Note | Collection Description | Series Descriptions | Folder Title List ]

The papers of Lansing Lamont consist of correspondence, drafts with handwritten notes, interview notes and transcripts, memos, newspaper clippings, photographs, press releases, printed materials, reports, and sound recordings related to his book about the dropping of the atomic bomb, entitled Day of Trinity.

The correspondence includes letters to individuals including Vannevar Bush, Leslie Groves, J. Robert Oppenheimer, and Edward Teller. Interviews were conducted with individuals including military personnel, Sandia Corporation employees and the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory staff. Leslie Groves was also interviewed for the book. The series also includes a first draft, second draft and final draft of the book, each with handwritten notes. The research notes contain typed information from the handwritten research notebooks. The memos, newspaper clippings, press releases, printed materials and reports were used as research material for writing the book. The photographs and sound recordings have been transferred to the audiovisual collection.

Related collections include the G. Gordon Arneson Papers, Atomic Bomb Collection, John Coster-Mullen Papers, and President’s Secretary’s Files.