William Manchester

Non-Fiction Author

Birthday April 1, 1922

Birth Sign Aries

Birthplace Massachusetts

DEATH DATE Jun 1, 2004 (82)

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About

An American historian and biographer, he profiled some of the Twentieth Century's most famous leaders, including John F. Kennedy and Douglas MacArthur. He received both the Abraham Lincoln Literary Award and the National Humanities Medal.

Before Fame

He enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps and served in the Pacific theater of World War II. He detailed his wartime experiences in his 1980 memoir, Goodbye, Darkness.

Trivia

His bestselling 1967 work, The Death of a President, investigated the assassination of John F. Kennedy and sold millions of copies, despite mixed critical reviews.

Family Life

He grew up in Attleboro, Massachusetts and graduated from Massachusetts State College. In 1948, he married Julia Brown Marshall, with whom he subsequently had three children.

Associated With

At the time of his death, Manchester was working on the third and final volume of The Last Lion: The Defender of the Realm, his biography of Winston Churchill.