Schlesinger, Arthur Meier, Jr (1917–2007)

US historian. His first book, The Age of Jackson, won a Pulitzer Prize in 1945. Becoming active in Democratic politics, he served as a speechwriter in the presidential campaigns of Adlai Stevenson in 1956 and John F Kennedy in 1960. He was presidential assistant for Latin American Affairs 1961–64 and in 1967 became a professor at the City College of New York. As one of the most renowned US historians, he was awarded the National Humanities Medal in 1998.

Born in Columbus, Ohio, the son of a prominent historian, Schlesinger was educated at Harvard University and served as an intelligence officer during World War II. He won the National Book Award twice, for A Thousand Days: John F Kennedy in the White House (1965) and Robert Kennedy and His Times (1979). A Thousand Days also won the 1966 Pulitzer Prize for Biography.