John Willard Toland (June 29, 1912 – January 4, 2004) was an American writer and historian. He is best known for a biography of

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Germany from 1933 until his death in 1945. He rose to power as the leader of the Nazi Party, becoming the chancellor in 1933 and the ...

and a

Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made ...

-winning history of World War II-era Japan, ''

The Rising Sun ''The Rising Sun: The Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire, 1936–1945'' is a non-fiction history book by John Toland, published by Random House in 1970. It won the 1971 Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction. It was republished by Random Ho ...

''.

Biography

Toland was born in 1912 in La Crosse, Wisconsin. He graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire in 1932 and from

Williams College Williams College is a private liberal arts college in Williamstown, Massachusetts. It was established as a men's college in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim Williams, a colonist from the Province of Massachusetts Bay who was kille ...

in 1936 and attended the Yale School of Drama for a time. His original goal was to become a

playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays. Etymology The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English ...

. In the summers between college years, he traveled with

hobo A hobo is a migrant worker in the United States. Hoboes, tramps and bums are generally regarded as related, but distinct: a hobo travels and is willing to work; a tramp travels, but avoids work if possible; and a bum neither travels nor works. ...

s and wrote several plays with hobos as central characters, none of which were performed. He recalled in 1961 that in his early years as a writer he had been "about as big a failure as a man can be". He claimed to have written six complete novels, 26 plays, and a hundred short stories before completing his first sale, a short story for which '' The American Magazine'' paid $165 in 1954. At one point he managed to get an article on dirigibles into '' LOOK'' magazine; it proved extremely popular and led to his career as a historian. Dirigibles were the subject of his first full-length published book, ''Ships in the Sky'' (1957). His most important work may be ''The Rising Sun'' (Random House, 1970), for which he won the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction in 1971."General Nonfiction"
The Pulitzer Prizes. Retrieved 2013-11-12. Based on original and extensive interviews with high-ranking Japanese officials who survived the war, the book chronicles the

Empire of Japan The also known as the Japanese Empire or Imperial Japan, was a historical nation-state and great power that existed from the Meiji Restoration in 1868 until the enactment of the post-World War II 1947 constitution and subsequent form ...

from the military rebellion of February 1936 to the end of

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 World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. It won the Pulitzer because it was the first book in English to tell the history of the

Pacific War The Pacific War, sometimes called the Asia–Pacific War, was the theater of World War II that was fought in Asia, the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean, and Oceania. It was geographically the largest theater of the war, including the vas ...

from the Japanese point of view, rather than the prevailing American one.

Novels

While predominantly a writer of nonfiction, Toland also published two historical novels, ''Gods of War'' and ''Occupation''. He says in his 1997 autobiography that he earned little money from his prize-winner ''

'' but was set for life from the earnings of ''Adolf Hitler'', for which he also did original research. Toland died of

pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severit ...

on January 4, 2004, at Danbury Hospital in Danbury, Connecticut.

Books

Non-Fiction *''Ships in the Sky: The Story of the Great Dirigibles'' (New York: Henry Holt; London: F. Muller, 1957) *''Battle: The Story of the Bulge'', 1959, . *''But Not in Shame: The Six Months After Pearl Harbor'', 1962, *''The Dillinger Days'', 1963, . *''The Flying Tigers'' - Copyrighted 1963 First Printing From Laurel-Leaf Books 1979. Published by Dell Publishing *''The Last 100 Days: The Tumultuous and Controversial Story of the Final Days of World War II in Europe'', 1966, reprint (2003) *'' The Rising Sun: The Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire, 1936-1945'', 1970 HC , reprint . *''The Great Dirigibles: Their Triumphs & Disasters'', 1972, . *
Adolf Hitler: The Definitive Biography
', 1976, . *''No Man's Land: 1918, The Last Year of the Great War'', 1980, *''Infamy: Pearl Harbor And Its Aftermath'', 1982, *''In Mortal Combat: Korea 1950-1953'', 1991, *''Captured by History: One Man's Vision of Our Tumultuous Century'', 1997, Novels *''Gods of War'', 1985, . *''Occupation'', 1987,

Articles

*'Death of a Dirigible', February 1959, ''American Heritage'', Volume X Number 2, pp 18–23

References

External links