The Death of a President by William Manchester

Manchester wrote poetry at age seven, short stories at age eleven, and found Shakespeare at age fifteen. He was instead the last of England’s great Victorian statesmen, with views formed when the British lion’s roar could silence the world.” “Churchill,” he writes, “was not a public figure like, say, Roosevelt, who thought and spoke in the idiom of his own time. The first two volumes of his Churchill biography, The Last Lion, Winston Spencer Churchill, Visions of Glory, 1874 - 1932 and The Last Lion, Winston Spencer Churchill, Alone, 1932 -1940 provide insights into the enigmatic leader. His characterizations compel readers to understand past events and appreciate lessons learned over time. From four decades of teaching and writing at Wesleyan University, he produced eighteen books that reveal his gift to evoke history-plain, simple, alive, and jumping from the page. He received the Navy Cross, the Silver Star, and two Purple Hearts for his time as a marine. He was valedictorian at the University of Massachusetts. Manchester’s life has been showered with awards. It became a best-seller and James Michener declared it “a book that will be used by historians for the next two thousand years.” Manchester’s book, The Death of a President, sold 1.3 million copies. Manchester went on to write an account of his friend’s assassination at the request of the Kennedy family. They formed a friendship that lasted until Kennedy’s death. Near the end of the war, William Manchester was shipped stateside to recover, where he met another wounded soldier named John Fitzgerald Kennedy. William Manchester’s father was a decorated World War I veteran, and his brother was a fellow World War II marine. Eighteen Manchesters served under General George Washington. The Manchester family has a legacy of service.

“The friendships I made in the Marine Corps were longer lasting and more fulfilling than any I’ve ever made in my life,” says Manchester, a veteran wounded twice on Okinawa. William Manchester’s connections to World War II-from his fascination with its great military leaders to his experiences as a soldier-have shaped his formidable literary career.

The Death of a President by William Manchester