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John Richard Hersey (June 17, 1914 – March 24, 1993) was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American writer and journalist considered one of the earliest practitioners of the so-called New Journalism, in which storytelling techniques of fiction are adapted to non-fiction reportage. Hersey's account of the aftermath of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, was adjudged the finest piece of American journalism of the 20th century by a 36-member panel associated with New York University's journalism department. == Early life == Hersey was born in Tientsin, China,〔After their graduation from Syracuse University, Roscoe and Grace Hersey traveled to China to teach basketball and accounting, as well as Western medicine, education, science and agronomy.()〕 the son of Grace Baird and Roscoe Hersey, Protestant missionaries for the Young Men's Christian Association in Tientsin. Hersey learned to speak Chinese before he spoke English; Hersey's novel, ''The Call'' (1985), is based on the lives of his parents and several other missionaries of their generation. John Hersey was a descendant of William Hersey (or Hercy, as the family name was then spelled) of Reading, Berkshire, England. William Hersey was one of the first settlers of Hingham, Massachusetts in 1635.〔William Hersey was later town selectman and a member of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company; he died at Hingham in 1658. There is a monument to him in the Old Ship Burying Ground in Hingham.()〕 Hersey returned to the United States with his family when he was ten years old. He attended public school in Briarcliff Manor, New York, including Briarcliff High School for two years. At Briarcliff, he became his troop's first Eagle Scout. Later he attended the Hotchkiss School, followed by Yale University, where he was a member of the Skull and Bones Society. Hersey lettered in football at Yale, was coached by Ducky Pond, Greasy Neale and Gerald Ford and was a teammate of Yale's two Heisman Trophy winners, Larry Kelley and Clint Frank. He subsequently was a graduate student at the University of Cambridge as a Mellon Fellow. After his time at Cambridge, Hersey got a summer job as private secretary and driver for author Sinclair Lewis during 1937; but he chafed at his duties, and that autumn he began work for ''Time'', for which he was hired after writing an essay on the magazine's dismal quality. Two years later he was transferred to ''Times Chongqing bureau. During World War II, newsweekly correspondent Hersey covered fighting in Europe as well as Asia, writing articles for ''Time'' as well as ''Life'' magazine. He accompanied Allied troops on their invasion of Sicily, survived four airplane crashes, and was commended by the Secretary of the Navy for his role in helping evacuate wounded soldiers from Guadalcanal. After the war, during the winter of 1945–46, Hersey was in Japan, reporting for ''The New Yorker'' on the reconstruction of the devastated country, when he found a document written by a Jesuit missionary who had survived the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. The journalist visited the missionary, who introduced him to other survivors.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「John Hersey」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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