Historian Arthur Schlesinger dies at 89

Excellent historian and political commentator, political advisor to JFK...

Thu Mar 1, 2007 - Arthur Schlesinger Jr., the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian, tireless liberal activist and confidant to President John Kennedy, died of a heart attack in New York on Wednesday night. He was 89.

The New York Times quoted Schlesinger's son, Stephen, as saying he died in a Manhattan hospital after being stricken in a restaurant while dining out with his family. Schlesinger, who twice won the Pulitzer and the National Book Award, was a Kennedy insider and an acclaimed social historian who examined the legacies of Presidents Franklin Roosevelt, Andrew Jackson, Kennedy and Kennedy's brother Robert.

He used notes he penned while he was a special assistant to the president to chronicle Kennedy's administration in "A Thousand Days: John F. Kennedy in the White House," which won a Pulitzer and a National Book Award in 1966. He won a Pulitzer in 1946 for "The Age of Jackson" and a National Book Award in 1979 for "Robert Kennedy and His Times."

"Arthur was a trusted friend and loyal advisor to President Kennedy, and a wonderful friend to me and to all of us in the Kennedy family," Sen. Edward Kennedy said in a statement. "Because of him, generations to come will have an invaluable understanding of American history," Kennedy said. "His life captured the spirit and wonderment of an age when possibilities seemed endless."
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