About the Author

Henry H. Adams(1917-2002)received his MA and PhD from Columbia University. After service in the navy during World War II, he taught at Cornell and then joined the faculty at the U.S. Naval Academy, where he was professor of English and history. In 1968 he became head of the English department at Illinois State University. He retired from teaching five years later to pursue a full-time writing career. Among the many books Adams has written areHarry Hopkins: A Biography, Italy at War,and a four-volume history of World War II:Years of Deadly Peril:The Coming of the War,1939-1941, 1942: The Year that Doomed the Axis, Years of Expectation: Guadalcanal to Normandy,andYears to Victory:OmahaBeachto TokyoBay.