John Gunther, the internationally known journalist and writer, was born in 1901 in Chicago. He was educated in the public schools there and graduated from the University of Chicago in 1922, where he had been literary editor of the Daily Maroon, the campus newspaper. Soon after graduation he began work as a foreign correspondent for the Chicago Daily News and remained in Europe until 1936. He was at various times in charge of Daily News offices in London, Berlin, Vienna, Moscow, Rome, and Paris, and has worked or visited in every European country except Portugal. In 1936, he published the results of his early years of European experience in the first of his "inside" books, INSIDE EUROPE, which sold more than 500,000 copies.
For more than twenty years Gunther continued the writing of these phenomenally successful "inside" books which include INSIDE ASIA (1939), INSIDE LATIN AMERICA (1941), INSIDE U.S.A. (1947), INSIDE AFRICA (1955), INSIDE RUSSIA TODAY (1958), and most recently INSIDE EUROPE TODAY (1961). In addition, Gunther wrote a number of other books on current affairs as well as biographical studies of major figures in American life. These include D-DAY (1944), concerning the Allied invasion of Italy and the Mediterranean war in general; BEHIND THE CURTAIN (1949), investigating conditions in Europe at the time, especially the countries behind the Iron Curtain; ROOSEVELT IN RETROSPECT (1950); THE RIDDLE OF MACARTHUR (1951); EISENHOWER: THE MAN AND THE SYMBOL (1952); TAKEN AT THE FLOOD: THE STORY OF ALBERT D. LASKER (1960). In 1949, Gunther published the deeply moving account of the death of his young son, John, two years earlier, of a brain tumor, entitled DEATH BE NOT PROUD. In addition, he is the author of a series of juvenile books, which are revised versions for younger readers of chapters from INSIDE AFRICA and INSIDE RUSSIA TODAY. He has also written three other children's books on historical and mythical characters: ALEXANDER THE GREAT (1952), JULIUS CAESAR (1959), and THE GOLDEN FLEECE (1959). In 1955, Gunther prepared the text and captions for DAYS TO REMEMBER, a pictorial volume on America, 1945-1955, written in collaboration with Bernard Quint, associate art editor of Life.
From the guide to the Gunther, John. Papers, 1935-1967, (Special Collections Research Center University of Chicago Library 1100 East 57th Street Chicago, Illinois 60637 U.S.A.)
