John Hersey

@Writers, Life Achievements and Childhood

John Hersey was a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist best known for his book ‘Hiroshima’

Jun 17, 1914

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Biography

Personal Details

  • Birthday: June 17, 1914
  • Died on: March 24, 1993
  • Nationality: American
  • Famous: Writers, Yale University, Media Personalities, Journalists, Writers
  • Spouses: Barbara Jean Day
  • Childrens: Baird Hersey
  • Universities:
    • Yale University
    • Hotchkiss School
    • Yale University
    • University of Cambridge

John Hersey born at

Tianjin

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Birth Place

He married Frances Ann Cannon in 1940. The couple divorced in 1958. His second marriage was to Barbara Day Addams Kaufman. He had five children and six grandchildren.

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Personal Life

He suffered from cancer and died in 1993.

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Personal Life

Though he was a much respected journalist and author, he was also accused of being a compulsive plagiarist.

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Personal Life

He was born in China to American parents Roscoe and Grace Baird Hersey. Both his parents were Protestant missionaries working with the Young Men’s Christian Association. He learned Chinese before he learned English.

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Childhood & Early Life

His family returned to the U.S. when Hersey was ten years old. He received his primary education from Briarcliff High School and later went to the Hotchkiss School from 1927 to 1932.

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Childhood & Early Life

For his higher education he went to Yale and graduated in 1936. After that he became a graduate student at the University of Cambridge as a Mellon Fellow.

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Childhood & Early Life

He took up his first job as a secretary for the author Sinclair Lewis in 1937. He used to spent hours copying pages of a play the great author was working upon. However, he found this job to be extremely boring and quit.

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Career

He found work with the ‘Time’ magazine in late 1937. Ironically, an essay he had written about the poor quality of the magazine was what that got him the job. The World War II had begun by 1939 and he was sent to the Far East to cover the war.

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Career

He published his first book, ‘Men on Bataan’in 1942 followed by ‘Into the Valley’ in 1943. He also wrote for the ‘Life’ magazine and ‘The New Yorker’ on a freelance basis.

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Career

In 1944, he wrote his most famous novel, ‘A Bell for Adano’ which told the story of an Italian-American officer in Sicily during the World War II who helps the people of Adano in finding a replacement for the bell that the Fascists had melted down for usage in rifle barrels.

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Career

During the winter of 1945-46 he was sent to Japan by ‘The New Yorker’ to cover the reconstruction of the country devastated by the atomic bombing. There he found a document written by a Jesuit missionary who had survived the horrible experience. He sought the help of the missionary in seeking out other survivors whose stories he chronicled in an issue of his paper in 1946.

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Career

His Pulitzer Prize winning novel, ‘A Bell for Adano’ deals with the story of an army officer who helps the people of the fictional town, Adano, in getting a replacement for the town bell which was destroyed by the Fascists. The novel was hugely popular and was considered a classic study in leadership.

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Major Works