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(Photo of JEP Books)
(Schuyler photo of JEP)
Joseph E Persico Biographic Sketch
Prior to beginning his career as a historian and biographer, Joseph
E. Persico was chief speechwriter for New York governor and later U.S.
vice president, Nelson A. Rockefeller.
Of Persico’s subsequent work, Eric Sevaried described his Edward
R. Murrow: An American Original as “the definitive” biography of the
broadcast pioneer. The New York Times said of Persico’s The Imperial
Rockefeller, “No one has written a book like this about Nelson Rockefeller
before.” His Nuremberg: Infamy on Trial was described by the broadcast
journalist, Howard K. Smith, as “Simply the best account of the trial.”
This book was adapted by Turner Network Television as a miniseries that
won two Emmy awards. Persico was the collaborator on former Secretary
of State Colin Powell’s autobiography, My American Journey which
remained twenty weeks on the New York Times best seller list. His
Roosevelt’s Secret War: FDR and World War II Espionage also reached the
best seller list and was chosen as one of the notable books of the year.
His, Eleventh Month, Eleventh Day, Eleventh Hour, on Armistice Day,
World War, has been described by historian, Richard Norton Smith as,
“The single finest work I have read on the Great War.” Persico’s next book
soon to be published by Random House deals with the women prominent
in the life of Franklin d. Roosevelt.
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His articles have been published in American Heritage Magazine and the Military
History Quarterly. He is a frequent reviewer for the New York Times Book Review
and the Washington Post Book World and is a commentator on several PBS and
History Channel documentaries.
Excerpts of Reviews of Books By Joseph E. Persico
ROOSEVELT’S SECRET WAR: FDR and World War II Espionage
Random House
“Joseph E. Persico explores – with judicious historical zest and a fine eye
for detail – the hallucinatory world of snooping, concealments, betrayals
and confidence games played for world-history stakes.”
Time Magazine
“A well-paced, memorable account . . . Mr. Persico obviously admires his
subject. This entertaining and thoughtful book shows there was much to
admire.”
New York Times
“Surprises abound . . . But the main interest in Roosevelt’s Secret War
lies in the new dimension it adds to the picture of Roosevelt the man. . .
a worthwhile addition to the bulging bookshelves of World War II.
Philadelphia Inquirer
“Blending anecdotes, speculations and documented facts into an exciting
story of collecting and transmitting information in wartime, Persico offers
a clear-eyed take on FDR’s approach to intelligence.”
Publisher’s Weekly
MY AMERICAN JOURNEY (Colin Powell with Joseph Persico co-author)
Random House
“My American Journey is an endearing and well written book, written
with Joseph E. Persico, the author of several fine biographies.”
New York Times
“Ably written with Joseph E. Persico, My American Journey finally fleshes
out for us who, indeed, is Colin Powell.”
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USA Today
“It’s a good book, solid, controlled – defensive sometimes – but more
honest than the books of men who pursue the presidency. The general
shows a sharper eye and pen than I had expected …”
Washington Post
EDWARD R. MURROW: An American Original
McGraw Hill
“Written with insight and perceptiveness. Mr. Persico is an able reporter
and a fine story teller whose taste, tact and skill have produced a
memorable biography.”
New York Times
“A distinguished and compellingly readable biography. Persico brings to
Murrow the intellectual discipline of the historian, the polished and
memorable prose of the accomplished biographer.”
Los Angeles Times
“An absorbing tale, compellingly told.”
Washington Post
ELEVENTH MONTH, ELEVENTH DAY, ELEVENTH HOUR: Armistice
Day, 1918
Random House
“With admirable skill, Persico weaves in every facet of World War I: how
it began, life in the trenches and the plague of rats. . . . He illuminates
key battles in which the men fought, and he recounts their first days in
the trenches as well as other moving moments.”
USA Today
“Where Persico excels is in reconstructing the moment by moment
journeys of men facing possible death or mutilation, many of whom were
dehumanized in the process. You can see, feel and smell these
doughboys, poilus, Tommies and bosches – and sense their rage and
despair.”
New York Daily News
“Persico has a flair for describing the hostilities in striking terms . . . [He]
seems incapable of writing an uninteresting paragraph.”
The Orlando Sentinel
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“Joseph Persico has found a fresh way to tell the story of World War I
that makes it seems like it occurred yesterday, not 86 years ago. . . . I
could not stop reading, not even for sleep. . . . “
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
“Superb . . . Persico creates more than a historical account of events or
an examination of high strategy. These are in the book, but for Persico
the real story of the war is told by those who lived it: the men in the
trenches. . . . It is story worth reading.”
Book Page
NUREMBERG: Infamy on Trial
The Viking Press
“Persico makes it the trial read like a novel.”
New York Times
“This work will probably command, and deserves, a wider readership
than any of its predecessors. Every generation needs a book like this.”
Washington Post
“It is not often that a book works at once as historical tract, morality play
and crime thriller. This one does.”
Philadelphia Inquirer
THE IMPERIAL ROCKEFELLER: The Life of Nelson Rockefeller
Simon and Schuster
“Persico tells his story brilliantly. No one has written a book like this
about Nelson Rockefeller before.”
New York Times
“This book has the quality of fireside reminiscences, of brave days past.
The reader finishes it feeling that he knows, with some intimacy, a
central, towering figure.”
The New Republic
“An excellent biography, a portrait of a complex individual by a sensitive
observer. Persico has captured Rockefeller brilliantly.”
Publishers Weekly
PIERCING THE REICH: The Penetration of Nazi Germany by
American Secret Agents During World War II
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Viking Press
“Those of us who devour spy stories like cashew nuts are in Mr. Persico’s
debt. Brilliantly researched and cleverly told.”
Washington Post
“A masterwork. It is surely the most vivid testimonial yet to the OSS.
This is heart pounding stuff.”
Philadelphia Enquirer
“Persico has been able to reconstruct this operation in stunning detail, a
deft narrative.”
Kirkus Reviews
MY ENEMY, MY BROTHER: Men and days of Gettysburg
Viking Press
“My Enemy, My Brother is an eloquent documentary, forming the facts
into a mosaic that shows the terribleness of war.”
New York Times
“. . . it has an earthiness and immediacy that are compelling.”
Saturday Review
“This vivid, absorbing action-packed narrative of the greatest battle ever
fought in North America practically transports the reader onto the scene,
causing sweating palms and a sense of looming danger.”
Library Journal
“The author of this magnificent study . . . has focused upon the men
involved rather than upon those impersonal matters so dear to the
military historian . . . Here is war as it affects men.”
Los Angeles Examiner
CASEY: William J. Casey from the OSS to the CIA
Viking
“A lively and balanced narrative that conveys his subject’s complex
mixture of early selfishness and higher loyalties.”
New York Times
“ … a firmly three dimensional biography of Casey. And it clarifies the
Iran-Contra fiasco as nowhere else.”
Publishers Weekly
“Compelling biography, rich with anecdote and analysis.”
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Wall Street Journal
THE SPIDERWEB (A novel)
Crown
“Mr. Persico tells his story better than most writers who in recent years
have been dabbling in World War II adventure tales. He has a certain
amount of sympathy for the human condition . . . the writing is crisp,
and the plot moves very well”
New York Times
“ A neatly built thriller, and it also has something worthwhile to say.”
Washington Post
“This book is well researched, well written and beautifully constructed.”
Penthouse
Words Inscribed on the World War II Memorial
Joseph E. Persico served as a commissioner on the American Battle
Monuments Commission during the period in which the Commission
built the World War II Memorial in Washington. Engraved on the walls of
the Memorial are eighteen quotations from World War II leaders and two
others written by Mr. Persico. His include the announcement stone at the
memorial’s entrance reading: (use photo of announcement stone)
“Here in the presence of Washington and Lincoln, one the eighteenth
century father and the other the nineteenth century preserver of our
nation, we honor those twentieth century Americans who took up the
struggle during the second world war and made the sacrifices to
perpetuate the gift our forefathers entrusted to us, a nation conceived in
liberty and justice.”
secondly, Persico wrote the inscription on the field of gold stars which
represents the 400,000 Americans who died in the country’s service
during World War II and reads:
“Hear we mark the price of freedom.”
(Photo of Field of gold Stars)
(Photo of JP standing by Announcement Stone)
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Joseph E. Persico Papers
The papers of Mr. Persico covering his careers as foreign service officer,
speech writer for Governor and later Vice President Nelson Rockefeller
and author are deposited at the State University of New York in Albany
for the use of the public. Queries about these papers should be made to
Brian Keough
Science Library Room 352
University at Albany
1400 Washington Ave, 12222
Tel 518 437 3931
Fax 518 437 3930
bkeough@albany.edu