Didn’t know that William Manchester died in 2004. I read American Caesar; amazing how MacArthur led the peaceful occupation of Japan & gave them a new constitution.
Are there any greats among us any more, of the stature of Churchill? Any waiting in the wings, as he did?
By the way, Manchester was a political liberal. But he was able to put aside his biases and write objective bios of conservative great men.
He picked a friend, author Paul Reid to finish it. Reid said that Manchester died while he was helping him and said one thing that was tough was trying to decipher Manchester's handwritten notes. Reid also says that so many W.W. II documents had been declassified when he came on board he re-researched a lot of stuff before finishing the book.
I spent the whole summer two years ago reading the final volume, I wasn't in a hurry and found I was constantly looking people up mentioned in the book to understand better who they were and how they fit in to the narrative.
Monumental work that was put together very well.