Norman Thomas: The Last Idealist

William Andrew Swanberg (1907–1992) was an American biographer best known for his scholarly works on prominent figures in journalism and politics, including Citizen Hearst (1961), a biography of William Randolph Hearst that was recommended for but ultimately denied the Pulitzer Prize, and Luce and His Empire (1972), which won the 1973 Pulitzer Prize for Biography. Born in St. Paul, Minnesota, he graduated from the University of Minnesota in 1930, worked in journalism and publishing, served in the Office of War Information during World War II, and transitioned to freelance writing and biography in the 1950s, producing labor-intensive books often assisted by his wife.