American Caesar; Douglas MacArthur 1880-1964

London: Arrow Books, 1979. Presumed First Arrow Paperback Edition, First printing. Trade paperback. Good. The format is approximately 4.875 inches by 7.5 inches. 656 pages. Illustrations. Front cover has a crease. "AMERICAN CAESAR is gracefully written, impeccably researched and scrupulous in every way...a thrilling and profoundly ponderable piece of work." (Newsweek). William Raymond Manchester (April 1, 1922 - June 1, 2004) was an American author, biographer, and historian. He was the author of 18 books which have been translated into over 20 languages. He was awarded the National Humanities Medal and the Abraham Lincoln Literary Award. In 1947, Manchester went to work as a reporter for The Baltimore Sun, where he met journalist H. L. Mencken, who became his friend and mentor. In 1955, Manchester became an editor for Wesleyan University and the Wesleyan University Press and spent the rest of his career at the university. Manchester's wartime experiences formed the basis for his very personal account of the Pacific Theater, Goodbye, Darkness: A Memoir of the Pacific War. Manchester also wrote of World War II in several other books, including a three-part biography, The Last Lion, of Winston Churchill. Manchester also wrote a biography of General Douglas MacArthur, American Caesar. His best-selling book, The Death of a President (1967), is a detailed account of the assassination of United States President John F. Kennedy, who had been the subject of an earlier book by Manchester. Before the book could be published, Jacqueline Kennedy filed a lawsuit to prevent its publication, even though she had previously authorized it. The suit was settled in 1967. Derived from a Kirkus review: Manchester has produced a biography of MacArthur so grandiose and so singleminded as to satisfy even the giant ego of its subject. He was his father's son: at 18, Arthur MacArthur dashed up Missionary Ridge to plant the Union flag and win the battle—and later, his insubordination as military governor of the Philippines cost him his career. Young MacArthur learned everything from his father, it appears, except what his paranoia perhaps did not permit him to learn; how to escape his father's fate. But then Manchester would not have his tragic Greek hero to range alongside his Napoleon or, more aptly, his Winfield Scott. He has, however, assembled massive evidence of how the MacArthur legend grew, cannily nurtured by its subject. Splashing ashore at Leyte, he was caught by a photographer scowling—not in "steely determination," as the public thought, but in outrage at the naval officer who hadn't directed his landing craft to a dock. Thereafter he deliberately waded ashore for cameramen, and incurred the scorn of troops who had already pegged him as "Dugout Doug." Also manifest throughout is the political streak that led him to mix inappropriately in civilian affairs—as contrasted with the more politically astute Eisenhower and so well understood by FDR, who alone emerges as more than MacArthur's match. What Manchester does not pursue are the personal threads; what he does not amplify is the history. And all his elaboration of the circumstances leading up to MacArthur's dismissal does not alter the standard interpretation of that event. He has documented the legend, filled in the image; a considered portrayal of the good/bad soldier as the author sees him.