Name Richard Ketchum Role Historian | Education Yale University | |
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Books Saratoga: Turning Point Of A, Decisive Day, The winter soldiers, Divided Loyalties: How the, Victory at Yorktown: The Cam | ||
Richard M. Ketchum
Richard M. Ketchum (1923-2012) was an American historian and magazine editor. Historian Douglas Brinkley has said that Ketchum was "the finest historian of the American Revolution."
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Early life
Ketchum was born in Pittsburgh, PA on March 15, 1922, to George and Thelma Patton Ketchum. He graduated from Yale College in 1943 with a degree in American history. During World War II, Ketchum served as commander of a Navy submarine chaser in the Atlantic.
Career
Ketchum owned an advertising agency until 1951 and worked at the U. S. Information Agency.
In 1956, Ketchum was hired by American Heritage Publishing Company in 1956 and worked there in various capacities until 1974. He wrote 33 articles for American Heritage Magazine according to his author page.
In 1974, Ketchum moved to Shelburne, Vermont, where he co-founded Country Journal, a magazine that "offered a blend of the bucolic and the practical, particularly to city folk who had opted for the rural life," according to The New York Times. The magazine was highly popular, reaching a circulation of 300,000. It was sold in 1984.
Ketchum was the author of numerous books. The Borrowed Years, 1938-1941 (1989) described the events leading up to the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Mr. Ketchum was particularly interested in the American Revolution. His last book, Victory at Yorktown: The Campaign That Won the Revolution was a definitive account of the battle and unlikely triumph that led to American independence.