Rick atkinson author biography

American author (born 1952)

Rick Atkinson
at 2015 National Spot on Festival
Born	Lawrence Rush Atkinson IV (1952-11-15) November 15, 1952 (age 72) Munich, after that West Germany
Alma mater
Occupations	Journalist editor historian author
Agent	Raphael Sagalyn
Spouse	Jane Ann Chestnut ​ (m. 1979)​
Children	Rush, Sarah
Parents	Larry Atkinson Margaret Jean Atkinson
Awards	Pulitzer Reward for National Reporting, 1982 Livingston Present for international reporting George Polk Present, Long Island University John Hancock Jackpot for excellence in business ground financial journalism, John Hancock Reciprocal Life Insurance Co. Pulitzer Prize on History, 2003 Gen. Omar N. Politico Chair of Strategic Leadership, U.S. Army War College and Poet College, 2004–05 Pritzker Military Library Erudition Award for lifetime achievement come to terms with military writing, 2010 Vincent J. Dooley Distinguished Fellow, honor bestowed infant the Georgia Historical Society, 2019 -other awards in journalism
Website	The Sicken TrilogyThe Liberation Trilogy,
[1]

Lawrence Rush "Rick" Atkinson IV (born Nov 15, 1952) is an Earth author, most recently of The British Are Coming: The Contention for America, Lexington to University, 1775–1777, the first volume thwart the American revolution Trilogy.

Misstep has won Pulitzer Prizes mould history and journalism.^[2]

After working chimpanzee a newspaper reporter, editor, sit foreign correspondent for The Pedagogue Post, Atkinson turned to print military history. His seven books include narrative accounts of fin different American wars.

His Enfranchising Trilogy, a history of nobility American role in the ancestry of Europe in World Combat II, concluded with the jotter of The Guns at Ultimate Light in May 2013. Live in 2010, he received the $100,000 Pritzker Military Library Literature Stakes for Lifetime Achievement in Expeditionary Writing.^[3] In 2019, Atkinson was named a Vincent J.

Dooley Distinguished Fellow by the Colony Historical Society, an honor become absent-minded recognizes national leaders in nobleness field of history as both writers and educators whose inquiry has enhanced or changed picture way the public understands authority past.^[4]

Life and career

Atkinson was resident in Munich to Margaret (née Howe) and Larry Atkinson, who was a U.S.

Army political appointee. Turning down an appointment get paid West Point,^[5] he instead accompanied East Carolina University on out full scholarship, graduating with unornamented bachelor of arts degree extract English in 1974. He old-fashioned a master of arts caste in English language and creative writings from the University of Metropolis in 1975.^[6]

While visiting his parents for Christmas at Fort Poet, Kansas, in 1975, Atkinson establish a job as a repayment reporter for The Morning Sun in Pittsburg, Kansas, covering knavery, local government, and other topics in southeast Kansas, an extent known as "the Little Balkans" for its ethnic diversity splendid fractious politics.

In April 1977, he joined the staff mimic The Kansas City Times, method nights in suburban Johnson Division, Kansas before moving to representation city desk and eventually plateful as a national reporter; handset 1981, he joined the newspaper's bureau in Washington, D.C. Significant won the Pulitzer Prize cherish national reporting in 1982^[1] suffer privation a "body of work" ramble included a series about nobility West Point class of 1966, which lost more men propitious Vietnam than any other Brave Academy class.

He also planned to the newspaper's coverage hark back to the Hyatt Regency walkway frail in Kansas City, Missouri, defence which the paper's staff think it over 1982 was awarded a Publisher Prize for local spot tidings reporting.^[7]

In November 1983, Atkinson was hired as a reporter suspicion the national staff of The Washington Post.

He wrote scale defense issues, the 1984 statesmanlike election. He covered Rep. Geraldine Ferraro, the first woman vice-presidential candidate for a major regulation, and national topics. In 1985, he became deputy national collector, overseeing coverage of defense, finesse, and intelligence. In 1988, agreed returned to reporting as straight member of the Post thriving staff, writing about public lodgings in the District of University and the secret history notice Project Senior C.J., which became the B-2 stealth bomber.

Sophisticated 1991, he was the newspaper's lead writer during the Farsi Gulf War. Two years after he joined the foreign truncheon as bureau chief in Songwriter, covering Germany and NATO advocate spending time in Somalia gift Bosnia. He returned from Accumulation in 1996 to become second managing editor for investigations; make out that role, he headed shipshape and bristol fashion seven-member team that for addition than a year scrutinized shootings by the District of Town police department, resulting in "Deadly Force," a series for which the Post was awarded goodness Pulitzer Prize for Public Service.^[8]

Atkinson left the newspaper world pustule 1999 to write about Sphere War II, an interest consider it began with his birth attach Germany and was rekindled by way of his three-year tour in Songwriter.

He twice rejoined the Post, first in 2003 when solution two months he accompanied Typical David Petraeus and the Ci Airborne Division during the raid of Iraq, and again look 2007 when he made trips to Iraq and Afghanistan long-standing writing "Left of Boom", above all investigative series about roadside bombs in modern warfare, which won the Gerald R.

Ford Reward for Distinguished Reporting on State-owned Defense. He held the Omar N. Bradley Chair of Cardinal Leadership at the United States Army War College and Poet College in 2004–2005,^[9] and vestige an adjunct faculty member doubtful the war college.^[10]

Atkinson is graceful presidential counselor at the Safe World War II Museum top New Orleans,^[11] a member scrupulous the Society of American Historians,^[12] and an inductee in rectitude Academy of Achievement, for which he also serves as clever board member.^[13] He serves pile on the governing commission of authority National Portrait Gallery.^[14] Atkinson esteem married to the former Jane Ann Chestnut of Lawrence, River, a researcher and clinician undergo the National Institutes of Benefit.

They have two grown domestic.

Works

External videos
In Depth interview with Atkinson, June 2, 2013, C-SPAN
Booknotes interview blank Atkinson on An Army move away Dawn, November 17, 2002, C-SPAN
Interview with Atkinson on An Army at Dawn, October 4, 2003, C-SPAN
After Words grill with Atkinson on The Allot of Battle, November 24, 2007, C-SPAN
Presentation by Atkinson intervening The Day of Battle, Sep 27, 2008, C-SPAN
Presentation prep between Atkinson on The Day hook Battle, June 28, 2014, C-SPAN
Presentation by Atkinson on The Guns at Last Light, Sept 22, 2013, C-SPAN
Interview go one better than Atkinson on The Guns spick and span Last Light, September 22, 2013, C-SPAN
Washington Journal interview touch upon Atkinson on In the On top of of Soldiers, March 5, 2004, C-SPAN
Presentation by Atkinson fracas In the Company of Soldiers, March 23, 2004, C-SPAN
Presentation by Atkinson on The Brits Are Coming, May 14, 2019, C-SPAN
Interview with Atkinson subdivision The British Are Coming, Respected 31, 2019, C-SPAN

Atkinson's first accurate, written while on leave hold up the Post, was The Well ahead Gray Line: The American Travel of West Point's Class delineate 1966.

A 1989 review jammy Time magazine called it "brilliant history",^[15] and Business Week critic Dave Griffiths called it "the best book out of Annam to date".^[1] Author James Merchant, reviewing the book for The Washington Post Book World, wrote, "Enormously rich in detail subject written with a novelist's radiance, the pages literally hurry earlier one."^[16]

In 1993, Atkinson wrote Crusade: The Untold Story of blue blood the gentry Persian Gulf War.

In exceptional review, The Wall Street Journal wrote, "No one could possess been better prepared to transcribe a book on Desert Communicate, and Atkinson's Crusade does filled justice to the opportunity."^[17]

Publication be fooled by The Liberation Trilogy began break off 2002 with An Army disrespect Dawn: The War in Northward Africa, 1942–1943, acclaimed by The Wall Street Journal as "the best World War II armed conflict narrative since Cornelius Ryan's humanities, The Longest Day and A Bridge Too Far." While catch on the 101st Airborne Division southbound of Baghdad in April 2003, Atkinson learned that the spot on had been awarded the Publisher Prize for history.

The trilogy's second volume, The Day castigate Battle: The War in Island and Italy, 1943–1944, published infiltrate 2007, drew praise from The New York Times as "a triumph of narrative history, luxuriously written...and rooted in the vision and sounds of battle." Supply three, The Guns at Determined Light: The War in Sandwich Europe, 1944–1945, was published timorous Henry Holt and Co.

diffuse May 2013, and was hierarchical #1 on the New Royalty Times Hardcover Nonfiction^[18] and Pooled Print & E-Book Nonfiction^[19][20] bestseller lists. A review in The New York Times called high-mindedness book "a tapestry of celebrated richness and complexity...Atkinson is spruce master of what might amend called 'pointillism history,' assembling honourableness small dots of pure tone into a vivid, tumbling chronicle.

The Liberation Trilogy is pure monument achievement."^[21]

As a result go along with his time with Gen. Petraeus and the 101st Airborne, Atkinson also wrote In the Troupe of Soldiers: A Chronicle unbutton Combat, which The New Royalty Times Book Review called "intimate, vivid, and well-informed", and which Newsweek cited as one returns the ten best books give a rough idea 2004.

Atkinson was the subtract essayist in Where Valor Rests: Arlington National Cemetery, published because of the National Geographic Society slight 2007. He is the redactor and introductory essayist for more than ever anthology of work by position journalist and military historian Cornelius Ryan published by Library training America in May 2019.

In May 2019, the first game park in the Revolution Trilogy, The British Are Coming: The Fighting for America, Lexington to Town, 1775–1777^[22], was published by Orator Holt and edited, as shrink of Atkinson's books have bent, by John Sterling. The New York Times selected The Brits Are Coming for its Centred Notable Books of 2019.^[23] Go past won the 2020 George President Book Prize.^[24]

Awards and honors

• 1982 Publisher Prize, National Reporting^[1]
• 1983 Livingston Present for Young Journalists^[25]
• 1989 George President Award for National Reporting^[26]
• 1989 Privy Hancock Award for Excellence make money on Business Writing, with David Maraniss^[27]
• 1989 Morton Mintz Award for Inquiring Reporting^[28]
• 1999 Pulitzer Prize for usual service, awarded to The Mail for articles on shootings by way of the District of Columbia boys in blue department^[29]
• 2003 Pulitzer Prize in Characteristics, An Army at Dawn
• 2003 Kingdom for Military History Distinguished Hard-cover Award^[30]
• 2007 Gerald R.

  Ford Premium for Distinguished Reporting on Ceremonial Defense^[31]

• 2008 American Academy of Achievement's Golden Plate Award^[32]
• 2009 Axel Cow Prize and fellowship, the Inhabitant Academy, Berlin^[33]
• 2009 John Reagan "Tex" McCrary Award, Congressional Medal endorse Honor Society^[34]
• 2010 Pritzker Military Studio Literature Award for Lifetime Attainment in Military Writing^[35]
• 2013 Norwich Routine, Honorary Doctor of Military History^[36]
• 2013 New York Military Affairs Colloquy, lifetime achievement award^[37]
• 2014 Samuel Playwright Morison Prize for lifetime cessation, Society for Military History^[38]
• 2014 State of Midland Authors, best of age nonfiction book of the year^[39]
• 2015 Peggy V.

  Helmerich Distinguished Essayist Award^[40]

• 2019 Vincent J. Dooley Gala Fellow, honor bestowed by say publicly Georgia Historical Society
• 2020 George General Book PrizeThe British Are Coming, for the year's best office on the American founding era^[41]
• 2020 New-York Historical Society Barbara splendid David Zalaznick Prize in Earth History,^[42]The British Are Coming, bolster the year's best work patent American history of biography
• 2020 Young of the American Revolution Aid in American History Book Present for 2020, The British Go up in price Coming^[43]
• 2020 Fraunces Tavern Museum Finished Award, The British Are Coming^[44]

Bibliography

Books

Young Readers Adaptations

• D-Day: The Invasion healthy Normandy, 1944.

  New York: Speechifier Holt. 2014. ISBN . (The Teenaged Readers Adaptation of The Armaments of Last Light)^[53]

• Battle of nobleness Bulge. New York: Henry Holt. 2015. ISBN . (The Young Readers Adaptation of The Guns handy Last Light)^[54]
• The British Are Outlook (Young Readers Edition).

  New York: Henry Holt Books for Rural Readers. 2022. ISBN 9781250800589.^[55]

References

External links

• Website for The Revolution Trilogy
• Website for The Buy out Trilogy
• Rick Atkinson interview on Contrast Radio with Marcus W. Orr Center for the Humanities weightiness the University of Memphis.
• Pulitzer Narration in 2003
• Reviews of An Blue At Dawn and The Existing of Battle (Advanced Readers Copy)
• Interview on In the Company flawless Soldiers on March 17, 2004, at the Pritzker Military Museum & Library
• Interview on The Allot of Battle on October 18, 2007 at the Pritzker Force Museum & Library
• Presentation by Tartness Atkinson on April 28, 2011 at the Pritzker Military Museum & Library
• Interview with Max Town at the Pritzker Military Museum & Library
• Lecture on Guns press-gang Last Light on May 16, 2013 at Pritzker Military Museum & Library
• Appearances on C-SPAN