Really enjoyed this book! I read Hiroshima earlier this year and fell immediately in love with John Hersey’s reporting style, how it made you feel like you were actually present for the explosion. I ended up purchasing a final copy of this book and I’m so glad to have it on my mantle now.

An enjoyably readable biography of novelist and journalist John Hersey (1914-1993), who is probably best known today for his ground-breaking work of 1946 “Hiroshima”. Treglown acknowledges form the start that the book is a study of John Hersey’s career rather than a full biography, perhaps out of respect for the man who was essentially a very private person and who only ever gave two interviews. And certainly as an exploration of his writing it is thorough and detailed. But I felt something was lacking and that I never really got to know Hersey the man, and I found it hard to relate to him. Nevertheless, that apart, I enjoyed learning more about the man who comes across as remarkably modest and self-effacing, a welcome exception in our celebrity obsessed culture. I never even realised he was a novelist as well as an acclaimed and important journalist, and I am now inspired to hunt out some of those novels. All in all, this is a welcome study of a deeply principled man and is well worth reading.

A thoroughly researched biography of John Hersey, author of many books. The one that I have read is his classic Hiroshima. In this biography, Mr. Straight Arrow, I learned how he became the person he was and how different events in history influenced his life and writings. Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the advance copy of this well-written and informative book about athe journalist and novelist.