Boomhower, Ray E. 1959-

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Boomhower, Ray E. 1959-

PERSONAL:

Born 1959.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Indiana Historical Society, 450 W. Ohio St., Indianapolis, IN 46202. E-mail—[email protected]; [email protected].

CAREER:

Historian. Indiana Historical Society, managing editor of Traces of Indiana and Midwestern History, 1999—. Serves on the board of directors of the Indiana Journalism Hall of Fame.

MEMBER:

Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators.

WRITINGS:

NONFICTION

Jacob Piatt Dunn, Jr.: A Life in History and Politics, 1855-1924, Indiana Historical Society (Indianapolis, IN), 1997.

The Country Contributor: The Life and Times of Juliet V. Strauss, Guild Press of Indiana (Carmel, IN), 1998.

Destination Indiana: Travels through Hoosier History, photographs by Darryl Jones, Indiana Historical Society (Indianapolis, IN), 2000.

But I Do Clamor: May Wright Sewall, a Life, 1844-1920, Guild Press of Indiana (Zionsville, IN), 2001.

One Shot: The World War II Photography of John A. Bushemi, Indiana Historical Society Press (Indianapolis, IN), 2004.

(Editor, with others) Gus Grissom: The Lost Astronaut, Indiana Historical Society Press (Indianapolis, IN), 2004.

(Editor) Indiana Sporting Life: Selections from "Traces of Indiana and Midwestern History," Indiana Historical Society Press (Indianapolis, IN), 2005.

The Sword and the Pen: A Life of Lew Wallace (young adult), Indiana Historical Society Press (Indianapolis, IN), 2005.

The Soldier's Friend: A Life of Ernie Pyle (young adult), Indiana Historical Society Press (Indianapolis, IN), 2006.

Fighting for Equality: A Life of May Wright Sewall, Indiana Historical Society Press (Indianapolis, IN), 2007.

Contributor to periodicals, including Indiana Magazine of History, Traces, and Michigan History.

SIDELIGHTS:

Ray E. Boomhower is a historian whose primary interest is the State of Indiana and those people from the Hoosier State who have gone on to become well known to the rest of the world. His biography One Shot: The World War II Photography of John A. Bushemi profiles the talented photojournalist who was hired by Yank, a magazine for enlisted men, during World War II. Bushemi covered the combat in the Solomon Islands and Marshall Islands where he died, a casualty of war. The book contains many of Bushemi's photographs.

Gus Grissom: The Lost Astronaut, for which Boomhower is coeditor, is the biography of one of the original Mercury astronauts, a man born in a small Indiana town and who went on to serve as a pilot during the Korean conflict before becoming a pioneer in the space program. Grissom died while participating in the 1967 Apollo mission training, in the fire that destroyed the defective craft. Booklist contributor Roland Green described this volume as a "solid biography."

The Soldier's Friend: A Life of Ernie Pyle is Boomhower's biography for younger readers of the newsman who was awarded a Pulitzer Prize in 1944 for his outstanding reportage of World War II. Pyle, who died while covering the conflict, was a talented journalist who was able to convey the drama of war as it was experienced by the combat soldiers who fought it, but he was also a man with personal demons, including both alcohol and depression. The book contains both Pyle's own words and vintage black-and-white photographs. A Children's Bookwatch contributor called the biography an "absorbing life story."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, May 15, 2004, Ray Olson, review of One Shot: The World War II Photography of John A. Bushemi, p. 1593; September 15, 2004, Roland Green, review of Gus Grissom: The Lost Astronaut, p. 187.

Children's Bookwatch, February, 2007, review of The Soldier's Friend: A Life of Ernie Pyle.

Kirkus Reviews, October 1, 2006, review of The Soldier's Friend, p. 1010.