The series consists of records of Bill Boss's career in journalism, primarily as a war correspondent and foreign correspondent with Canadian Press (CP) wire service. Boss joined CP in June 1944 and covered the Canadian Corps in Italy until early 1945, when he transferred to the northern European theatre, to cover the Canadian Army fighting in the Netherlands. The series holds the typescript drafts of his copy for CP in this period, which is particularly extensive for the Italian campaign from June to December 1944, the liberation of Holland from April to July 1945, and postwar events like the war crimes trial of SS Major General Kurt Meyer. There are also several scrapbooks of clippings of his articles from newspapers across Canada for 1944 and 1945, although clippings from Ottawa newspapers predominate in the scrapbook kept by his mother. Another scrapbook also includes considerable personal material, material relating to his father and other family members in wartime, and 61 b&w photographs (file 16-5). The CP material for 1944-1946 also includes service messages, memoranda, and correspondence, including communications with Gillis Purcell, Charles Bruce, John Dauphinee, Ross Munro, and Doug How, among others. His reporter's notebooks for these years provide further evidence of his reporting technique and story development. The surviving record is thinner for the postwar years but does include some correspondence and manuscripts for his tenure in Edmonton in 1948 and return to Europe as a foreign correspondent in 1949-1950. There is also some correspondence, drafts of articles, and clippings for his coverage of the Korean War, 1950-1953, and the Moscow Bureau in 1954, but this record is far from complete.
Boss's early career in journalism is represented by a few files relating to his work for the Times of London, 1937-1938, and his reporting for the Ottawa Citizen, 1940-1942, including drafts of articles, clippings, and source material. Boss continued to write for newspapers and Canadian Press from time to time later in life, especially for anniversaries of wartime events. He wrote for CP about his return to Korea in 1978 for the 25th anniversary of the cease-fire, and went again to Korea in 1993 for the 40th anniversary in collaboration with the Department of Veterans Affairs. He also participated in the DVA tour in 1995 for the 50th anniversary of VE Day (his file also includes 5 b&w photos). This series also includes draft chapters of a memoir by R. J. Anderson of CP and a draft of a biography of J. D. MacFarlane by his son Richard MacFarlane, that were passed to Boss for comment and review.
There is some overlap between the Journalism series and the Military service series for 1944, and some CP material can also be found in the Military service files.
