Cornelius Ryan

This article is about the Irish author. For other uses, seeCornelius Ryan (disambiguation).

Cornelius Ryan(5 June 1920 – 23 November 1974) was an Irish journalist and author known mainly for writing popularmilitary history.He was especially known for his histories ofWorld War IIevents:The Longest Day: 6 June 1944 D-Day(1959),The Last Battle(1966), andA Bridge Too Far(1974).

Cornelius Ryan
Ryan in 1966
Born	5 June 1920 Dublin, Ireland
Died	23 November 1974(1974-11-23)(aged 54) Manhattan, New York, U.S.
Genre	Military history
Notable works	World War IIhistories

Born and raised inDublin,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 forTime.In 1951 Ryan became a naturalized US citizen and lived there for the remainder of his life.

Early life and education

Ryan was born inDublinand educated atSynge Street CBS,Portobello, Dublin,Ireland. He was an altar boy atSt Kevin's Church,Harrington Street and studied the violin at theIrish Academy of Musicin Dublin. He was a boy scout in the 52nd Troop of theCatholic Boy Scouts of Irelandand travelled on their pilgrimage to Rome on the linerLancastriain 1934.

Career

What I write about is not war but the courage of man.

Cornelius Ryan

Ryan moved to London in 1940, where he became a war correspondent forThe Daily Telegraphin 1941. He initially covered theair war in Europe.After the US entered the war, he flew along on fourteen bombing missions with theEighthandNinthUnited States Army Air Forces(USAAF). He joined GeneralGeorge S. Patton'sThird Armyand 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 toJerusalemin 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 forTime.He reported on the postwar tests of atomic weapons carried out by the United States in the Pacific.He also reported forTimeon the Israeli war in 1948.This was followed by work for other magazines, includingCollier's WeeklyandReader's Digest.

He married Kathryn Morgan (1925–1993), a novelist. Ryan became anaturalized citizenof the United States in 1951.

On a trip to Normandy in 1949, Ryan became interested in telling a more complete story ofOperation Overlordthan 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.

In 1956 he began to write down his World War II notes forThe Longest Day: 6 June 1944 D-Day,which tells the story of theD-DayInvasion 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 the1962 The Longest Day.Darryl F. Zanuckpaid the author US$175,000 for the screen rights to the book.

Ryan's 1957 bookOne Minute to Ditch!is about thesuccessful ocean ditchingof aPan AmericanBoeing 377 Stratocruiser.After publishing an article about the ditching forCollier'sin their 21 December 1956, issue, Ryan expanded it and developed it as a book.

His next work wasThe Last Battle(1966), about theBattle 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 the spring of 1945, when the forces of the western allies and the Soviet Union contended for the chance to liberate Berlin and to carve up the remains of Germany.

Ryan followed this work byA Bridge Too Far(1974), which tells the story ofOperation Market Garden,the ill-fated assault by Alliedairborne forceson the Netherlands, culminating in theBattle of Arnhem.This work was also adapted for the cinema and released as amajor 1977 film of the same name.

He was diagnosed withprostate cancerin 1970, and struggled to finishA Bridge Too Farduring his illness. He died inManhattan,while on tour promoting the book, two months after its publication in 1974. He is buried in the Ridgebury Cemetery in northernRidgefield, Connecticut.

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

For many years Ryan's editor atSimon & SchusterwasPeter Schwed,who was assisted byMichael Korda.Ryan's literary agent was Paul Gitlin.

Legacy and honours

• Ryan was awarded the FrenchLegion of Honour.
• He received an honorary Doctor of Literature degree fromOhio University.His papers are kept there as the Cornelius Ryan Collection inVernon R. Alden Library.

Bibliography

• 1946. –Star-Spangled Mikado.– with Frank Kelley. – New York City:: R.M. McBride. OCLC1142015
• 1950. –MacArthur: Man of Action.– with Frank Kelley. – Garden City, New York: Doubleday. – OCLC:1516843
• 1957. –One Minute to Ditch!.– New York: Ballantine Books. – OCLC24116050
• 1959. –The Longest Day: 6 June 1944 D-Day.– Greenwich, Connecticut: Fawcett Publications.ISBN0-671-62228-5
• 1966. –The Last Battle.– New York City: Simon & Schuster
  • New English Library(1979) –ISBN0-450-04433-5.
  • Simon & Schuster; Reprint edition (1995) –ISBN0684803291
• 1974. –A Bridge Too Far.– New York City: Simon & Schuster. –ISBN0-671-21792-5
• 1979. –A Private Battle.– Posthumously with Kathryn Morgan Ryan. – New York City:: Simon & Schuster. –ISBN0-671-22594-4

External links

• Cornelius RyanatLibrary of Congress,with 24 library catalogue records
• Cornelius Ryan Collection of World War II Papers– Ohio University Libraries
• The Reporter Whom Time Forgotby Michael Shapiro,Columbia Journalism Review
• The Ryan Collectionin theLibrary of Trinity College Dublin