William Manchester
William Manchester
William Raymond Manchester 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...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionNon-Fiction Author
Date of Birth1 April 1922
CountryUnited States of America
men sublime shy
He [Gen. Douglas MacArthur] was a great thundering paradox of a man, noble and ignoble, inspiring and outrageous, arrogant and shy, the best of men and the worst of men, the most protean, most ridiculous, and most sublime.
powerful past men
One strange feeling, which I remember clearly, was a powerful link with the slain, particularly those that had fallen within the past hour or two. There was so much death around that life seemed almost indecent. Some men's uniforms were soaked with gobs of blood. The ground was sodden with it. I killed, too.
men play actors
Actors who have tried to play Churchill and MacArthur have failed abysmally because each of those men was a great actor playing himself.
men tasks matter
A man's task is to find himself, and if he fails in this, it doesn't much matter what else he finds.
men volunteer history
They fought on with a devotion which would puzzle the generation of the 1980s. More surprising, in many instances it would have baffled the men they themselves were before Pearl Harbor. Among MacArthur's ardent infantrymen were cooks, mechanics, pilots whose planes had been shot down, seamen whose ships had been sunk, and some civilian volunteers.
men loner void
But there are no loners. No man lives in a void. His every act is conditioned by his time and his society.
churchill house inaccurate speaking though
It would be inaccurate to say that Churchill and I conversed. Like Gladstone speaking to Victoria, he addressed me as though I were a one-man House of Commons. It was superb.
great
He was a great thundering paradox of a man.
action forth quickly
As she sallied forth from her boudoir, you would never have guessed how quickly she could strip for action.
darkness peace pull vaguely whether wondered
I wondered vaguely if this was when it would end, whether I would pull up tonight's darkness like a quilt and be dead and at peace evermore.
abruptly ashes forgotten memory poker red
Abruptly the poker of memory stirs the ashes of recollection and uncovers a forgotten ember, still smoldering down there, still hot, still glowing, still red as red.
across coast eye fleeing gathers hours later pacific racing three toward twilight veil westward
Our Boeing 747 has been fleeing westward from darkened California, racing across the Pacific toward the sun, the incandescent eye of God, but slowly, three hours later than West Coast time, twilight gathers outside, veil upon lilac veil.
allied greatest manila suffered tragedies war warsaw
The destruction of Manila was one of the greatest tragedies of World War II. Of all the allied capitals only Warsaw suffered more.
age age-and-aging came
And if you came through this ordeal, you would age with dignity.