James T. Flexner (1908-2003)
James Thomas Flexner wrote 26 books, including prize-winning biographies of George Washington. Flexner's four-volume biography of Washington earned him the National Book Award and a special Pulitzer citation for the final volume - Anguish and Farewell. He followed up with a one-volume abridged version - Washington: the Indispensable Man. He also wrote on American painting, including a three-volume history - First Flowers of Our Wilderness, The Light of Distant Skies, and That Wilder Image.
Born in New York City, Mr. Flexner was graduated with high honors from Harvard. He has served as a director of the Society of American Historians, the American Center of the International P.E.N. Club, the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, and as an honorary trustee of the New York Public Library.
