Rick Atkinson is an American author who has won Pulitzer Prizes in history and journalism. After working as a newspaper reporter, editor, and foreign correspondent for the Washington Post, Atkinson turned to writing military history. His six books include narrative accounts of four different American wars. His Liberation Trilogy, a history of the American role in the liberation of Europe in World War II, concluded with the publication of The Guns at Last Light in May 2013. In 2010, he received the $100,000 Pritzker Military Library Literature Award for Lifetime Achievement in Military Writing. 

November 16th, 1952 in Munich (Age 72)