Gordon William Prange (; July 16, 1910 – May 15, 1980) was the author of several

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

historical manuscripts which were published by his co-workers after his death in 1980. Prange was a professor of history at the

University of Maryland The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the University System of M ...

from 1937 to 1980 with a break of nine years (1942–1951) of military service in the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

during

, and in the postwar military occupation of Japan, when he was the Chief Historian in General Douglas MacArthur's staff. It was during this time that Prange collected material from and interviewed many Japanese military officers, enlisted men, and civilians, with the information later being used in the writing of his books. Several became ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' bestsellers, including ''At Dawn We Slept, The Untold Story of Pearl Harbor'' and '' Miracle at Midway''. Prange's 1963 ''Tora! Tora! Tora!'', published in the November and December issues of ''

Reader's Digest ''Reader's Digest'' is an American general-interest family magazine, published ten times a year. Formerly based in Chappaqua, New York, it is now headquartered in midtown Manhattan. The magazine was founded in 1922 by DeWitt Wallace and his wif ...

'', and later expanded into ''At Dawn We Slept'', portrayed the

attack on Pearl Harbor The attack on Pearl HarborAlso known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service upon the United States against the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii ...

, and is credited as the basis for the screenplay of the film ''

Tora! Tora! Tora! ''Tora! Tora! Tora!'' ( ja, トラ・トラ・トラ！) is a 1970 epic war film that dramatizes the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. The film was produced by Elmo Williams and directed by Richard Fleischer, Toshio Masuda and Kinji ...

'', which was produced in 1970, while Prange took a leave of absence from the University of Maryland to serve as the technical consultant during its filming. His extensive research into the attack on Pearl Harbor was the subject of a Public Broadcasting Service television program in 2000, ''Prange and Pearl Harbor: A Magnificent Obsession'', and was acclaimed "a definitive book on the event" by ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

''. Prange was a popular lecturer at the University of Maryland. The ''Terrapin'', the university's

yearbook A yearbook, also known as an annual, is a type of a book published annually. One use is to record, highlight, and commemorate the past year of a school. The term also refers to a book of statistics or facts published annually. A yearbook often ...

, said of his World War I and World War II history classes: "Students flock to his class and sit enraptured as he animates the pages of twentieth century European history through his goosesteps, 'Sieg Heils', 'Achtungs', machine gun retorts and frantic gestures".

Personal life

Gordon William Prange was born on July 16, 1910, in Pomeroy, Iowa. His parents were Al, a blacksmith and his wife Johanna. He had one older brother Russell. He attended Pomeroy High School, where he excelled in baseball and track athletics. He was also known as the class clown. He graduated from Pomeroy in 1928 and enrolled at the

University of Iowa The University of Iowa (UI, U of I, UIowa, or simply Iowa) is a public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is organized into 12 col ...

intending to become a coach, but switched to history. He obtained his bachelor's degree, his master's degree in 1934, and doctorate in 1937. He studied at the

University of Berlin Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (german: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a German public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin. It was established by Frederick William III on the initiative ...

in 1935 to 1936, during which he said: "I saw Hitler operate firsthand and heard him speak a number of times."

Family

In 1937 he married Anne Root, a professor's daughter from Iowa City. They had two daughters and a son. They moved to Maryland, where Prange took employment as a history instructor at the University of Maryland.

Death

Prange died on May 15, 1980, in

Baltimore, Maryland Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

, from cancer, aged 69. 'Prange Park' in Pomeroy is named after him.

Selected bibliography

* Gordon W. Prange (1963), ''Tora! Tora! Tora!'', in ''Reader's Digest'', November and December issues. All below by Gordon W. Prange, with Donald M. Goldstein and Katherine V. Dillon: *''At Dawn We Slept: The Untold Story of Pearl Harbor'' (1981), *''Miracle at Midway'' (1982), *''Target Tokyo: The Story of the Sorge Spy Ring'' (1984), in which the authors detail the undercover operations of the spy ring headed by

Richard Sorge Richard Sorge (russian: Рихард Густавович Зорге, Rikhard Gustavovich Zorge; 4 October 1895 – 7 November 1944) was a German-Azerbaijani journalist and Soviet military intelligence officer who was active before and during Wo ...

and

Hotsumi Ozaki was a Japanese journalist working for the ''Asahi Shimbun'' newspaper, communist, Soviet intelligence agent, and advisor to Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe. The only Japanese person to be hanged for treason (under the provisions of the Peace Pr ...

that conveyed highly-secret information from Tokyo to the Soviet Union between 1933 and 1941 *''Pearl Harbor: The Verdict of History'' (1986), *''December 7, 1941: The Day the Japanese Attacked Pearl Harbor'' (1988), *''God's Samurai: Lead Pilot at Pearl Harbor'' (1990),

References

External links

The Gordon W. Prange Collection
at the