William Manchester once confessed, "I knew when I was very young I wanted to be a writer. I just didn’t know what kind of writer."
The bookish author became one of the most sought after writer about senior figures in military and politics in the 20th century. Biographer Douglas Brinkley acknowledged, "He understood that there’s nothing wrong with writing history as being a page-turner."
William Manchester's first best seller, Portrait of a President, was published in 1962. Magazine editor Richard Langworth observed, "In terms of writing, he’s in a class by himself. People that don’t ordinarily read history will pick up William Manchester and read him cover to cover. He was a great writer, a great stylist."
When her first husband died, it was William Manchester the former First Lady nominated to write about his death. The result, The Death of a President: November 20-November 25, 1963. The book published in 1967 was his most controversial bestseller.
By her own admission, Jacqueline Kennedy conceded to him, "I thought you would write a little black book to sit on dark library shelves."
Instead what he wrote was an exhaustively researched account of JFK's assassination. It became an overnight bestseller. Critic Clifton Fadiman opined, "Its supreme value for the general reader can be stated simply: 'You are there.' The detail is so dense and well-arranged that the days, the hours, the very minutes seem to become part of one’s experience."
Time magazine recognized, "...Manchester (as he showed in The Death of a President) is one of those writers who find their supreme joy only in the presence of a fact, and sometimes it doesn't seem to matter what sort of a fact it is."
Certain facts recorded in the book was said had alarmed Jackie so much - especially so near to an election year (1968) - she attempted (albeit unsuccessfully) to suppress its publication.
When the book was reprinted in 1985, William told his readers, "The Death of a President was not written for Jackie or any of the others. I wrote it for the one Kennedy I had known well and deeply loved, the splendid man who had been cruelly slain at 12:30p.m. Texas time on Friday, November 22, 1963."
"You had to pry stories out of Bill. He was a writer, not a talker. But he could be very funny and he was really quite brilliant about contemporary politics," book editor Roger Donald recalled.
Speaking to the New York Times in 2001, William admitted, "Language for me came as easily as breathing for 50 years, and I can't do it anymore. The feeling is indescribable."
However, when he could do it during those 5 decades, William had written books ranging from pop histories (The Glory and the Dream: A Narrative History of America, 1932-1972) to biographies (American Caesar: Douglas MacArthur, 1880-1964) to his own wartime memoir.
He said in his memoir, Goodbye, Darkness, which was published in 1980, "You can't drown your troubles, your real troubles, because if they are real, they will swim." Those "troubles" were references to his repressed memories of the war.
The Glory and the Dream - the 1,397 pages book about U.S. history from the Depression to the Vietnam War was published in 1974. Time magazine noted, "It was the era he knew best, and it garnered some of his best reviews."
Some facts contained in the book included information such as one out of four Americans was a farmer in 1932. But by 1974, it was one out of 20. Also Fan Dancer Sally Rand, not Deep Throat, was considered "obscene" in his day.
His biography on the five-star general Douglas MacArthur, was published in 1978. He told the fourth estate, "He was a hell of a general. I will always wonder what the Battle of the Bulge or the Normandy invasion would have been like if he had been in charge."
Journalist Orville Schell observed, "The personality and charisma of MacArthur are so successfully recreated in Manchester's biography that it is easy to forget that the book, unlike the man, had an author. This is to Manchester's credit. . . . [He] has written a thorough and spellbinding book. It is a dramatic chronicle of one of America's last epic heroes."
Talking to People Magazine, William wondered, "But the books do have something in common besides their author. Power. It's the one thing that has fascinated me ever since I was a kid in Springfield, Massachusetts. What exactly is power? Where are its roots? How do some people get it and others miss it entirely? How do they hold it or lose it? It's all over my new book. To the end of his life, General MacArthur symbolized power."
William also expressed, "It’s difficult because, unlike a novelist, you’ve got to be sure your facts are correct. But if you describe how a man looked, what he was wearing, what the room was like, you’re setting a scene and this is very important."
The bookish author became one of the most sought after writer about senior figures in military and politics in the 20th century. Biographer Douglas Brinkley acknowledged, "He understood that there’s nothing wrong with writing history as being a page-turner."
William Manchester's first best seller, Portrait of a President, was published in 1962. Magazine editor Richard Langworth observed, "In terms of writing, he’s in a class by himself. People that don’t ordinarily read history will pick up William Manchester and read him cover to cover. He was a great writer, a great stylist."
When her first husband died, it was William Manchester the former First Lady nominated to write about his death. The result, The Death of a President: November 20-November 25, 1963. The book published in 1967 was his most controversial bestseller.
By her own admission, Jacqueline Kennedy conceded to him, "I thought you would write a little black book to sit on dark library shelves."
Instead what he wrote was an exhaustively researched account of JFK's assassination. It became an overnight bestseller. Critic Clifton Fadiman opined, "Its supreme value for the general reader can be stated simply: 'You are there.' The detail is so dense and well-arranged that the days, the hours, the very minutes seem to become part of one’s experience."
Time magazine recognized, "...Manchester (as he showed in The Death of a President) is one of those writers who find their supreme joy only in the presence of a fact, and sometimes it doesn't seem to matter what sort of a fact it is."
Certain facts recorded in the book was said had alarmed Jackie so much - especially so near to an election year (1968) - she attempted (albeit unsuccessfully) to suppress its publication.
When the book was reprinted in 1985, William told his readers, "The Death of a President was not written for Jackie or any of the others. I wrote it for the one Kennedy I had known well and deeply loved, the splendid man who had been cruelly slain at 12:30p.m. Texas time on Friday, November 22, 1963."
"You had to pry stories out of Bill. He was a writer, not a talker. But he could be very funny and he was really quite brilliant about contemporary politics," book editor Roger Donald recalled.
Speaking to the New York Times in 2001, William admitted, "Language for me came as easily as breathing for 50 years, and I can't do it anymore. The feeling is indescribable."
However, when he could do it during those 5 decades, William had written books ranging from pop histories (The Glory and the Dream: A Narrative History of America, 1932-1972) to biographies (American Caesar: Douglas MacArthur, 1880-1964) to his own wartime memoir.
He said in his memoir, Goodbye, Darkness, which was published in 1980, "You can't drown your troubles, your real troubles, because if they are real, they will swim." Those "troubles" were references to his repressed memories of the war.
The Glory and the Dream - the 1,397 pages book about U.S. history from the Depression to the Vietnam War was published in 1974. Time magazine noted, "It was the era he knew best, and it garnered some of his best reviews."
Some facts contained in the book included information such as one out of four Americans was a farmer in 1932. But by 1974, it was one out of 20. Also Fan Dancer Sally Rand, not Deep Throat, was considered "obscene" in his day.
His biography on the five-star general Douglas MacArthur, was published in 1978. He told the fourth estate, "He was a hell of a general. I will always wonder what the Battle of the Bulge or the Normandy invasion would have been like if he had been in charge."
Journalist Orville Schell observed, "The personality and charisma of MacArthur are so successfully recreated in Manchester's biography that it is easy to forget that the book, unlike the man, had an author. This is to Manchester's credit. . . . [He] has written a thorough and spellbinding book. It is a dramatic chronicle of one of America's last epic heroes."
Talking to People Magazine, William wondered, "But the books do have something in common besides their author. Power. It's the one thing that has fascinated me ever since I was a kid in Springfield, Massachusetts. What exactly is power? Where are its roots? How do some people get it and others miss it entirely? How do they hold it or lose it? It's all over my new book. To the end of his life, General MacArthur symbolized power."
William also expressed, "It’s difficult because, unlike a novelist, you’ve got to be sure your facts are correct. But if you describe how a man looked, what he was wearing, what the room was like, you’re setting a scene and this is very important."
