Mr. Straight Arrow: The Career of John Hersey, Author of Hiroshima

by Jeremy Treglown

A monumental reevaluation of the career of John Hersey, the author of Hiroshima

Few are the books with as immediate an impact and as enduring a legacy as John Hersey’s Hiroshima . First published as an entire issue of The New Yorker in 1946, it was serialized in newspapers the world over and has never gone out of print. By conveying plainly the experiences of six survivors of the 1945 atomic bombing and its aftermath, Hersey brought to light the magnitude of nuclear war. And in his adoption of novelistic techniques, he prefigured the conventions of New Journalism. But how did Hersey―who was not Japanese, not an eyewitness, not a scientist―come to be the first person to communicate the experience to a global audience?

In Mr. Straight Arrow , Jeremy Treglown answers that question and shows that Hiroshima was not an aberration but was emblematic of the author’s lifework. By the time of Hiroshima ’s publication, Hersey was already a famed war writer and had won a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. He continued to publish journalism of immediate and pressing moral concern; his reporting from the Freedom Summer and his exposés of the Detroit riots resonate all too loudly today. But his obsessive doubts over the value of his work never ceased. Mr. Straight Arrow is an intimate, exacting study of the achievements and contradictions of Hersey’s career, which reveals the powers of a writer tirelessly committed to truth and social change.

Genres: Biography, History, Nonfiction

384 pages, Hardcover

Published April 23, 2019

Reviews

[Harriet Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

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.

[Mandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.

[Mary Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having read Hiroshima in high school, I enjoyed learning more about the author John Hersey. I thought it also gave interesting insights on journalistic writing and non-fiction. Beyond being a Pulitzer Prize winning author, he was involved in many social justice issues during the sixties: working in Mississippi to register black voters and resistance against the Vietnam War. Students at John Hersey High School in Arlington Heights might be interested in learning more about this author.

[Bsldavio · Rating 2 out of 5]

Biography

[Geoff Walling · Rating 1 out of 5]

Hard to really care about him.