Frank Walker worked on his memoirs from 1949 until 1957. In 1951 he enlisted the aid of Paul K. Hennessy, a lawyer and fellow native of Butte, Montana, who had served as an attorney for several New Deal agencies. There is very little correspondence between Hennessy and Walker about the memoirs. The chronology of events presented here is based on the date and content of the many notes, transcripts, and drafts that are filed in this series. There are a few memoranda in which Hennessy outlines his proposals for the memoirs or presents the results of his research to Walker, but most of their work must have been done face to face.
Hennessy's first step, when he began work in 1951, was to compile a collection of short drafts, which Walker had written between 1949 and 1951, on topics relating to his work with Franklin Roosevelt from their first meeting in 1920 to the 1944 Democratic Convention. This compilation, filed in box 122 folder 18, served as the basis for three taping sessions in August of 1951, made at Coonamessett, Massachusetts, in which Walker recorded his recollections of his early career in Montana and his work with the New Deal. Hennessy then spent the rest of 1951 editing the transcripts (box 122 folders 23-25) from the tapes and submitting his work to Walker with questions.
The next step was another series of taping session, this time made in Delray Beach, Florida in March of 1952. This set of recollections covered much the same ground as the first but this time in much more detail, although there was very little order to the way in which Walker told his story. Transcripts were made of these tapes (box 122 folders 32-36), but Walker did not preserve the actual tapes. In the course of editing the transcripts from the Delray Beach recordings, Hennessy prepared short drafts on specific topics, such as the 1940 campaign, and submitted them to Walker with questions. This work took up most of 1952. Later in the year another set of tapes and direct dictations, much less extensive than the first two sets, were made at Coonamesset (box 122 folder 50).
In early 1953 Hennessy completed a draft of Walker's memoirs, which he labeled the "First Final Draft" (box 123 folders 3-8). In his correspondence with Walker, Hennessy offers an outline of the sections, which he called articles, that were to be included in the finished memoirs. Based on this outline only three of the proposed four sections were completed for the "First Final Draft," including articles on the Executive Council (which became the National Emergency Council), the 1932 convention and first inauguration, and Walker's early years with Roosevelt. A fourth section on Walkers family and his days in Butte was not completed as part of this draft. Hennessy held out the possibility that he and Walker might also complete short versions of Walker's recollections of the Supreme Court controversy and the 1944 Democratic Party convention.
It is unclear what work was done on the memoirs during the remainder of 1953 and throughout 1954 and 1955. Walker did compile notes on a few topics, most notably his early career in Butte and his work with the Comerford theater business. But it wasn't until 1956 that Walker again began to work in earnest on his memoirs. From February to April of 1956 he wrote out his thoughts on his early life in Butte, his education at Notre Dame, his part in the 1941 negotiations with Japan, the New Deal and Roosevelt, and his reasons for writing his memoirs. This work culminated in two versions of another full-length draft (box 123 folders 29-31). The two 1956 drafts of his memoirs concentrated on Walker's life and career up to the 1932 presidential campaign and election; they are not substantially different. Paul Hennessy left the project sometime in late 1953 or 1954. He was apparently replaced by William Cronin, who had worked for Walker during his days in Washington. It was probably Cronin who helped Walker complete the 1956 draft, which appears to have been the last work that Walker put in on his memoirs.
If the two drafts, the "First Final Draft" from 1953 and either of the versions from 1956, are taken together they essentially form one work which covers Walker's life. There is some overlap between the draft from 1953 and the two from 1956, but they are not two versions of the same work. The best way to approach the documents in this series is to look at these three drafts as one complete work that covers all of Walker's life and career. The transcripts of the tapes made in 1951 and 1952 at Coonamessett and Delray Beach also cover most of the events in his life. Specific topics, such as New Deal activities, the 1944 convention, Walker's work with the Comerford theaters, and his early life in Butte, are covered in Paul Hennessy's research memoranda and Walker's notes and short drafts, which have been filed by topic. All of the transcripts, drafts, and notes have been arranged chronologically according to when they were created.
The series also includes newspaper and magazine clippings on Walker, Roosevelt, the New Deal, Notre Dame, and histories of American politics of the 1930s; a small selection of correspondence and other documents that Walker brought together to help him write his memoirs; extensive transcriptions of newspaper stories from the Anaconda Standard (Butte) sent to Walker by George O'Malley; and an index to published references to Walker.