Cornelius Ryan

Template:Short description Template:About Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox writer Cornelius Ryan (5 June 1920 – 23 November 1974) was an Irish journalist and author known mainly for writing popular military history. He was especially known for his histories of World War II events: The Longest Day: 6 June 1944 D-Day (1959), The Last Battle (1966), and A Bridge Too Far (1974).

Born and raised in Dublin, Ireland, he began working as a journalist in London in 1940. He became involved in covering World War II and travelled with troops in Europe. After the war, he covered the establishment of Israel. He immigrated to the United States in 1947 to work for Time. In 1951 Ryan became a naturalized US citizen and lived there for the remainder of his life.

Early life and education

Ryan was born in Dublin and educated at Synge Street CBS, Portobello, Dublin, Ireland. He was an altar boy at St Kevin's Church, Harrington Street and studied the violin at the Irish Academy of Music in Dublin. He was a boy scout in the 52nd Troop of the Catholic Boy Scouts of Ireland and travelled on their pilgrimage to Rome on the liner Lancastria in 1934.<ref name=Time-1974-12-9>"Milestones, Dec. 9, 1974". Time. 9 December 1974. Retrieved 24 September 2021.</ref>

Career

Ryan moved to London in 1940, where he became a war correspondent for The Daily Telegraph in 1941. He initially covered the air war in Europe. After the US entered the war, he flew along on fourteen bombing missions with the Eighth and Ninth United States Army Air Forces (USAAF). He joined General George S. Patton's Third Army and covered its actions until the end of the European war in 1945. That year he transferred to the Pacific theater until the war ended there. He travelled to Jerusalem in 1946 to cover the end of the Palestinian mandate and rise of an independent Israel.

Ryan emigrated to the United States in 1947 to work for Time. He reported on the postwar tests of atomic weapons carried out by the United States in the Pacific.<ref name=Time-1974-12-9 /> He also reported for Time on the Israeli war in 1948.<ref name=Time-1974-12-9 /> This was followed by work for other magazines, including Collier's Weekly and Reader's Digest.<ref name=Another />

He married Kathryn Morgan (1925–1993), a novelist. Ryan became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1951.<ref name=PGIL>Cornelius Ryan: Life. – Ricorso. – Retrieved: 23 September 2007.</ref>

On a trip to Normandy in 1949, Ryan became interested in telling a more complete story of Operation Overlord than had been produced to date. He began compiling information and conducting over 1000 interviews as he gathered stories from both the Allies and the Germans, as well as French civilians.<ref name=Time-1974-12-9 />

In 1956 he began to write down his World War II notes for The Longest Day: 6 June 1944 D-Day, which tells the story of the D-Day Invasion of Normandy. He completed it and published it in 1959. It was an instant success, and film rights were purchased. Ryan helped to write the screenplay for the 1962 The Longest Day. Darryl F. Zanuck paid the author US$175,000 for the screen rights to the book.<ref name=Time-1962-10-19>"Operation Overblown". – Time. – 19 October 1962. – Retrieved: 23 June 2008</ref>

Ryan's 1957 book One Minute to Ditch! is about the successful ocean ditching of a Pan American Boeing 377 Stratocruiser.<ref>Ryan, Cornelius, (1957). – One Minute to Ditch!. – New York: Ballantine.</ref> After publishing an article about the ditching for Collier's in their 21 December 1956, issue, Ryan expanded it and developed it as a book.<ref>Ryan, Cornelius. – "One Minute to Ditch!" – Collier's Weekly. – 21 December 1956.</ref>

His next work was The Last Battle (1966), about the Battle of Berlin. The book contains detailed accounts from all perspectives: civilian, and American, British, Russian and German military. It deals with the fraught military and political situation in mid-1945, when the western Allies and the Soviet Union competed to liberate Berlin and occupy Germany. The book contains echoes Soviet disinformation about their investigation of the death of Adolf Hitler, namely that they found Hitler's body instead of a body double (along with Hitler's liberated dental remains).<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Ryan followed this work by A Bridge Too Far (1974), which tells the story of Operation Market Garden, the ill-fated assault by Allied airborne forces on the Netherlands, culminating in the Battle of Arnhem. This work was also adapted for the cinema and released as a major 1977 film of the same name.

He was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1970, and struggled to finish A Bridge Too Far during his illness. He died in Manhattan,<ref name=Time-1974-12-9 /> while on tour promoting the book, two months after its publication in 1974. He is buried in the Ridgebury Cemetery in northern Ridgefield, Connecticut.

Four years after his death, his widow Kathryn Morgan Ryan published a memoir about his last years, entitled A Private Battle (1978). She based it on notes that he had secretly left behind for that purpose.

For many years Ryan's editor at Simon & Schuster was Peter Schwed, who was assisted by Michael Korda.<ref name=Another>Template:Cite book</ref> Ryan's literary agent was Paul Gitlin.<ref name=Another />

Legacy and honours

• Ryan was awarded the French Legion of Honour.
• He received an honorary Doctor of Literature degree from Ohio University. His papers are kept there as the Cornelius Ryan Collection in Vernon R. Alden Library.

Bibliography

• 1946. – Star-Spangled Mikado. – with Frank Kelley. – New York City:: R.M. McBride. OCLC Template:OCLC search link
• 1950. – MacArthur: Man of Action. – with Frank Kelley. – Garden City, New York: Doubleday. – OCLC: Template:OCLC search link
• 1957. – One Minute to Ditch!. – New York: Ballantine Books. – OCLC Template:OCLC search link
• 1959. – The Longest Day: 6 June 1944 D-Day. – Greenwich, Connecticut: Fawcett Publications. Template:ISBN
• 1966. – The Last Battle. – New York City: Simon & Schuster
  • New English Library (1979) – Template:ISBN.
  • Simon & Schuster; Reprint edition (1995) – Template:ISBN
• 1974. – A Bridge Too Far. – New York City: Simon & Schuster. – Template:ISBN
• 1979. – A Private Battle. – Posthumously with Kathryn Morgan Ryan. – New York City:: Simon & Schuster. – Template:ISBN

External links

• Template:LCAuth
• Cornelius Ryan Collection of World War II Papers – Ohio University Libraries
• The Reporter Whom Time Forgot by Michael Shapiro, Columbia Journalism Review
• The Ryan Collection in the Library of Trinity College Dublin