Hersey, John

Hersey, John

▪ American author
in full  John Richard Hersey 
born June 17, 1914, Tientsin, China
died March 24, 1993, Key West, Fla., U.S.

      American novelist and journalist noted for his documentary fiction about catastrophic events in World War II.

      Hersey lived in China, where his father was a secretary for the Young Men's Christian Association and his mother was a missionary, until he was 10, at which time his family returned to the United States. He graduated from Yale University in 1936, and he served as a foreign correspondent in East Asia, Italy, and the Soviet Union for Time and Life magazines from 1937 to 1946. His early novel A Bell for Adano (1944), depicting the Allied occupation of a Sicilian town during World War II, won a Pulitzer Prize. Hersey's next books demonstrated his gift for combining a reporter's skill for relaying facts with imaginative fictionalization. Both The Wall (1950), about the Warsaw ghetto uprisings, and Hiroshima (1946), an objective account of the atomic bomb explosion in that city as experienced by survivors of the blast, are based on fact, but they are also personal stories of survival in Poland and Japan in World War II.

      Hersey's later novels encompass a wide variety of subjects and range from treatments of contemporary political and social issues to moral parables set in the world of the future. These works interweave social criticism and their author's moralistic aims with imaginative plots and premises. The novel The Call (1985) is largely the expression of its protagonist, an articulate missionary in China whose journals and letters make up much of the book. Blues (1987), a series of dialogues between characters identified only as Fisherman and Stranger, echoes Izaak Walton (Walton, Izaak)'s The Compleat Angler (1653) in its exploration of the practice and philosophy of fishing.

Additional Reading
Among the critical works on John Hersey are Nancy L. Huse, The Survival Tales of John Hersey (1983); and David Sanders, John Hersey Revisited (1991).

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Universalium. 2010.

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  • Hersey, John Richard — ▪ 1994       U.S. journalist and novelist (b. June 17, 1914, Tianjin [Tientsin], China d. March 24, 1993, Key West, Fla.), as a foreign correspondent in East Asia, Italy, and Russia for Time and Life magazines (1937 46), was acclaimed for his… …   Universalium

  • Hersey, John (Richard) — (17 jun. 1914, Tianjin [Tientsin], China–24 mar. 1993, Key West, Fla., EE.UU.). Novelista y periodista estadounidense nacido en China. Hijo de misioneros, se desempeñó como corresponsal en Asia oriental, Italia y la Unión Soviética en 1937–46.… …   Enciclopedia Universal

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  • Hersey, John (Richard) — born June 17, 1914, Tianjin, China died March 24, 1993, Key West, Fla., U.S. Chinese born U.S. novelist and journalist. Born to missionaries, he worked as a correspondent in East Asia, Italy, and the Soviet Union in the years 1937–46. His novel A …   Universalium

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  • John Richard Hersey — John Hersey, aufgenommen von Carl van Vechten (1958) John Richard Hersey (* 17. Juni 1914 in Tientsin, China; † 24. März 1993 in Key West, Florida) war ein US amerikanischer …   Deutsch Wikipedia

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  • John — /jon/, n. 1. the apostle John, believed to be the author of the fourth Gospel, three Epistles, and the book of Revelation. 2. See John the Baptist. 3. (John Lackland) 1167? 1216, king of England 1199 1216; signer of the Magna Carta 1215 (son of… …   Universalium

  • John — (as used in expressions) Abbot, Sir John (Joseph Caldwell) Acton (de Aldenham), John Emerich Edward Dahlberg Acton, 1 barón Adams, John Adams, John (Coolidge) Adams, John Quincy Alden, John Altgeld, John Peter André, John Arden, John Ashbery,… …   Enciclopedia Universal

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