Read A World Lit Only by Fire Online
Authors: William Manchester
A World Lit Only by Fire
Biography
D
ISTURBER OF THE
P
EACE
: The Life of H. L. Mencken
A R
OCKEFELLER
F
AMILY
P
ORTRAIT
: From John D. to Nelson
P
ORTRAIT OF A
P
RESIDENT
: John F. Kennedy in Profile
A
MERICAN
C
AESAR
: Douglas MacArthur, 1880–1964
T
HE
L
AST
L
ION
: W
INSTON
S
PENCER
C
HURCHILL
; Visions of Glory: 1874–1932
T
HE
L
AST
L
ION
: W
INSTON
S
PENCER
C
HURCHILL
; Alone: 1932–1940
History
T
HE
D
EATH OF A
P
RESIDENT
: November 20–November 25, 1963
T
HE
A
RMS OF
K
RUPP
, 1587–1968
T
HE
G
LORY AND THE
D
REAM
: A Narrative History of America, 1932–1972
A W
ORLD
L
IT
O
NLY BY
F
IRE
. The Medieval Mind and the Renaissance: Portrait of An Age
Essays
C
ONTROVERSY
: And Other Essays in Journalism, 1950–1975
I
N
O
UR
T
IME
Fiction
T
HE
C
ITY OF
A
NGER
S
HADOW OF THE
M
ONSOON
T
HE
L
ONG
G
AINER
Diversion
B
EARD THE
L
ION
Memoirs
G
OODBYE
, D
ARKNESS
: A Memoir of the Pacific War
O
NE
B
RIEF
S
HINING
M
OMENT
: Remembering Kennedy
Copyright © 1992 by William Manchester
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including
information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may
quote brief passages in a review.
Hachette Book Group
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New York, NY 10017
Visit our website at
www.HachetteBookGroup.com
First eBook Edition: September 2009
ISBN: 978-0-316-08279-2
TO
TIM JOYNER
ATHLETE COMRADE SCHOLAR FRIEND
Ein Kugel kam geflogen:
Gilt es mir oder gilt es dir?
Ihn hat es weggerissen;
Er liegt mir vor den Füssen
Als wära ein Stück von mir
.
ARRAY
Girolamo Savonarola. Painting by Fra Bartolomeo della Porta.
Alinari-Scala/Art Resource, NY
.
Page 43
A sixteenth-century town wall.
From
Life on a Medieval Barony
by William Stearns Davis copyright 1923 by Harper & Brothers; copyright renewed 1951 by William Stearns Davis. Reprinted by
permission of HarperCollins Publishers Inc
.
Page 49
A medieval fair.
From
Life on a Medieval Barony
by William Stearns Davis copyright 1923 by Harper & Brothers; copyright renewed 1951 by William Stearns Davis. Reprinted by
permission of HarperCollins Publishers Inc
.
Page 51
Home of a medieval nobleman. From the restoration by Viollet-le-Duc.
From
Life on a Medieval Barony
by William Stearns Davis copyright 1923 by Harper & Brothers; copyright renewed 1951 by William Stearns Davis. Reprinted by
permission of HarperCollins Publishers Inc
.
Page 52
King Francis I of France. Painting by Jean Clouet.
Alinari/Art Resource, NY
.
Page 72
Pope Julius II. Detail from fresco
The Mass of Bolsena
, by Raphael.
Alinari/Art Resource, NY
.
Page 75
Alexander VI, the Borgia pope. Detail from mural
The Resurrection
, by Pinturicchio.
Alinari/Art Resource, NY
.
Page 77
Giulia Farnese. Detail from painting
The Transfiguration
, by Raphael.
Alinari/Art Resource, NY
.
Page 78
Lucrezia Borgia. Detail from mural
La Disputa de Santa Caterina
, by Pinturicchio.
Alinari/Art Resource, NY
.
Page 81
Cesare Borgia. Painting by Marco Palmezzano.
Alinari/Art Resource, NY
.
Page 83
Nicolaus Copernicus. Engraving, artist unknown.
Alinari/Art Resource, NY
.
Page 90
Leonardo da Vinci. Chalk drawing, self-portrait.
Alinari/Art Resource, NY
.
Page 92
Niccolò Machiavelli. Terra-cotta bust, artist unknown.
Alinari/Art Resource, NY
.
Page 101
Sir Thomas More. Painting by Hans Holbein the Younger.
Copyright The Frick Collection, New York
.
Page 109
Cupola of St. Peter’s. Michelangelo.
Alinari/Art Resource, NY
.
Page 116
Desiderius Erasmus. Painting by Hans Holbein the Younger.
Alinari/Art Resource, NY
.
Page 122
The traffic in indulgences. Detail from woodcut by Hans Holbein the Younger.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1936. (36.77)
.
Page 132
St. Peter’s Square in Rome at the time of the coronation of Pope Sixtus V, in 1585. Painting from the Sala Sistina.
The Granger Collection, New York
.
Page 134
Martin Luther. Painting by Lucas Cranach.
Alinari/Art Resource, NY
.
Page 138
Pope Leo X. Painting by Raphael.
Alinari/Art Resource, NY
.
Page 147
Emperor Charles V (Carlos I of Spain). Painting by Titian.
Alinari/Art Resource, NY
.
Page 155
The Reformation Monument, Geneva.
Page 177
John Calvin. Painting, artist unknown.
Alinari/Art Resource, NY
.
Page 192
Pope Clement VII. Painting by Sebastiano del Piombo.
Alinari/Art Resource, NY
.
Page 196
Castel Sant’ Angelo, Rome.
Alinari/Art Resource, NY
.
Page 198
Lutheran satire on papal reform. Woodcut, artist unknown.
Illustration courtesy of American Heritage Picture Collection, American Heritage Magazine
.
Page 200
King Henry VIII of England. Painting by Hans Holbein the Younger.
Alinari/Art Resource, NY
.
Page 205
Anne Boleyn. Engraving, artist unknown.
Alinari/Art Resource, NY
.
Page 210
Ferdinand Magellan. Painting, sixteenth century, artist unknown.
Alinari/Art Resource, NY
.
Page 225
Balboa claims the Pacific. Lithograph, nineteenth century.
The Granger Collection, New York
.
Page 244
Magellan’s Armada de Molucca sails from Spain. Wood engraving, nineteenth century.
The Granger Collection, New York
.
Page 251
The Río de la Plata.
Bellin’s Atlas of 1781
.
Page 254
The death of Magellan. Drawing, nineteenth century.
The Granger Collection, New York
.
Page 281
Europe and the Mediterranean, c. 1190
C
OMPLETE AT LAST, this book is a source of pride, which is pleasant, though in this instance somewhat odd. It is, after all,
a slight work, with no scholarly pretensions. All the sources are secondary, and few are new; I have not mastered recent scholarship
on the early sixteenth century. This being true, I thought it wise to submit my final manuscript to scrutiny by those steeped
in the period, or in certain aspects of it. For example, Dr. Timothy Joyner, Magellan’s most recent biographer, examined the
passages on Magellan. His emendations were many and were gratefully received. My greatest debt, however, is to James Boyden,
an authority on the sixteenth century, who was a history professor at Yale when he began his examination of my text and had
become a history professor at Tulane when he finished it. I have never known a more scrupulous review than his. His knowledge
of the sixteenth century is both encyclopedic and profound. He challenged me—and rightly so—in virtually every passage
of the work. Of course, that does not mean that he or anyone else with whom I consulted is in any way responsible for this
volume. Indeed, Professor Boyden took exception to several of my interpretations. Obviously I, and I alone, am answerable
for the result.
Another oddity of this book is that it was written, so to speak, inside out. Ordinarily a writer does not begin to put words
on paper until he knows much he is going to say. Determining how to say it is the last step—the most taxing, to be sure,
but one preceded by intricate preparations: conception, research, mastering material, structuring the work. Very rarely are
the writing and reading experiences even remotely parallel, and almost never does a narrative unfold for the writer as it
will later for those turning his pages. The fact that it happened this time makes the volume unique in my experience.
Actually, at the outset I had no intention of writing it at all. In the late summer of 1989, while toiling over another manuscript
—the last volume of a biography of Winston Spencer Churchill—I fell ill. After several months in and out of hospitals,
I emerged cured but feeble, too weak to cope with my vast accumulation of Churchill documents. Medical advice was to shelve
that work temporarily and head south for a long convalescence. I took it.
The fact that I wasn’t strong enough for Winston did not, however, mean I could not work. H. L. Mencken once observed that
writing did for him what giving milk does for a cow. So it is for all natural writers. Putting words on paper is essential
to their inner stability, even to their peace of mind. And as it happened, I had a small professional commitment to meet —
providing an introduction to a friend’s biography of Ferdinand Magellan. That manuscript was back in my Connecticut home and
I was now in Florida, but the obstacle seemed small; I hadn’t intended to write about Magellan anyhow. Instead, I had decided,
I would provide the great navigator with context, a portrait of his age. It could be done, I thought, in several pages—a
dozen at most.
I actually thought that.