June 1 2004

William Manchester (April 1, 1922 to June 1, 2004) was writer in residence at Wesleyan University, in Connecticut, for the last fifty years of his life. He was born in the state next to Connecticut, Massachusetts, and had a life of adventure before settling into an academic routine: he had been a Marine, and foreign correspondent also.

Manchester is noted for his popular biographies; The Death of a President (1967) jumps to mind. He had a graceful prose but his intellectual acumen did not extend to embracing foreign times. Manchester's. A World Lit Only by Fire, (1993) has this passage:

...."although they called themselves Christians, medieval Europeans were ignorant of the gospels.

The Bible existed only in a language they could not read. The mumbled incantations at Mass were meaningless to them. ... They believed in sorcery, witchcraft, hobgoblins, werewolves, amulets, and black magic, and thus were indistinguishable from pagans. If a lady died, the instant her breath stopped, servants ran through the manor house, emptying every container of water to prevent her soul from drowning, and before her funeral the corpse was carefully watched to prevent any dog or cat from running across the coffin, thus changing her remains into a vampire....[E]very child was taught that the air all around them was infested with invisible soulless spirits, some benign, but most of them evil, dangerous, long-lived, and hard to kill..."

Manchester's view of his subjects is that they are gullible fools. Such simple minded historiography only reflects the author in a bad light. The world lit only by fire is Manchester's library.