CATTON, BRUCE

CATTON, BRUCE (9 Oct. 1899-28 Aug. 1978) went from a Cleveland newspaper career to become an authority on the CIVIL WAR and one of America's most honored popular historians. Born in Petoskey, Mich., Catton broke into journalism on the CLEVELAND NEWS in 1920, after attending Oberlin College and serving in the Navy during WORLD WAR I. After a year with the Boston American, he returned to Cleveland to work for the PLAIN DEALER. Probably his first published Civil War writing was a series on local Northern veterans that he did for the Plain Dealer in 1923. Following his marriage to Hazel H. Cherry in 1925, Catton switched to a job in the Cleveland office of Scripps-Howard's Newspaper Enterprise Assoc. (NEA), supplying news, features, editorials, and book reviews for clients throughout the country. Leaving Cleveland in 1939, Catton moved to NEA's Washington office and later worked for the Dept. of Commerce. His first book, The War Lords of Washington, appeared in 1948, followed by a trilogy on the Army of the Potomac. The last of this series, A Stillness at Appomattox, brought him the 1954 Pulitzer Prize for History. From 1954-59, he served as the first editor of American Heritage magazine. Catton's later books included The American Heritage Picture History of the Civil War (1960) and the 3-vol. Centennial History of the Civil War (1961-65). Continuing his association with American Heritage, Catton was a senior editor from 1959 through his death at his summer home in Frankfort, Mich. He had 1 son, Wm. Bruce Catton.