John Hersey

John Hersey was an American writer and journalist.

He was born into a family of American missionaries. He learned to speak Chinese before he learned English. The family returned to the United States when the boy was ten years old. He graduated from Yale and Cambridge Universities. In 1937, while a student at Cambridge University, he served as literary secretary to the writer Sinclair Lewis. He wrote for Time magazine (1937–1944) and Life magazine (1944–1945).

From 1965 to 1970, Hersey was head of Pearson College.

Hersey’s first novel, A Bell for Adano (1944), was awarded the Pulitzer Prize (1945). His next book, Hiroshima (1946), was a moving documentary account of the first atomic bombing. The novel The Wall (1950) told of the uprising of the prisoners of the Warsaw Ghetto during World War II. He presented a satire on American education in The Child Buyer (1960); in the novel Too Far to Walk (1966), the boredom and pointlessness of American student life form the basis of the youth rebellion of the 1960s; White Lotus (1965) is a fantasy on the theme of race relations; the central image of castles and doors in The Walnut Door (1977) marked the transition from the turbulent 1960s to the cautious and prudent 1970s; The Call (1985) was inspired by memories of life among missionaries in China; and the philosophical dialogue Blues (1987) is devoted to the practice and metaphysics of fishing. Among Hersey’s later publications was the short-story collection Fling (1990).

John Hersey was married twice and had five children.