Cornelius Ryan Author

Cornelius Ryan (1920-1974) was a celebrated Irish-American journalist and author, most famous for his popular military history books on World War II, including The Longest Day and A Bridge Two Far, both of which were made into major films. He began his career as war correspondent for The Daily Telegraph in 1941 and initially covered the air war in Europe, during which he flew on 14 bombing missions before joining Patton's Third Army, whose actions he covered until the end of the war. In 1945 he transferred to cover the Pacific and in 1946, Jerusalem. In 1947 he moved to the US to work for Time, where he reported on post-war atomic testing and on the Israeli war of 1948. He was awarded the Légion d'honneur and an honorary D.Litt from Ohio University, where the Cornelius Ryan Collection - one of the largest single collections of firsthand information outside government archives on D-Day - is housed.