David herbert donald obituary
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- David Herbert Donald was born in Goodman, Mississippi, about 30 miles north of Jackson.
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David Herbert Donald (1920-2009)
Winner of two Pulitzer Prizes for biography; life member of the AHA
David Herbert Donald’s untimely death on May 17, 2009, gives us an opportunity to reflect on the virtues of one of the most accomplished historians of his generation. His father was a farmer and his mother a former schoolteacher when David was born in 1920 in Goodman, Mississippi. He completed his degree in history and sociology at Millsaps College in Jackson, Mississippi, before attending graduate school at both the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and—briefly—the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He earned first his master’s degree from the University of Illinois in 1942 and then completed his doctorate in history in 1945 under the supervision of the renowned Lincoln scholar, James G. Randall.
Donald’s economy of prose and dense detail won him early notice, especially with his first published article, “The Scalawags in Mississippi Reconstruction,” which appeared in the Journal of Southern History in 1944.
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A Mississippian by birth, David Herbert Donald (1920 – 2009) was the Charles Warren Professor of American History (emeritus from 1991) at Harvard University. He received the Pulitzer Prize twice (1961 and 1988), several honorary degrees, and served as president of the Southern Historical Association.
Prof. Donald wrote over thirty books, including well received biographies of Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Wolfe and Charles Sumner. He specialized in the Civil War and Reconstruction periods, and in the history of the South.Donald is best known for his biography of Abraham Lincoln, which was praised by Eric Foner as the best biography of Lincoln, and by Bill Clinton who called it "one of the best biographies on any person in politics," as well as his Pulitzer-Prize winning biographies of politician Charles Sumner and writer Thomas Wolfe.
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Acheson, Dean
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David Herbert Donald
American historian (1920–2009)
David Herbert Donald (October 1, 1920 – May 17, 2009) was an American historian, best known for his 1995 biography of Abraham Lincoln. He twice won the Pulitzer Prize for Biography for earlier works; he published more than 30 books on United States political and literary figures and the history of the American South.
Early life and education
David Herbert Donald was born in Goodman, Mississippi, a town in the center of Holmes County. The county's western border is formed by the Yazoo River and it is part of the Mississippi-Yazoo Delta.
Majoring in history and sociology, Donald earned his bachelor's degree from Millsaps College in Jackson, Mississippi.[1] After earning a master's degree in history (1942) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign,[2] he earned his PhD in 1946[1] under eminent Lincoln scholar James G. Randall at the same institution. Randall as a mentor influenced Donald's life and career. He encouraged his protégé to write his dissertation on Abraham Lincoln'
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