A LEGEND

Pulitzer-Winning Author David McCullough Dies at 89

“I think of writing history as an art form,” McCullough once said. “I want it to be something that moves the reader. Moves me.”

David McCullough, the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian, author and narrator whose books vividly bought American history to life, died Sunday at his home in Hingham, Massachusetts, his family confirmed. He was 89. McCullough published his first history book, The Johnstown Flood, in 1968 after struggling to find much information about the deadly 1889 flood. It morphed into an astonishingly successful career writing histories and biographies, including Truman, which topped The New York Times’ bestseller list for 43 weeks, and John Adams, which shot to No. 1 in its first week. His tome on the Brooklyn Bridge, The Great Bridge, was made into a documentary by Ken Burns, who went on to have McCullough narrate six films. “I think of writing history as an art form,” McCullough said in a 2008 documentary. “And I’m striving to write a book that might—might—qualify as literature. I don’t want it just to be readable. I don’t want it just to be interesting. I want it to be something that moves the reader. Moves me.”