(The state of the world as the greatest war in human histo...)
The state of the world as the greatest war in human history was just beginning, comprehensively analyzed by one of the foremost historians of the last century. Although this book has been revised and reprinted many, many times, the 1938 pre-WWII edition is extremely rare and has become a highly sought-after collectors' item.
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Some say he was the greatest warrior in history, buildi...)
Some say he was the greatest warrior in history, building an empire that extended from Europe to Africa and on to India and Central Asia. In a stirring narrative, famed historian John Gunther tells the story of Alexander the Great who, at only age 21, became King of Macedonia and set off on a 12-year journey to conquer the known world and extend the boundaries of Greek civilization. Gunther takes us from Alexander’s boyhood to his victory over the Persian Empire, and, in vivid detail, describes Alexander’s battles, as well as the palace intrigues that surrounded him.
Death Be Not Proud (Harper Perennial Modern Classics)
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Johnny Gunther was only seventeen years old when he die...)
Johnny Gunther was only seventeen years old when he died of a brain tumor. During the months of his illness, everyone near him was unforgettably impressed by his level-headed courage, his wit and quiet friendliness, and, above all, his unfaltering patience through times of despair. This deeply moving book is a father's memoir of a brave, intelligent, and spirited boy.
(The master of collecting, assessing and redistributing in...)
The master of collecting, assessing and redistributing information has turned his reportorial gifts to the personality and career of a figure who is already part of history. Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Here is a dispassionate study, an intimate closeup of the man, of his relations with others, of his family, of his career, politically and professionally. It is an honest study, with due recognition of the rare genius of Roosevelt along with his weaknesses, his littlenesses, his beliefs, his likes and dislikes, his attitudes. John Gunther has a colloquial style, chatty, anecdotal, very personal. Possibly Frances Perkins' The Roosevelt I Knew, though less comprehensive in coverage, comes to this sense of intimate knowledge, though the Gunther differs in that one is aware that he has arrived at his facts through years of study of the man, his achievements, his words, and through interviews with the people closest to him. Occasionally, there is almost a ""gossip column"" aspect to the material, but in the main one reads with a conviction that here is the man himself, with all his complexities, his charm, his warmth, his human frailties, and the smallnesses of his greatnesses. A mirror -- rather than a critical portrait. Intensely good reading despite the familiarity of much of the material. Books about Roosevelt are already legion; this is not just another book, but one that makes the reader feel that the man lives in its pages. Kirkus Review
(John Gunther traveled behind the Iron Curtain after WW II...)
John Gunther traveled behind the Iron Curtain after WW II and explains the conditions existing in those European countries in the Russian orbit at that time. John Marquand, author, states that "Behind the Curtain" is the most complete and absorbing picture that anyone has given us of those buffer states that stand between the rights of the individual as we know them and 'the democracy' of communistic dictatorship". 363 pages with Index. 8.5 x 5.8 inches. Publisher: Harper & Brothers, New York, 1949.
(Published by Harper & Bros., 1946 this First Edition hard...)
Published by Harper & Bros., 1946 this First Edition hardcover measures 5 3/4" by 8 1/2" by 1 3/4", with 979 deckle edged pages. A collection of facts about America; a state by state analysis of the trends, issues and personalities of the late 1940's. Cover is black cloth; map at the front traces the author's journey to collect data, map at the back shows the relative distribution of population in the 1940's.
John Gunther was an American journalist and author.
Background
Gunther was born on August 30, 1901, in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Eugene M. Gunther, a traveling businessman, and Lisette Schoeninger, a teacher. Gunther later described his father as a "robust ne'er-do-well, " and it was his mother who carried most of the burden of rearing Gunther and his sister. From childhood, Gunther was an omnivorous fact gatherer and, at the age of eleven, started to write an encyclopedia.
Education
Gunther was a shy, lonely adolescent when he attended Robert Morris and Lake View high schools in Chicago. He graduated from Lake View in 1918 and, over his father's objections, entered the University of Chicago with the halfhearted objective of becoming a chemist. In his final two years he changed his major to English and enjoyed his first social and professional success when he became literary editor of the campus newspaper.
Career
After earning his bachelor's degree in 1922, Gunther toured Europe briefly and returned to Chicago committed to becoming a journalist. He learned the trade as a cub reporter at the Chicago Daily News. Eager to work abroad, he quit his Chicago job in 1924, went to London, and subsisted on part-time assignments. He was hired as a correspondent in the Daily News bureau in Paris under Paul Scott Mowrer, who sent Gunther around to the other European bureaus as a roving "swing man. " In 1930, Gunther was rewarded with a bureau of his own, in Vienna. By the early 1930's, he had published four novels, the first of the string of undistinguished literary efforts that he wrote. In 1934, Gunther embarked on the project destined to win him fame when he took his wife's suggestion to write a book of reportage on Europe. Midway into the project, Gunther's employer transferred him to London. Despite being much busier, he finished the writing in seven months, and Inside Europe was published in February 1936. It contained plentiful information on the characteristics and personality traits of Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, and other political figures. The book, breezy and mildly liberal, was generally welcomed by reviewers. With the public, the work enjoyed success unusual in that day for nonfiction. The Book-of-the-Month Club alone distributed 240, 000 copies in seven months in the United States, and it was widely translated and sold abroad. Gunther and his publisher expended great effort to keep the book current. Nine months after the first edition, a complete revision was published, and further revisions continued into World War II. Gunther was soon at work on other Inside books. He resigned from the Chicago Daily News in 1936 and lived thereafter, often tenuously, on the earnings from his books. The success of Inside Europe opened doors on other continents. Inside Asia was published in 1939, and Inside Latin America two years later; both were highly successful. During World War II, Gunther covered the Allied campaigns in Europe as a radio correspondent, but in 1944 he returned to America and began work on his most demanding project, Inside U. S. A. In thirteen months of preparation, he took more than a million words of notes and then spent fourteen months writing 505, 000 words. The book, published in 1947, followed the pattern of Inside Europe, considering the country state by state and emphasizing the personalities of state political leaders. Gunther was so daunted by the effort that he never completed a projected second volume, to be centered on Washington. In this same period, Gunther's life was stalked by tragedy. His son died in June 1947, a month after the publication of Inside U. S. A. Gunther wrote a private memoir of his son's illness but, persuaded that it might help other parents, permitted it to be published as Death Be Not Proud (1949). Assisted by his second wife, Jane Perry Vandercook, Gunther spent the remaining years of his life turning out books at a factorylike pace. There were more Inside books: Inside Africa (1955), which he completed despite disabling cataracts; Inside Russia Today (1958); and Inside Australia, left unfinished at his death but completed by William H. Forbis and published in 1972. There were also books on Franklin D. Roosevelt, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and Douglas MacArthur, as well as novels and juvenile books. In 1957, to meet financial obligations, he wrote an advertisement for a drug company under the title "Inside Pfizer. " An international celebrity, he also earned a reputation as a lavish host at his New York apartment. He died in New York City, on May 29, 1970.
In 1927, Gunther married Frances Fineman; they had two children. In April 1946, two years after his divorce from Frances Fineman, their one surviving child became ill with a malignant brain tumor. The boy died in June 1947. Gunther married Jane Perry Vandercook in 1948. They adopted one child.