John Hersey
At their 50th reunion, students in the Yale Class of 1936 gave a gift in honor of their classmate, John Hersey. The Writing Center has the honor of inviting a distinguished writer to deliver the annual John Hersey lecture. Hersey is probably best-known for Hiroshima, his account of the aftermath of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. Hiroshima reports the experiences of six survivors, and was a worldwide sensation.
Hersey won the Pulitzer prize for A Bell for Adano, a novel set during World War II, and published more than two-dozen fiction and non-fiction books in ensuing years. In 1965, Professor Hersey became master of Pierson College, and he taught writing at Yale from then until 1984. For more information on Hersey’s career, and especially his time at Yale, see the 1993 tribute published in the Yale Alumni Magazine.
The 2007 John Hersey lecture was delivered by Art Spiegelman, Pulitzer-prize winning author of Maus, In the Shadow of No Towers, and other masterpieces of comic art. The event, held February 2, 2007, drew a standing-room crowd to the University Theater, where Spiegelman delivered a multi-media presentation on the development of comics and their influence on American culture. You can read Professor Amy Hungerford’s introduction and learn more about Spiegelman here.
The Hersey lecture was on hiatus from 1996-2006.
Anthony Lewis delivered the Hersey lecture in 1995. Lewis, long-time reporter and columnist for The New York Times, has two Pulitzer prizes for reporting and is the author of several books about landmark Supreme Court Cases. He was a long-time faculty member at Harvard law school, then held the James Madison chair in First Amendment Issues at the Columbia School of Journalism. You can learn more about Lewis and his work in the biography prepared when he served as a Poynter Fellow at Yale.
William Sloane Coffin delivered the 1994 Hersey lecture. Coffin, a civil rights activist of international scope, was Yale University Chaplain from 1958-1975. Indicted (and later acquitted) for encouraging draft resistance in 1967, Coffin was also one of the Freedom Riders who traveled by bus throughout the South to protest segregation. A member of the Yale College class of 1949, who also earned a degree from Yale Divinity School in 1956, he was a best-selling author and warmly regarded pastor, known for his powerful, poetical sermons and his fierce commitment to social justice. Coffin died in 2006. You can learn more about him and his work from tributes in the Yale Bulletin and the Yale Alumni Magazine.
The first John Hersey lecture was delivered by David McCullough, historian, winner of multiple Pulitzer prizes, and 1955 Yale graduate. That lecture, delivered in 1993, was given as a tribute to Hersey and to the class of 1936. You can learn more about McCullough at his website.
