Writer, born in Tientsin, E China. He studied at Yale, and became a correspondent in the Far East for Time magazine (193746). Acclaimed for his clever fictionalizing of fact, his early novel, A Bell for Adano (1944), won the Pulitzer Prize, and was dramatized and filmed. Hiroshima (1946) was the first on-the-spot description of the effects of a nuclear explosion. Other titles include The War Lover (1959), Under the Eye of the Storm (1967), The Walnut Door (1977), and Antonietta (1991).
During World War II he covered the fighting in both Europe (Sicily) and Asia (Battle of Guadalcanal), writing articles for Time, Life, and The New Yorker.
His most notable work was a story for The New Yorker, entitled "Hiroshima," about the effects of the atomic bomb dropped there on the 6th of August, in 1945. His article about the
dullness of grammar school readers in a 1954 issue of Time was the inspiration for The Cat in the Hat. Hersey also wrote The Algiers Motel Incident, about racist killings
by the police during the 12th Street Riot in Detroit, Michigan, in 1968, and A Bell for Adano, which won the Pulitzer Prize for the Novel in 1945. Hersey is also known for his
pseudo-chronicle, The Single Pebble about a young American engineer traversing upstream Yangtze.
John Hersey died at home in Key West, Florida on March 24, 1993.
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