William Manchester (plastic Surgeon)

William Raymond Manchester (April 1, 1922 – June 1, 2004) was an American author, biographer, and historian. He was the author of 18 books which have been translated into over 20 languages. He was awarded the National Humanities Medal and the Abraham Lincoln Literary Award.

Early life and education

Manchester was born in Attleboro, Massachusetts, and grew up in Springfield, Massachusetts. His father served in the U.S. Marine Corps during World War I.

After his father's death and the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Manchester likewise enlisted in the Marine Corps. However, he was ordered back to college until called up. Initially, Manchester joined the Officer Candidate School but was dropped before receiving a commission. After being given the rank of corporal, he was sent to Guadalcanal in 1944 for further training. Although he had expected to serve in Europe, Manchester ultimately found himself in the Pacific Theater. He served in the Battle of Okinawa, was severely wounded on June 5, 1945, and was promoted to sergeant in July and awarded the Purple Heart.

Following World War II, Manchester worked as a copyboy for the ''Daily Oklahoman'' in 1945 before returning to college. In 1946, he completed his B.A. from Massachusetts State College, where he was a member of the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity. In 1947, he earned his master's degree from the University of Missouri.

Career

Journalism

In 1947, Manchester went to work as a reporter for ''The Baltimore Sun'', where he met journalist H. L. Mencken, who became his friend and mentor, and also became the subject of Manchester's master's thesis and first book, ''Disturber of the Peace''. The biography, published in 1951, profiles Mencken, the self-described "conservative anarchist" who made his mark as a writer, editor, and political pundit in the 1920s. In 1953, Manchester published his novel ''The City of Anger'', set in Baltimore and dealing with inner city life and the numbers racket, subjects Manchester had learned about as a big city reporter.

Academia

In 1955, Manchester became an editor for Wesleyan University and the Wesleyan University Press and spent the rest of his career at the university. For the academic year 1959–1960, he was a Fellow on the faculty at the Center for Advanced Studies of Wesleyan. He later became an adjunct professor of history, adjunct professor emeritus, and writer-in-residence at the university. During his association with Wesleyan University, Manchester developed an intense writing regimen that he adhered to for much of his life, often writing nonstop for up to 50 hours at a time. He described the experience as follows: "I would work all day, all night, all the next day, all the following night and into the third day. I would look up at the clock, and it would be 3:30 in the afternoon, and I would say, 'Oh boy, I've got three more hours to write.' I just loved it."

Author

Manchester's wartime experiences formed the basis for his very personal account of the Pacific Theater, ''Goodbye, Darkness: A Memoir of the Pacific War''. In this memoir, Manchester used personal anecdotes from his service on Okinawa in his descriptions of battles on Guadalcanal, Tarawa

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