HARTFORD, Conn. - Historian William Manchester, who brought a novelist's flair to his stirring biographies of such 20th century giants as Winston Churchill, Douglas MacArthur and John F. Kennedy, died of cancer Tuesday at 82.
Manchester wrote 18 books, including two novels, but was best known in recent years for his magisterial, multivolume biography of Churchill, "The Last Lion." Two strokes prevented Manchester from completing the much-anticipated third volume, covering most of the World War II years.
Just last month, Paul Reid, a feature writer at The Palm Beach Post, was chosen to help finish the book.
"He wrote histories or biographies that just take you right there and illuminate, teach, enlighten and anger," Reid said.
Manchester died in his sleep at his home in Middletown, his daughter Laurie Manchester said.
"He would have wanted to be remembered as a writer first and foremost, and then as a historian," she said. "Writing came to him easily, it was like breathing."
Picked by Mega-Hurts.