Found: An Emblematic Cold Warrior

(NYTimes) - The author Neil Sheehan has the metabolism and work habits of an extremely patient bat. He stirs around midday, starts writing before dinner, but doesn’t really get airborne till midnight. He snatches some of his best and clearest thoughts around 4 a.m., after which, too wound up to sleep, he might go out and stroll around the neighborhood. He does this week after week, month after month, without hibernation. His previous book, “A Bright Shining Lie,” which won both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award in 1989, took him 16 years to finish. His new one, “A Fiery Peace in a Cold War: Bernard Schriever and the Ultimate Weapon,” which comes out Tuesday, is a history of the arms race and of American efforts to create a nuclear stalemate with Russia. It took 15 years, so he’s getting faster, but not much. Continued

Photo: U.S. Air Force