William Andrew Swanberg (November 23, 1907 in St. Paul, Minnesota – September 17, 1992 in Southbury, Connecticut)www.nytimes.com
/ref> was an American biographer. He is known for ''Citizen Hearst'', a biography of

William Randolph Hearst William Randolph Hearst (; April 29, 1863 – August 14, 1951) was an American newspaper publisher and politician who developed the nation's largest newspaper chain and media company, Hearst Communications. His extravagant methods of yellow jou ...

, which was recommended by the

Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prizes () are 23 annual awards given by Columbia University in New York City for achievements in the United States in "journalism, arts and letters". They were established in 1917 by the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made his fo ...

board in 1962 but overturned by the trustees. He won the 1973 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography for his 1972 biography of Henry Luce, and the

National Book Award The National Book Awards (NBA) are a set of annual U.S. literary awards. At the final National Book Awards Ceremony every November, the National Book Foundation presents the National Book Awards and two lifetime achievement awards to authors. ...

in 1977 for his 1976 biography of Norman Thomas.

Background

Swanberg was born in Saint Paul, Minnesota in 1907, and earned his B.A. at the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota Twin Cities (historically known as University of Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint ...

in 1930. With grudging and only partial help from his father, who wanted his son to be a cabinet maker like himself, Swanberg earned his degree.

Career

Upon graduation, he found employment as a journalist with such local daily newspapers as the ''St. Paul Daily News'' and the '' Minneapolis Star'' unsatisfactory, as their staff were shrinking during the

Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...

. Swanberg instead held a succession of low-paying manual labor jobs. After five years he followed a college friend to

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

in September 1935. After months of anxious job-hunting he secured an interview at the Dell Publishing Company with president George T. Delacorte Jr., and was hired as an assistant editor of three lowbrow magazines. Money saved in the next months enabled him to return briefly to the

Midwest The Midwestern United States (also referred to as the Midwest, the Heartland or the American Midwest) is one of the four census regions defined by the United States Census Bureau. It occupies the northern central part of the United States. It ...

to marry his college sweetheart Dorothy Green, and bring her to New York. He soon began to climb the editorial ladder at Dell, and by 1939 he was doing well enough to buy a house in Connecticut. When the United States entered

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, Swanberg was 34 years old, father of two children, and suffering from a hearing disability. Rejected by the U.S. Army, in 1943 he enlisted in the Office of War Information and, after training, was sent to England following D-Day. In London, amid the V-1 and V-2 attacks, he prepared and edited pamphlets to be air-dropped behind enemy lines in France and later in Norway. With the end of the war he returned in October 1945 to Dell and the publishing world. Swanberg did not return to magazine editing but instead did freelance work within and without Dell. By 1953, he began carving out time for researching his first book (Sickles), which Scribner's purchased, beginning a long-term association. Swanberg's early hopes of newspaper work never materialized, but by the mid-1950s he had established himself as scholarly biographer. His efforts proved to be labor-intensive and required up to four years apiece, even when assisted by the research and transcription efforts of his wife Dorothy. Upon turning 80 in 1987, Swanberg attempted one last biography, about William Eugene “Pussyfoot” Johnson (1862–1945). He was at work on that project when he succumbed to heart failure at his typewriter in Southbury, Connecticut on September 17, 1992.

Rejection for Pulitzer Prize

Swanberg's 1961 book ''Citizen Hearst: A Biography of William Randolph Hearst'' was recommended for a Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography by the advisory board but rejected by the trustees of

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

, apparently because they thought that Hearst was not dignified enough to be the subject of the award. It was the first time in 46 years that the trustees rejected a recommendation from the advisory board, and the news caused sales to soar.

Awards

* 1959: Christopher Award and Minnesota Centennial Award for ''First Blood'' * 1960: Guggenheim fellow * 1961: Frank Luther Mott- Kappa Tau Alpha Award for ''Citizen Hearst'' * 1962:

for ''Citizen Hearst'' (overturned by trustees of

, who administer the prize, because subject (

) failed to meet "eminent example of the biographer's art as specified in the prize definition"Hohenberg, John. ''The Pulitzer Diaries: Inside America's Greatest Prize''. 1997. p. 109. * Van Wyck Brooks Award for nonfiction (1967) * 1973:

for ''Luce and His Empire''"Biography or Autobiography"
''Past winners and finalists by category''. The Pulitzer Prizes. Retrieved 2012-03-17. * 1977:

in Biography for ''Norman Thomas: The Last Idealist''"National Book Awards – 1977"
National Book Foundation. Retrieved 2012-03-17.

Legacy

Swanberg's papers are archived at

Works

In a statistical overview derived from writings by and about William Andrew Swanberg,

OCLC OCLC, Inc. See also: is an American nonprofit cooperative organization "that provides shared technology services, original research, and community programs for its membership and the library community at large". It was founded in 1967 as the ...

WorldCat WorldCat is a union catalog that itemizes the collections of tens of thousands of institutions (mostly libraries), in many countries, that are current or past members of the OCLC global cooperative. It is operated by OCLC, Inc. Many of the O ...

encompasses roughly 30+ works in 100+ publications in 5 languages and 16,000+ library holdings.
''Sickles the Incredible'', 1956
Civil War General Daniel Edgar Sickles.
''First Blood: The Story of Ft. Sumter'', 1957
ref>
''Jim Fisk: The Career of an Improbable Rascal'', 1959
"Diamond" Jim Fisk.
''Citizen Hearst: A Biography of William Randolph Hearst'', 1961''Dreiser'', 1965''Pulitzer'', 1967''The Rector and the Rogue'', 1969''Luce and His Empire'', 1972''Norman Thomas: The Last Idealist'', 1976''Whitney Father, Whitney Heiress'', 1980

References

External links

Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, University of Pennsylvania {{DEFAULTSORT:Swanberg, W.A. 1907 births 1992 deaths 20th-century American biographers National Book Award winners People of the United States Office of War Information Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography winners University of Minnesota alumni 20th-century American non-fiction writers