He has also written about the lives of Thomas Mann and former PresidentBill Clinton as well as numerous other works in a variety of fields. His film on the life of Field Marshal Lord Montgomery won the New York Blue Ribbon Award for Best Documentary. He founded the British Institute of Biography and became the first professor of biography in the UK at De Montfort University. He is currently senior fellow at the John W. McCormack Graduate School of Policy Studies, University of Massachusetts, Boston, where he wrote a modern version of The Twelve Caesars, titled American Caesars: Franklin D. Roosevelt to George W. Bush, published in September 2010 by Yale University Press.
He then attended Munich University and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he received an honours degree in history and a master's degree. Subsequently, he trained under André Deutsch and Diana Athill as a book publisher at André Deutsch Publishers. After leaving Deutsch, he taught at a school in Greenwich, where he assisted in reviving the historic borough on the River Thames. Hamilton opened a bookstore and began writing with his mother, Olive Hamilton, the first history of Greenwich in nearly a century, Royal Greenwich. He wrote several more guide books and edited the arts page in a London newspaper.
Biographer
After moving to Suffolk, Hamilton published his first major biography in 1978, The Brothers Mann, recording the lives of the German novelists Heinrich and Thomas Mann which received high praise in Britain and the United States[3] and was translated into several languages.
In 1981, Hamilton published the first volume of his official life of Field MarshalThe 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein, Monty: The Making of a General, 1887–1942, which established Hamilton's international reputation as a military historian and biographer. This work was followed by Monty: Master of the Battlefield, 1942–1944, and Monty: The Field Marshal, 1944–1976. The Making of a General won the Whitbread Award for Biography in 1981,[4] and the Templer Medal for Best Contribution to Military History in 1986.[5]
Working with Robin Whitby, a Cambridge colleague, in 1987, Hamilton founded Biografia Publishers and The Biography Bookshop in Covent Garden in Central London to promote the field of biography.
In 1988, Hamilton moved to the United States to undertake a book on the life of former PresidentJohn F. Kennedy and he was named the John F. Kennedy Scholar at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, and a visiting professor of history.[6] The first volume of his biography was published by Random House in the autumn of 1992 as JFK: Reckless Youth. The New York Times Book Review welcomed it as "rich, gripping... a book not only about a remarkable young John F. Kennedy but also about American democracy’s own still reckless age."[7] It became a New York Times bestseller and film rights were sold to Hearst Entertainment,[8] who turned it into a television mini-series, JFK: Reckless Youth, which starred Patrick Dempsey as the young Kennedy.[9] The book was intended to be the first of a three-volume series on Kennedy, but following its publication, Hamilton "lost access to critical primary source documents and was forced to abandon the series."[10]
In 1994, Hamilton moved back to the UK, where he became visiting professor of history at Royal Holloway, University of London, and Professor of Biography at De Montfort University, in Leicester.[11] He set up the British Institute of Biography[12] and led Royal Holloway's bid to create the first public and academic centre for biography in Britain, the Biorama Project.[13]
Hamilton again returned to the United States to undertake a two-volume biographical work on the life of former president, Bill Clinton. The first volume was published as Bill Clinton: An American Journey in 2003 while the second volume, Bill Clinton: Mastering the Presidency (taking Clinton's life up to 1996), followed in 2007. Both were lauded in the press and received outstanding reviews.[14][15]
Having become senior fellow at the John W. McCormack Graduate School of Policy Studies[16] and a visiting scholar at both Georgetown University and George Washington University in 2005, Hamilton returned to his first love, the study of the art of biography. He published Biography: A Brief History in 2007, to high acclaim from The New York Times[17] and followed in 2008 with How To Do Biography: A Primer, based on his many years of teaching and life writing, which received additional praise for Hamilton's work on the art of biography.[18]
Hamilton followed with a modern version of the classic history of the great emperors of Rome, The Twelve Caesars, written early in the second century A.D. by the biographer and historian Suetonius. Published by Yale University Press in September 2010, American Caesars records the lives of the last twelve American presidents, from Franklin Delano Roosevelt to George W. Bush, and is Hamilton's most ambitious work to date.[19]
Hamilton was married to Hannelore Pfeifer, a doctoral student of German literature at Munich University, and had two children, Alexander and Sebastian. Following her death in 1973, Hamilton married Outi Palovesi in 1976 and together, they had two more children, Nick and Christian. In 2005, the marriage was dissolved and Hamilton married his third wife, Raynel Shepard, in 2006. Shepard is a curriculum developer in ESL for the Boston Public Schools and a university lecturer in education. Nigel Hamilton is a United States citizen.
Work
Books
Royal Greenwich; A Guide and History of London’s Most Historic Borough – 1969 (with Olive Hamilton) ISBN0-900293-01-2
Greenwich in Colour: A Guide for the Visitor – 1970 ISBN0-900293-02-0
Nigel Hamilton's Guide to Greenwich: A Personal Guide to the Buildings and Walks of One of England's Most Beautiful and Historic Areas – 1972 ISBN0-900293-04-7
A Case of Literary Fratricide: The Brüderzwist Between Heinrich and Thomas Mann in Norman Kiell, ed Blood Brothers: Siblings As Writers – 1983 ISBN0-8236-0545-0
Monty: Master of the Battlefield, 1942–1944 – 1984 (U.S. title: Master of the Battlefield: Monty's War Years 1942–1944) ISBN0-241-11104-8
Thomas Mann in Jeffrey Meyers, ed The Craft of Literary Biography – 1985 ISBN0-333-37348-0
Monty: The Field-Marshal, 1944–1976 – 1986 (U.S. title: Monty: Final Years of the Field-Marshal, 1944–1976) ISBN0-241-11838-7
The Price of Independence: Finland-USSR in Frontiers – 1990 (with Nadine Gordimer, Ronald Eyre, Chris Hitchens, et al.) ISBN0-563-20701-9
D-Day: Gemeinsame Operationen und die Frage der Führung in Gerhard P. Groß, ed, Führungsdenken in europäischen und nordamerikanischen Streitkräften im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert – 2001 ISBN3-8132-0762-5
Webster, William T. (1982), review of The Brothers Mann: The Lives of Heinrich and Thomas Mann, in Murray, Glen (ed.), Cencrastus No. 8, Spring 1982, p. 48, ISSN0264-0856
Related Research Articles
Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery, 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein, nicknamed "Monty", was a senior British Army officer who served in the First World War, the Irish War of Independence and the Second World War.
Viscount Montgomery of Alamein, of Hindhead in the County of Surrey, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom.
William Jefferson Blythe Jr. was an American salesman of heavy equipment. He was the biological father of Bill Clinton, the 42nd president of the United States. Three months before his son was born, Blythe drowned following a car crash.
Major-General Sir Francis Wilfred "Freddie" de Guingand, was a British Army officer who served as Field Marshal Sir Bernard Montgomery's chief of staff from the Second Battle of El Alamein until the end of the Second World War. He played an important diplomatic role in sustaining relations between the notoriously difficult Montgomery and his peers and superiors.
David Bernard Montgomery, 2nd Viscount Montgomery of Alamein, was a British politician and businessman. He was the son of Bernard Montgomery.
Lieutenant-General Herbert William Lumsden, was a senior British Army officer who fought in both the First and Second World Wars. He commanded the 1st Armoured Division in the Western Desert campaign, and later commanded X Corps at the Second Battle of El Alamein, before being relieved by his superior, Lieutenant General Bernard Montgomery. He was killed in action by the Japanese in early 1945, becoming the most senior combat casualty of the British Army of the Second World War.
Robert A. Dallek is an American historian specializing in the presidents of the United States, including Franklin D. Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Richard Nixon.
Major-General Douglas Neil Wimberley, was a British Army officer who, during the Second World War, commanded the 51st (Highland) Division for two years, from 1941 to 1943, notably at the Second Battle of El Alamein, before leading it across North Africa and in the Allied campaign in Sicily.
Meyrick Edward Clifton James was an actor and soldier, with a resemblance to Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery which was used by British intelligence as part of a deception campaign during the Second World War.
Sir Robert MontgomeryGCSI, KCB, was a British administrator and civil servant in colonial India. He was Chief Commissioner of Oudh during the period of 1858 to 1859 and later served as Lieutenant Governor of Punjab between 1859 and 1865.
The 9th Armoured Brigade was a British Army brigade formed during the Second World War.
Amesbury School is a co-educational independent prep school in the Hindhead/Haslemere area of Surrey, England. It was founded in 1870 and educates pupils between the ages of 9 months and 13 years. Sir Edwin Lutyens designed the Grade II*-listed main building, which stands on a 34-acre
The Château de Creully is an 11th- and 12th-century castle, much altered over the years, located in the town of Creully in the Calvados département of France.
General Sir Sidney Chevalier Kirkman, was a British Army officer, who served in both the First World War and Second World War. During the latter he commanded the artillery of the Eighth Army during the Second Battle of El Alamein, following which he commanded the 50th Division during the Allied invasion of Sicily and XIII Corps throughout most of the Italian Campaign. He later became Director General of Civil Defence in the Civil Defence Department from 1954 to 1960.
Henry Hutchinson Montgomery was an Anglican bishop and author.
An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy, 1917–1963 is a 2003 biography of the 35th president of the United States, John F. Kennedy (JFK), who was assassinated in 1963. It was written by Bancroft Prize-winning historian Robert Dallek, a prominent History professor at Boston University. The author is a presidential historian who taught at Columbia University and UCLA prior to accepting his professorial role in Boston, and was the author of nearly two-dozen books. Dallek researched JFK for five years, using National Security Archives, oral histories, White House tapes, and medical records in his preparations. Dallek contends that historians have underestimated JFK's achievements, especially in regards to his impressive accomplishments in foreign policy, including his averting nuclear war during the Cuban Missile Crisis and his early steps towards detente with the Soviet Union, which began with his Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty of August 5, 1963.
Brigadier Sir Edgar Trevor Williams was a British historian and army military intelligence officer who played a significant role in the Second Battle of El Alamein in the Second World War. He was one of the few officers who was privy to the Ultra secret, and he served on the staff of Field Marshal Sir Bernard Montgomery as his intelligence officer for the rest of the war.
Lieutenant Colonel Sir Charles Denis Hamilton, DSO, TD was an English newspaper editor.
JFK: Reckless Youth is a 1993 TV drama miniseries portraying the early life of American president John F. Kennedy. It was adapted from the 1992 biography of the same name by Nigel Hamilton. The adaptation was directed by Harry Winer and written by Hamilton and William Broyles, Jr. Patrick Dempsey played the young future president, while Terry Kinney, Loren Dean, Diana Scarwid and Robin Tunney portray members of his family.
This bibliography of John F. Kennedy is a list of published works about John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States.
↑ Obituary of Sir Denis Hamilton: One of the Great Editors, The Times, 8 April 1988.
↑ "An utterly absorbing and important story" – George Steiner, The New Yorker; "A rich and informative double biography...he makes it sound every bit as interesting as it was" – Peter Gay, New York Times Book Review
↑ David L. Beck, No Friend of Bill, The Mercury News, 12 October 2003
↑ Peter Preston "There May Be Trouble Ahead: Volume two of Nigel Hamilton’s fine biography tells how Bill Clinton soared after a disastrous start", The Observer, 22 July 2007
↑ "a rich and provocative meditation on the history of biography" Scott Stossel, Whose Life Is It?, The New York Times, 18 March 2007
↑ "Hamilton has created a motivating, empowering guide for writers (and fans) of the genre.", Publishers Weekly Online Annex, Starred Review, 5 May 2008
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
