William Manchester

William Manchester (born April 1, 1922) is a historian, professor emeritus at Wesleyan, honorary Doctor of Letters, author of 18 books that have been translated into 20 languages.

Manchester was the son of a WWI Marine, and enlisted and served as a Marine himself in the Pacific theater after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Manchester wrote of WWII in a number of his books, including his second of a planned three part biography of Churchill, a biography of Gen. Douglas MacArthur, and a very personal account of his experiences, Goodbye, Darkness: A Memoir of the Pacific War.

He remarked that the generation coming of age in the 1950s were "withdrawn, cautious, unimaginative, indifferent, unadventurous and silent," helping to cement the generational moniker Silent Generation.

Following the death of his wife in 1998, Mr. Manchester suffered two strokes, and has reported that he is unlikely to finish the previously planned third volume of his three part biography of Churchill.

Bibliography

• Disturber of the peace; the life of H.L. Mencken (1951)
• The city of anger, a novel. (1953)
• Shadow of the monsoon (1956)
• A Rockefeller family portrait, from John D. to Nelson (1959)
• The long gainer, a novel (1961)
• Portrait of a President, John F. Kennedy in profile (1967)
• The Arms of Krupp: The Rise and Fall of the Industrial Dynasty that Armed Germany at War (1968)
• The Glory and the Dream: A Narrative History of America, 1932-1972 (1974)
• Controversy and other essays in journalism (1976)
• American Caesar: Douglas MacArthur 1880-1964 (1978)
• On Mencken, essays (1980)
• Goodbye, Darkness: A Memoir of the Pacific War (1980)
• One brief shining moment: Remembering Kennedy (1983)
• The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill: Visions of Glory, 1874-1932 (1983)
• The Death of a President: November 20-November 25 (1985)
• The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill, Alone 1932-1940 (1988)
• In Our Time: The World As Seen by Magnum Photographers (1989)
• A World Lit Only by Fire: The Medieval Mind & the Renaissance - Portrait of an Age (1992)
• Magellan (1994)
• No End Save Victory (2001)