Lee and Grant at Appomattox

Novelist, journalist, and screenwriter MacKinlay Cantor began his career in 1928, writing pulp fiction pieces for magazines of the day. His first novel, Long Remember, published in 1934, was set during the Battle of Gettysburg and began the author's lifelong interest in the Civil War. During World War II, Cantor served as a war correspondent in Europe, chronicling such events as the American bombing campaign against Germany and the liberation of the Buchenwald concentration camp. After the war, Cantor resumed his creative writing career. His novel Glory for Me (1945), written in blank verse, was the basis for the screenplay for the successful Hollywood film The Best Years of Our Lives, which won 7 Academy Awards. His novel Andersonville, about the notorious Confederate prison camp, won the 1956 Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction. By the time of his death in 1977, he had authored more than 30 books, including four works for young readers.