Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.

He first married author Marian Cannon in 1940 with whom he was blessed with four children. After thirty years of togetherness, the couple filed for divorce in 1970.

In 1971, he tied the nuptial knot yet again with Alexandra Emmet. The couple was blessed with a son. He also had a step son from Emmet’s first marriage.

Throughout his life, he revelled having several friends who were influential personalities in their own right. His friends were mostly from a wide background, such as politicians, actors, writers and artists.

Arthur M Schlesinger was born to Elizabeth Harrietand Arthur M. Schlesinger in Columbus, Ohio. His father was a social historian at the Ohio State University and Harvard University.

He received his primary education from Philips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire and later on attended the Harvard University where he received his first degree at the age of 20. In 1938, he graduated with a summa cum laude.

Two years later, in 1940 he was appointed to a three year fellowship at the Harvard. However, he could not continue in the same as he was called for military duties during World War II.

Medically unfit, he took up a position at the Office of War Information in 1942. Starting 1943, he served as an intelligence analyst at the Office of Strategic Services until 1945.

It was while working at the Office of Strategic Services that he used his free time to pen the book, ‘The Age of Jackson’. The book became popular and earned him a Pulitzer Prize.

From 1946, he served as an Associate Professor at Harvard, a position which he continued to serve until 1954 when he became a full time professor. Interestingly, what made him special from other professors at Harvard was that he attained the position without having earned a PhD degree. He continued his professorship until 1961.

Meanwhile, in 1947, he pursued his political interest by founding the Americans for the Democratic Action society together with First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, Minneapolis mayor and future Senator and Vice President Hubert Humphrey, and economist and long-time friend John Kenneth Galbraith.

He won the Pulitzer Prize twice for his works, ‘The Age of Jackson’ and ‘A Thousand Days’ respectively.

His book, ‘The Crisis of the Old Order’ won him two awards - Bancroft Prize and Francis Parkman Prize.

He won the National Book Award in History and Biography for ‘A Thousand Days’ and National Book Award in Biography for ‘Robert Kennedy and His Times’.

He was the proud recipient of National Humanities Medal, Four Freedoms Award and Paul Peck Award. In 2006, he was awarded a medal by Elmhurst College for epitomizing the ideals of Reinhold and H. Richard Niebuhr