William Manchester - A World Lit Only by Fire: The Medieval Mind and the Renaissance: Portrait of an Age

Biography

D ISTURBER OF THE P EACE : The Life of H. L. Mencken

A R OCKEFELLER F AMILY P ORTRAIT : From John D. to Nelson

P ORTRAIT OF A P RESIDENT : John F. Kennedy in Profile

A MERICAN C AESAR : Douglas MacArthur, 18801964

T HE L AST L ION : W INSTON S PENCER C HURCHILL ; Visions of Glory: 18741932

T HE L AST L ION : W INSTON S PENCER C HURCHILL ; Alone: 19321940

History

T HE D EATH OF A P RESIDENT : November 20November 25, 1963

T HE A RMS OF K RUPP , 15871968

T HE G LORY AND THE D REAM : A Narrative History of America, 19321972

A W ORLD L IT O NLY BY F IRE . The Medieval Mind and the Renaissance: Portrait of An Age

Essays

C ONTROVERSY : And Other Essays in Journalism, 19501975

I N O UR T IME

Fiction

T HE C ITY OF A NGER

S HADOW OF THE M ONSOON

T HE L ONG G AINER

Diversion

B EARD THE L ION

Memoirs

G OODBYE , D ARKNESS : A Memoir of the Pacific War

O NE B RIEF S HINING M OMENT : Remembering Kennedy

Copyright 1992 by William Manchester

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review.

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First eBook Edition: September 2009

ISBN: 978-0-316-08279-2

TO

TIM JOYNER

ATHLETE COMRADE SCHOLAR FRIEND

ARRAY

C OMPLETE AT LAST, this book is a source of pride, which is pleasant, though in this instance somewhat odd. It is, after all, a slight work, with no scholarly pretensions. All the sources are secondary, and few are new; I have not mastered recent scholarship on the early sixteenth century. This being true, I thought it wise to submit my final manuscript to scrutiny by those steeped in the period, or in certain aspects of it. For example, Dr. Timothy Joyner, Magellans most recent biographer, examined the passages on Magellan. His emendations were many and were gratefully received. My greatest debt, however, is to James Boyden, an authority on the sixteenth century, who was a history professor at Yale when he began his examination of my text and had become a history professor at Tulane when he finished it. I have never known a more scrupulous review than his. His knowledge of the sixteenth century is both encyclopedic and profound. He challenged meand rightly soin virtually every passage of the work. Of course, that does not mean that he or anyone else with whom I consulted is in any way responsible for this volume. Indeed, Professor Boyden took exception to several of my interpretations. Obviously I, and I alone, am answerable for the result.

Another oddity of this book is that it was written, so to speak, inside out. Ordinarily a writer does not begin to put words on paper until he knows much he is going to say. Determining how to say it is the last stepthe most taxing, to be sure, but one preceded by intricate preparations: conception, research, mastering material, structuring the work. Very rarely are the writing and reading experiences even remotely parallel, and almost never does a narrative unfold for the writer as it will later for those turning his pages. The fact that it happened this time makes the volume unique in my experience.

Actually, at the outset I had no intention of writing it at all. In the late summer of 1989, while toiling over another manuscript the last volume of a biography of Winston Spencer ChurchillI fell ill. After several months in and out of hospitals, I emerged cured but feeble, too weak to cope with my vast accumulation of Churchill documents. Medical advice was to shelve that work temporarily and head south for a long convalescence. I took it.

The fact that I wasnt strong enough for Winston did not, however, mean I could not work. H. L. Mencken once observed that writing did for him what giving milk does for a cow. So it is for all natural writers. Putting words on paper is essential to their inner stability, even to their peace of mind. And as it happened, I had a small professional commitment to meet providing an introduction to a friends biography of Ferdinand Magellan. That manuscript was back in my Connecticut home and I was now in Florida, but the obstacle seemed small; I hadnt intended to write about Magellan anyhow. Instead, I had decided, I would provide the great navigator with context, a portrait of his age. It could be done, I thought, in several pagesa dozen at most.