Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. (1917–2007) was an American
historian and social critic whose work explored the American
liberalism of political leaders including Franklin D. Roosevelt,
John F. Kennedy, and Robert F. Kennedy. Schlesinger served as
special assistant to President Kennedy from 1961 to 1963. He wrote
a detailed account of the Kennedy administration, from the
transition period to the president’s state funeral, titled A
Thousand Days, for which he won the Pulitzer Prize. The author of
more than nineteen books, he won a second Pulitzer in 1946 for his
book The Age of Jackson.
Andrew Schlesinger is the author of Veritas: Harvard College
and the American Experience and co-editor with his brother Stephen
of Journals: 1952–2000 by Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. In 1980, he
joined ABC News in its documentary division, where his film scripts
won two Emmy awards and a Writers Guild Award. He lives in
Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Stephen Schlesinger was director of the World Policy
Institute at the New School from 1997 to 2006, and publisher of the
quarterly magazine the World Policy Journal. After editing and
publishing The New Democrat Magazine, he became a staff writer at
Time, then served as a speechwriter and foreign policy advisor to
Governor Mario Cuomo. He is the author of Act of Creation: The
Founding of The United Nations (a Harry S. Truman Book Award
winner), and The New Reformers, and co-author of Bitter Fruit: The
Story of the American Coup in Guatemala. He is a contributor to
magazines, newspapers, and web sites, including The Washington
Post, the Los Angeles Times, The Nation, The New York Observer, and
The Huffington Post.
“Schlesinger’s political intelligence in his correspondence is
excellent, the level of discourse and purpose high, the sense of
responsibility as keen as the sense of fun. . . . The best
letters—and there are many—come from the typewriter of the public
Schlesinger, the fighting liberal, especially when he’s jousting
with a provocative antagonist.”—George Packer, The New York Times
Book Review
“Arthur Schlesinger’s letters are full of personal, political, and
historical insights into the tumultuous events and enormous
personalities that dominated the mid-twentieth century. Because he
viewed them up close but with a historian’s perspective, The
Letters of Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. helps us all to more fully
understand recent history.”—President Bill Clinton
“Spanning more than five decades, Arthur Schlesinger’s letters to
friends and acquaintances in the highest echelons of
mid-twentieth-century political and intellectual life are vivid,
candid, witty, and brilliantly written. The Letters of Arthur
Schlesinger, Jr., is an important contribution to history and, one
hopes, may even revive the lost art of letter writing.”—Henry
Kissinger
“At a time when letter writing has become a lost art, Arthur
Schlesinger’s letters are a welcome reminder of how appealing and
how revealing of an era this form can be. Schlesinger's letters are
a national treasure that deserve a large audience.”—Robert
Dallek
“Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. was a masterful historian, a fighting
liberal, and a fully engaged citizen—that much we’ve always known.
But this book establishes him as one of the liveliest letter
writers of his time, as well. These pages are filled with vivid
personalities, strong opinions, shrewd assessments, and
half-forgotten battles brought back to life. No one who wants to
understand how it was to live through the second half of the
twentieth century in America should miss it.”—Geoffrey C. Ward
“Here’s an amazing book of letters large and small written by a man
whose brilliance has long been appreciated, beginning with Eleanor
Roosevelt, Adlai Stevenson, John Kennedy and all the Kennedys
thereafter, and with this book shall continue to be honored. I am
one of the lucky ones whose friendship with Arthur Schlesinger kept
me aware of the fact that time and thoughtfulness belong to us all,
and that age and intellect do not guarantee us a free ride. As you
enter his world, all I can say is: Read on to uncover and discover
what life is all about.”—Lauren Bacall
“An insightful, unique view of the multiple Pulitzer–winning
liberal icon Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. . . . A treasure trove that
enriches understanding of some of the men and women who helped
shape events from World War II to the present.”—Kirkus Reviews
(starred review)
“Fascinating . . . Schlesinger was . . . a prolific writer of
letters—around 35,000—whose extraordinarily wide range of
correspondents included fellow intellectuals, literary figures and
many high government officials, such as his longtime friends Hubert
Humphrey and Henry Kissinger. . . . His sons, Andrew and Stephen,
have gone through this treasure trove to select the letters that
best articulated his essential beliefs and captured the movement of
his times. The result is the thoroughly engaging and enlightening
The Letters of Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., most of which have never
before been seen by the public.”—BookPage
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