John Hersey
Personal Information
Description
John Richard Hersey (June 17, 1914 – March 24, 1993) was an American writer and journalist. He is considered one of the earliest practitioners of the so-called New Journalism, in which storytelling techniques of fiction are adapted to non-fiction reportage. In 1999, Hiroshima, Hersey's account of the aftermath of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, was adjudged the finest work of American journalism of the 20th century by a 36-member panel associated with New York University's journalism department. John Hersey was born in Tientsin, China, the son of missionaries. He returned to the United States with his family at the age of ten. He attended the Hotchkiss School, then Yale University, then Cambridge University. In 1937 he worked as a secretary for Sinclair Lewis, and that fall he got a position at Time magazine. Two years later he was transferred to Time's Chongqing bureau. During World War II he reported on the war in both Europe and Asia, writing articles for Time, Life, and The New Yorker. He published several books during this time, including Men on Bataan, Into the Valley, A Bell for Adano (which won the Pulitzer Prize for the Novel in 1945), and Hiroshima, his most famous work (originally published in The New Yorker). He also wrote The Wall (1950) about the Warsaw Ghetto during the Holocaust. Hersey was the head of Pierson College at Yale University from 1965-1970, and he taught writing at the undergraduate level there.
Books
Into the Valley
Engaged to an Ohio Valley farmer who remains loyal to the British, Annie Barnes becomes confused by her growing feelings for his fiercely patriot brother, and as the brothers become dangerously embroiled in the fighting, Annie finds herself facing a difficult choice.
The wall
Riveting and compelling. The Wall tells the inspiring story of forty men and women who escape the dehumanizing horror of the Warsaw ghetto. John Hersey's novel documents the Warsaw ghetto both as an emblem of Nazi persecution and as a personal confrontation with torture, starvation, humiliation, and cruelty- a gripping and visceral story, impossible to put down. "Only a true novelist could breathe warmth, compassion, humor, into what a historian would necessarily have pictured as a stark, hopeless tragic series of events. Only a sensitive novelist could compel us to embark upon such a fearful adventure as this and remain until the end" -The New York Times "A searching, heroic story." -The Atlantic
Great World War II Stories
A perfect morning (from The young lions) / Irwin Shaw Lunghua camp (from Empire of the Sun) / J.G. Ballard The journey (from A town like Alice) / Nevil Shute The birth of an idea (from The man who never was) / Ewen Montague The big day (from From here to eternity) / James Jones Abducting the general (from Ill met by midnight) / W. Stanley Moss The landing at Kuralei (from Tales of the South Pacific) / James A. Michener Shall I live for a ghost (from The last enemy) / Richard Hillary Billy Pilgrim (from Slaughterhouse Five) / Kurt Vonnegut Battalion in defense (from Officers and gentlemen) / Evelyn Waugh Anopopei (from The naked and the dead) / Norman Mailer 'Plane land here' (from Wingate's raiders) / Charles J. Rolo Mission asymptote (from The white rabbit) / Bruce Marshall Fraternizing with the enemy? (from Reach for the sky) / Paul Brickhill Shooting party (from Grand party) Graham Brooks H-hour (from The longest day) / Cornelius Ryan Into Germany (from Carve her name with pride) / R.J. Minney Ironbottom Sound (from Ironbottom Sound) / Lindsay Baly The first bid for freedom (from The Colditz story) / P.R. Reed Some were unlucky (from Enemy coast ahead) / Guy Gibson, VC May 1941 (from Nella Last's diary) / Nella Last Major major major major (from Catch 22) / Joseph Heller The battle of the bulge (from The face of war) / Martha Gelhorn The invasion of Papua (from Retreat from Kokoda) / Raymond Paull No trouble at all (from The stories of flying officer X) / H.E. Bates Stalingrad The story of the battle (from Stalingrad point of return) / Ronald Seth The soldier looks for his family / John Prebble The white mouse and the Maquis d'Auvergne (from The white mouse) / Nancy Wake Fear of death / F.J. Salfeld The invaders (from The Moon is down) / John Steinbeck The compass rose (from The cruel sea) / Nicholas Monsarrat The diary of a desert rat (from The diary of a desert rat) / R.L. Crimp The Mannerheim Line (from Of many men) / James Aldridge Midway (from Torpedo Junction) / Robert J. Casey Hiroshima the fire (from Hiroshima) / John Hersey
Aspects of the presidency
Contains 2 parts: Harry S. Truman, first published in The New Yorker, 1950-1951; and Gerald R. Ford, which was originally publilshed in 1975 under title: The President.
My petition for more space
In an overcrowded world where acquiescence is the law of survival, a New Haven man petitions the government for more space.
The conspiracy
Nero's secret police believe they have come on the first hints of a plot against the emperor's life.
Under the eye of the storm
When their sailboat Harmony is thrust into the center of a great storm, two men and their wives face some brutal changes both in themselves and in their relationships with each other.
White lotus
"The Commentary translated in these pages is unusual and rare. But if the commentary is a rarity, its subject matter - the seven-line invocation of Padmasambhava - is one of the best-known prayers in the Tibetan Buddhist world." "The overall significance of the Seven-Line Prayer is perhaps best appreciated in relation to a practice called guru-yoga, or "union with the nature of the guru." The purpose of guru-yoga is to purify and deepen the student's relationship with his or her teacher. It is introduced as one of the preliminary practices, and it remains crucial - in fact, its importance increases - as one progresses through the more advanced levels of the tantric path. The cultivation of devotion to the guru and the blending of one's mind with his or her enlightened mind is, in the words of Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, "the most vital and necessary of all practices and is in itself the surest and fastest way to reach the goal of enlightenment.""--book jacket.
Here to stay
This book is an 85 page book. 75 of those pages are beautiful black and white photographs of Ontario and Quebec Aboriginal peoples living on their reservations. Published in December 1983 by Methuen Publishing, and funded in part by the National Native Council of Canada. Author Mary F. Hawkins has had 3 other books published. These books are not photography books but rather two books on health and one children's book.
The child buyer
During a series of hearings Mr. Wizzey Jones is forced to reveal the shocking activities of a corporation which deals in children.
The war lover
War Lover follows Buzz Morrow, a pilot who glorifies war and his military duties. The author makes the point that wars exist precisely because there are men like Buzz who revel in them. At the same time, he also gives us a detailed account of a Flying Fortress crew based in England during WW II.
A single pebble
An often perilous journey up the Yangtze River aboard a Chinese junk provides a young and impatient American engineer new insights into life's meaning.