Author William Manchester Dies at 82 (Churchill & MacArthur Biographer)

[Khephra]

MIDDLETOWN, Conn. -- William Manchester, author of popular biographies on Winston Churchill and Douglas MacArthur and the controversial chronicler of President Kennedy's assassination, has died, a spokesman at Wesleyan University said Tuesday. He was 82.

Manchester had been in poor health and had recently suffered two strokes.

Poor health had kept his from completing the third volume of his best-selling Churchill series, "The Last Lion, Volume III." Paul Reid, a feature writer at The Palm Beach Post, was recently chosen to help finish the book.

Manchester told The New York Times in a 2001 interview he could no longer sustain, or even approach, an output so prolific he would write "all day, all night."

"I can't put things together; I can't make the connections," he said.

more..............

http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/news/wire/sns-ap-obit-manchester,0,2513882.story?coll=sns-ap-entertainment-headlines

[Fenris]

1. Quite a shame. Manchester was a terrific historian

[Devil Dog Dem]

2. I have an autographed 1st edition . . .

of "Goodbye, Darkness". His memoir about his service in the Marines in WWII.

That book was phenomenal and I quoted from it when I eulogized my uncle/Godfather who also was a WWII Marine. I have a friend whose father served with Manchester in Okinawa and he got a copy autographed for me.

Semper Fi, Bill, and God Bless.

[chookie]

3. RIP

This is devastating news. Manchester was a first rate author.

[Book Lover]

4. Oh, gosh

Unfortunately, this is neither surprise nor shock. One of the first history books I can remember reading was his "The Glory and the Dream," and I can tell you, it was seminal to my understanding of 20th-century America. We are lesser because of this loss.

[Zuni]

5. Goodbye Darkness

and American Caesar were among the best history works I have ever read.