布鲁斯·卡顿

查尔斯·布鲁斯·卡顿（英语：Charles Bruce Catton；1899年10月9日—1978年8月28日），是美国的作家、历史学家，主要对南北战争进行研究。1954年，查尔斯·布鲁斯·卡顿'协助创办了《美国遗产杂志》并长期担任该杂志的高级编辑。1978年8月28日，卡顿病逝于美国密歇根州法兰克福。

作品

《林肯先生的军队》（1951年）

《光荣之路》（1952年）

《沉寂的阿波麦托克斯》（1953年）

《这块神圣的土地》（1956年）

《格兰特将军南进记》（1960年）

《南北战争百年纪念》（1961–65年，3卷）

《格兰特将军执掌帅印》（1969年）

《密歇根二百年史》（1976年）

《宏伟大胆之梦：美国建国史（1492-1815年）》（1978年，与儿子威廉合写）

《南北战争反思》（1982年）

Charles Bruce Catton (October 9, 1899 – August 28, 1978) was an American historian and journalist who wrote books concerning the American Civil War. As a narrative historian, Catton specialized in popular history, featuring interesting characters and historical vignettes, in addition to the basic facts, dates, and analyses. His books were well researched and included footnotes. He won the Pulitzer Prize for History and the National Book Award for Nonfiction in 1954 for his book A Stillness at Appomattox (1953), a study of the final campaign of the war in Virginia and third book in his Army of the Potomac trilogy.

Early life

Charles Bruce Catton was born in Petoskey, Michigan, to George R. and Adela M. (Patten) Catton, and raised in Benzonia, Michigan. His father was a Congregationalist minister, who accepted a teaching position in Benzonia Academy and later became the academy's headmaster. As a boy, Catton first heard the reminiscences of the aged veterans who had fought in the Civil War. In his memoir, Waiting for the Morning Train (1972), Catton explained how their stories made a lasting impression upon him:

[These stories gave] a color and a tone not merely to our village life, but to the concept of life with which we grew up ... I think I was always subconsciously driven by an attempt to restate that faith and to show where it was properly grounded, how it grew out of what a great many young men on both sides felt and believed and were brave enough to do. During 1916, Catton attended Oberlin College, but he quit because of World War I without completing a degree.

Journalism career

After serving briefly with the United States Navy during World War I, Catton became a reporter and editor for the newspapers The Cleveland News (as a freelance reporter), the Boston American (1920–1924), and the Cleveland Plain Dealer (1925). From 1926 to 1941, he worked for the Newspaper Enterprise Association, a Scripps-Howard syndicate), for which he wrote editorials and book reviews, as well as serving as a Washington, D.C. correspondent. Catton tried twice to complete his studies, but found himself repeatedly distracted by his newspaper work. Oberlin College awarded him an honorary degree in 1956.

Writing career

At the start of World War II, Catton was too old for military service. During 1941, he accepted a position as Director of Information for the War Production Board, and later he had similar jobs in the Department of Commerce and the Department of the Interior. His experiences as a federal employee prepared him to write his first book, The War Lords Of Washington, during 1948. Although the book was not a commercial success, it inspired Catton to quit federal employment to become a full-time author.

In 1954, Catton accepted the position as founding editor of the new magazine American Heritage. Catton served initially as a writer, reviewer, and editor. In the first issue, he wrote:

We intend to deal with that great, unfinished and illogically inspiring story of the American people doing, being and becoming. Our American heritage is greater than any one of us. It can express itself in very homely truths; in the end it can lift up our eyes beyond the glow in the sunset skies.