William Manchester

In 1947, a young William Manchester–the man who would later become a celebrated biographer, historian, and novelist–was working as a reporter for The Baltimore Sun. It was there that he met fellow journalist H.L. Mencken, the influential writer and cofounder of the magazines The American Mercury and The Smart Set. While attending the University of Missouri, Manchester tackled Mencken as the subject of his Masters thesis. When the resulting biography was published on the wider market in 1951, it made a splash–establishing Manchester's reputation as a skilled writer, biographer, and political commentator.