John Hersey
(1914–1993)

Writer John Hersey came to be known for his ability to bring important incidents and issues to life for readers through both nonfiction and fiction. Hersey began his writing career as a journalist, first as an editor at Time magazine, then as a foreign correspondent during World War II. During the early part of the war, he covered the South Pacific and was cited in 1942 by the Secretary of the Navy for helping to remove wounded men from Guadalcanal Island while under fire.

Hersey uses imaginative writing to bring historical events to life. He won a Pulitzer Prize in 1945 for his novel A Bell for Adamo (1944), which tells the story of the American occupation of an Italian village during World War II. Hiroshima (1946), a nonfiction account, tells the story of survivors of the atomic bomb blast. Hersey's twenty-sixth and last book, Key West Tales (1993), is a collection of short stories. Some of the stories give slices of contemporary life in Key West, Florida, while other recount the history of the region.

Hersey was born in Tientsin, China, and he spent his first seven years there, attending American and British schools. In 1936, Hersey received a B.A. from Yale University and then spent a year at Clare College in Cambridge, England.

A  |  B  |  C  |  D  |  E  |  F  |  G  |  H  |  I  |  J  |  K  |  L  |  M
N  |  O  |  P  |  Q  |  R  |  S  |  T  |  U  |  V  |  W  |  X  |  Y  |  Z