Rick Atkinson

Rick Atkinson was born on November 16, 1952, in Munich, Germany, to Margaret and Larry Atkinson, a US Army officer. As a result of his father's military career, Atkinson grew up on various military bases around the world. After declining an appointment to West Point, he attended East Carolina University on a full scholarship, earning his bachelor of arts degree in English in 1974. The following year, Atkinson received a master of arts degree in English literature and language from the University of Chicago.

Atkinson is a highly acclaimed author, journalist, and historian, with a distinguished career in journalism spanning over two decades. He worked as a correspondent and editor for The Washington Post for twenty-five years, where he honed his skills as a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and historian. Atkinson is best known for his military history books, including the Liberation Trilogy about World War II: An Army at Dawn, which won the Pulitzer Prize for History, The Day of Battle, and The Guns at Last Light. His latest work, The British Are Coming: The War for America, Lexington to Princeton, 1775–1777, is the first volume in the Revolution Trilogy.

In addition to his Pulitzer Prizes for history and journalism, Atkinson has received numerous accolades for his work, including the George Polk Award and the Pritzker Military Library Literature Award for Lifetime Achievement in Military Writing. He has also authored several other books, including The Long Gray Line, In the Company of Soldiers, and Crusade. Atkinson was a reporter, foreign correspondent, war correspondent, and senior editor at The Washington Post for more than twenty years. He currently resides in Washington, D.C.