Historian William Manchester dead at 82: Wrote biographies of JFK, MacArthur, Churchill
William Manchester, 1922-1984
William Manchester was a big reason why I came to love history at such a young age. Reading one of Manchester's works was more than simply reading just another history book. Indeed, the word "page turner" could fairly be applied to anything he wrote. History became a narrative, a story that involved the reader. Manchester had a gift for telling historical stories in a way that was truly unrivalled.
Manchester, who had recently suffered two strokes, died at his Middletown home, said Bill Holder, a spokesman at Wesleyan University, where Manchester was a professor emeritus.
Poor health had kept him 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 chosen last month to help finish the book.
Thankfully, the works of William Manchester will live on. Those of us who love the study of history will sorely miss his brilliance and his gift for making history live. We will not see his like anytime soon.
