Manchester, William Raymond

▪ 2005

      American historian (b. April 1, 1922, Attleboro, Mass.—d. June 1, 2004, Middletown, Conn.), penned three popular volumes about Pres. John F. Kennedy. Manchester was a friend and confidant of the president and in 1962 published Portrait of a President: John F. Kennedy in Profile, an account of Kennedy's first year in office. Two years later Jacqueline Kennedy commissioned him to write a book about the president's assassination, but she then sought to block the publication of The Death of a President (1967) over concerns that it revealed private family matters. The public quarrel was resolved when Manchester removed several passages. His third book on President Kennedy, One Brief Shining Moment (1983), looked fondly back on the era of “Camelot.” In Baltimore, Md., Manchester served as foreign correspondent for the Evening Sun before pursuing historical writing. His books The Arms of Krupp, 1587–1968 (1968), which examined the powerful German family, and American Caesar, Douglas MacArthur, 1880–1964 (1978) were immensely popular. Goodbye, Darkness (1980), which recounted his personal experiences in the Pacific during World War II, was widely praised for its gripping depiction of combat. Manchester was able to complete only two volumes of The Last Lion (1983 and 1988), his biographical trilogy of Winston Churchill.

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