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Hersey, John, 1914-1993

 Person

Dates

  • Existence: 1914-06-17 - 1993-03-24

Biography

John Hersey, American novelist and author, was born 17 June 1914 in Tientsin, China to missionaries Roscoe and Grace Baird Hersey. After the family returned to the United States in 1925, and settled in Briarcliff Manor, New York, Hersey attended public school, Hotchkiss School, Yale University (1936) and Clare College, Cambridge (1936-1937). Following his studies he worked for several years as a journalist, first for Time magazine (1937-1944) and then, after the Second World War, as a correspondent and editor for Life and The New Yorker. He later taught at Yale and served as Master of Pierson College (1965-1970). Hersey is the author of numerous works of fiction and non-fiction. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his first novel, A Bell for Adano (1944) in 1945, and multiple awards, including the Anisfield-Wolf Award, for his second novel, The Wall (1950). Hersey died 24 March 1993 in Key West, Florida.

Found in 13 Collections and/or Records:

Ethel Fogg and William Brooks Clift memorial collection

 Collection
Call Number: MS 817
Abstract: A collection assembled by John M. Whitcomb of the letters and other papers of European and American cultural and political figures from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries. With the collection is the correspondence (1948-1989) of John M. Whitcomb with writers, historians and political figures on subjects such as the Russian Revolution, Communism, the Sacco-Vanzetti case, Woodrow Wilson, and American foreign policy. Also included is biographical material relating to Ethel Fogg Blair and...
Dates: 1769-1992

Correspondence, 1945 - 1957

 Part of Collection — Box 48: [Barcode: 39002137170578], Folder: GROUP 952, F-2
Call Number: YCAL MSS MISC
Scope and Contents:

Correspondence consists of letters from Hersey to others including: ten autograph letters, signed, to Bill Cole; two autograph letters, siged, to Lucy Johnson; one autograph letter, signed, to "Pat"; one typescript letter, signed, to Caroline W. Stagg of Alfred A. Knopf; and one typescript note, signed, to Mr. Zevin. Letters to Bill Cole chiefly concern literary and publicity matters, such as requests for photographs and biographical information to be sent to third parties.

Dates: 1945-1957

Correspondence with Gordon G. Henderson, 1964-1995

 Part of Collection — Box 48: [Barcode: 39002137170578], Folder: GROUP 952, F-4
Call Number: YCAL MSS MISC
Scope and Contents:

Correspondence consists of nine letters between Hersey and Henderson, including five autograph letters, signed, from Hersey to Henderson and four typescript letters, two signed, from Henderson to Hersey. Accompanied by two letters between Henderson and Hersey's wife, Barbara Hersey, dating from 1995. With two envelopes.

Dates: 1964-1995

Hersey Family Papers

 Collection
Call Number: YCAL MSS 723
Abstract: Collection contains correspondence and other materials relating to the family of American novelist and author John Hersey. Correspondence contains letters from John Hersey and members of the Hersey and Baird families. There are letters from John Hersey to his parents dating from his graduate studies in Cambridge, England, in 1936 and 1937, to dispatches written as a war correspondent, in 1942, while in the South Pacific. Other materials include various family papers, such as John's school...
Dates: 1860-1952, bulk 1906-1942

John Hersey Papers

 Collection
Call Number: RG 145
Abstract:

This collection contains research materials for Hersey's novel The Call (1985), a fictional account of a missionary to China. John Hersey (1914-1993), a prominent American author, was born in Tianjin (Tientsin), China, the son of missionaries.

Dates: 1900-1985

John Hersey papers

 Collection
Call Number: YCAL MSS 707
Abstract: The John Hersey papers contain writings, correspondence, printed and audiovisual materials, scrapbooks, and family and personal papers. The collection consists of ten small donations made by Hersey between 1944 and 1967 and an acquisition of a major part of his archive in 1992. The early gifts by Hersey contain drafts and proofs for multiple works dating from the early 1940s through mid 1960s, including the successful and popular A Bell for Adano (1944), Hiroshima (1946), and The Wall...
Dates: circa 1919-1992

George Alexander Kennedy papers

 Collection
Call Number: MS 308
Abstract:

The papers consist of correspondence, manuscripts, notes, drafts of articles, bibliographies, clippings and printed articles and reviews by others. The material all relates to Chinese literature. Principal correspondents include John DeFrancis, Robert B. Hall, James R. Ware, Pearl S. Buck, John Hersey and Norman Cousins.

Dates: 1931-1957

Letters : Old Weston Road, Weston, Connecticut, to Francis A. Small, 1962

 Part of Collection — Box 48: [Barcode: 39002137170578], Folder: GROUP 952, F-3
Call Number: YCAL MSS MISC
Scope and Contents:

Two autograph letters, signed, with one envelope, and one typescript letter, signed, to Reverend Francis A. Small at Fairfield University. Letters discuss the work of an unspecified subcommittee on which Hersey and Father Small served together.

Dates: 1962

Letters : to James T. Babb , 1965

 Part of Collection — Box 48: [Barcode: 39002137170578], Folder: GROUP 952, F-1
Call Number: YCAL MSS MISC
Scope and Contents:

One autograph letter, signed, and one autograph postcard, signed, from Hersey to James Tinkham Babb. The February 1965 letter acknowledges Babb's retirement from the position of Yale University Librarian.

Dates: 1965

Letters : to William [Shawn], 1950, 1964

 Part of Collection — Box 48: [Barcode: 39002137170578], Folder: GROUP 952, F-5
Call Number: YCAL MSS MISC
Scope and Contents:

Two letters to William Shawn, editor at The New Yorker, including one typescript letter, signed, dating from 1950, recounting Hersey's meeting with White House Press Secretary Charles Ross and then, briefly, with his encounter President Truman, and one autograph letter, signed, concerning articles Hersey has writtern for other magazines.

Dates: 1950, 1964

Wallace Notestein papers

 Collection
Call Number: MS 544
Abstract:

The papers consist of correspondence, writings, printed material, notes, speeches, and other papers of Wallace Notestein, historian, teacher, author, and Sterling Professor of English History at Yale from 1928-1947. The bulk of the papers consist of letters received by Notestein from other historians, scholars, writers, students, and publishers and relate largely to academic and professional matters, to politics, and to his personal life.

Dates: 1899-1969

"Robert Capa: the man who invented himself", [1954]

 Part of Collection — Box 48: [Barcode: 39002137170578], Folder: GROUP 952, F-6
Call Number: YCAL MSS MISC
Scope and Contents:

Draft, typescript carbon, of essay on photogapher Robert Capa.

Dates: [1954]

Robert Penn Warren papers

 Collection
Call Number: YCAL MSS 51
Abstract:

The papers consist of drafts of manuscripts and related material, correspondence, photographs, and newspaper clippings documenting Warren's life from his undergraduate years until his death in 1989.

Dates: 1906-1989